Tennessee football: 10 bold predictions for Vols 2020 spring practice

8. An underclassman will become the top performing tight end.

With Dominick Wood-Anderson gone, Tennessee football is looking for more help at tight end. New tight ends coach Joe Osovet, who was promoted from an off-field role, is tasked with trying to find that guy. Jeremy Pruitt and Jim Chaney likely want to have one go-to receiving tight end and another guy who could line up at fullback or in two tight end sets.

One of those guys is obviously redshirt senior Austin Pope, who played that No. 2 role to Wood-Anderson last year. Redshirt junior Princeton Fant is another player who has shown a lot of versatility throughout his career, and this year, the Vols likely will enter the spring with those guys as the top two guys at the position.

However, Pruitt loaded up on tight ends in his 2018 and 2019 classes. Redshirt sophomore Jacob Warren and redshirt freshmen Jackson Lowe and Sean Brown all came in with lots of hype. Now, with things wide open and a new guy leading the unit, one of them is going to emerge as the top tight end in this year’s class.

Pope and Fant both provide value, and one of them is certainly going to be in the rotation. But one of the younger guys among Warren, Lowe and Brown is going to emerge as the top tight end and generate the most hype. He will then be the favorite to turn into the every play starter when fall camp arrives.