Tennessee football: 10 toughest Vols to replace for 2020 season

A veteran leader for Tennessee football, nobody begrudges Marcus Tatum for transferring to the UCF Knights. He was a reliable, fundamental guy for the past two years, but with Jeremy Pruitt’s transition to the pro-style offense and the development of elite tackles, there was just not going to be room for him to make the impact he wanted to make his senior year.

That level of depth is why we don’t have him higher on this list, though. This is a guy whose experience is almost entirely at tackle. With Wanya Morris and Darnell Wright both developing there and the potential for Jerome Carvin, Jahmir Johnson, K’Rojhn Calbert and now transfer Cade Mays to all play out there, the position is just too deep.

Nonetheless, Tatum still made this list, although the list of departing players was so small that pretty much every contributor from last year’s team made it. Still, he was a great team player and crucial to helping the other guys develop, and he demonstrated a healthy level of reliability when he was called on.

There was a period, before Wright and Morris emerged, when Tatum started seven straight games from the end of the 2018 season into the 2019 season. A little more consistency in offensive systems may have helped him have an advantage as a veteran. But that just didn’t happen, which is why he was never able to stand out.