Tennessee football: 10 bold predictions for Vols 2020 spring practice

1. Offense will vastly outperform defense.

Heading into the season, Tennessee football loses its two leaders and top three playmakers on defense in Daniel Bituli, Darrell Taylor and Nigel Warrior. That’s a going to be very difficult for them to replace with just a few rounds of spring practice.

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Now, it is true that the Vols also lose their top two playmakers on offense in Jauan Jennings and Marquez Callaway. However, they have many more proven playmakers ready to step up in guys like Eric Gray, Ty Chandler and a loaded group of receivers. They also have their quarterbacks all returning, most notably Jarrett Guarantano.

On top of that, despite both coordinators back, the offense has a bit more stability with its staff. Derrick Ansley is the only defensive coach who is back. Brian Niedermeyer replaces Kevin Sherrer as inside linebackers coach, Shelton Felton replaces Chris Rumph as outside linebackers coach, and Jimmy Brumbaugh replaces Tracy Rocker as defensive line coach.

The offense does replace David Johnson with Jay Graham as running backs coach, but that’s a proven upgrade, which the other three switches aren’t. Also, Joe Osovet replaces Niedermeyer as tight ends coach, but Osovet has been working with the offense for two years anyway.

As a result, there’s enough stability and returning talent for us to say that Tennessee football’s offense will be ahead of the defense in the spring. Usually, that turns out to be a concern, but all the attrition makes this an inevitability early on. It could change by fall camp, but it won’t change during these 15 practices.