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Tennessee football: Five fall camp position battles

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 12: Josh Palmer #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers gestures for a first down during the first half of a game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 12, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 12: Josh Palmer #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers gestures for a first down during the first half of a game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 12, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images) /
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4. Long snapper

A very underrated part of special teams is long snapper. Riley Lovingood and Elijah Medford handled those duties through 2018, and last year, Lovingood handled all of them. However, Lovingood, who once won special teams player of the week as a freshman in 2016, is now gone, meaning Tennessee football has a crucial opening it has to address.

Sophomore Matthew Salansky out of Morristown, Tenn. is the veteran in this group. At 5’11” 239 pounds, he could potentially be the guy to immediately step in. However, freshman Will Albright has actually enrolled as a scholarship player at 6’1″ 220 pounds, and that has to mean that Jeremy Pruitt clearly values what he can bring to the table. Simply put, this comes down to two people.

There can be no debate how critical of a role this is. Brent Cimaglia’s incredible kicking performance last year had a lot to do with solid snaps, and two of his four misses were due to bad snaps. Meanwhile, punters Paxton Brooks and Joe Doyle were both inconsistent last year early on due to issues with snaps. This is a crucial part of special teams.

Holder could have a competition as well, to be fair, with UConn Huskies transfer punter Brett Graham and Brooks. Since Brooks did it last year, though, there are no real questions surrounding that position. Long snapper, meanwhile, is completely up in the air and will have new blood. Albright and Salansky could both potentially play. But both bring questions.

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