Tennessee football: 10 bold predictions for Vols 2020 spring practice

4. No edge rusher will emerge.

This is actually a major concern for Tennessee football heading into the year. Jeremy Pruitt has lamented how thin his team has been at edge rusher ever since he arrived on campus, and while he did a lot to address it with this most recent recruiting class, he still won’t have enough to find an emerging star at the position during the spring.

Edge rusher involves both outside linebackers and the one guy who plays defensive end up front. Darrell Taylor was the star among them the past three years. Matthew Butler, Ja’Quain Blakely, LaTrell Bumphus and John Mincey are those guys on the line. They all fill a void, but none of them are standout stars. That’s why Pruitt and Derrick Ansley had no problem rotating them last year.

Meanwhile, Deandre Johnson and Kivon Bennett are the names to replace Darrell Taylor at outside linebacker. Both have shown promise, but neither has emerged as a star yet. If they were going to, they would have done it by now. The same is true of redshirt junior Jordan Allen, who will at least be healthy this year to provide depth.

As a result, the new standout stars will be among the commitments. None of them, however, are early enrollees. Either four-star outside linebacker Tamarion McDonald, three-star end Reginald Perry or one of the four-star ends in Tyler Baron and Morven Joseph will begin to stand out. Quavaris Crouch could be that guy as well, but he is out this spring due to injury.