Tennessee football: 10 major revelations from Vols start of spring practice

6. There is no confirmed long snapper yet.

An underrated part of special teams is long snapping. Riley Lovingood was a staple there for Tennessee football the past four years, and he even managed to win SEC Special Teams Player of the Week back in 2016, when he downed a punt inside the 10-yard line that set up a strip-sack for a touchdown by the Vols at the Georgia Bulldogs.

Last year, we documented how Joe Doyle’s regression was due to numerous bad snaps, and even Paxton Brooks struggled at times due to that issue. Two of Brent Cimaglia’s four misses were due to either bad or mishandled snaps, and they both came at the Missouri Tigers. So yes, long snapping is a big deal when it comes to special teams.

Well, Jeremy Pruitt confirmed that the position is still open on Tuesday. He said there is a lot of competition in the area, but he couldn’t name anybody settled into the role yet. As a result, it means the Vols don’t have one yet. If they don’t figure that out, then Cimaglia and Brooks could both suffer major drop-offs in their production this year.

Offensive lineman Will Albright, a 6’2″ 200-pound two-star commitment, will arrive in the fall, so he is one option. A standard center is another option. But what’s clear is that UT doesn’t have anybody who can play the role right now, and that’s something they have to address before the season. They may not have it figured out by the end of the spring, though.