Tennessee football 2020 preview by position: TE

Here is a look at the Tennessee football Volunteers tight ends for the 2020 season.

Tight end was a position of focus for Jeremy Pruitt the minute he took over Tennessee football. One of his first moves was securing a commitment from four-star junior college transfer Dominick Wood-Anderson away from Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Well, Wood-Anderson is now gone, and the Vols have some major questions at the position. Thanks to solid recruiting and position switches by Pruitt, Rocky Top still has a solid collection of tight ends heading into 2020.

However, who is going to step up to replace Wood-Anderson? Pruitt likes to have two tight ends in a rotation as, for lack of a better term, starters in his system. Jim Chaney, meanwhile, likes to always have a reliable target at the position.

As a result, Tennessee football has some work to do. In our preview of the Vols at this position for the upcoming season, we’ll be looking at all the potential players who may be in the starting rotation, and while there aren’t many tight ends, there are a lot who could compete.

Because of that wide open situation, we’ll separate our slides simply by projected starters and projected backups before our usual closing slides of biggest questions and a final take. These projections could definitely change, though.

Part of the uniqueness of Pruitt’s and Chaney’s system, and why we use two starters, is the return of the fullback. The Vols have been using tight ends in such a role over the past two years, and you may even call them halfbacks. What’s clear is they fit under the tight end umbrella.

Losing Wood-Anderson, though, just adds to UT’s issues trying to find new receiving targets. Will they be able to address that here? If so, who would be that target, and who will make up the rotation overall? Let’s begin our analysis of all that. This is our preview of Tennessee football tight ends heading into the year.