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Tennessee football: 10 safest starting spots on 2020 roster

By Caleb Calhoun

JACKSONVILLE, FL - JANUARY 02: Henry To'o To'o #11 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates during the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl against the Indiana Hoosiers at TIAA Bank Field on January 2, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida. Tennessee defeated Indiana 23-22. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE, FL - JANUARY 02: Henry To'o To'o #11 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates during the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl against the Indiana Hoosiers at TIAA Bank Field on January 2, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida. Tennessee defeated Indiana 23-22. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images
Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images /

These are the players guaranteed to start the Tennessee football Volunteers’ opener.

Despite a ton of returning talent, Tennessee football has very few confirmed starters. Last year, Jeremy Pruitt had lots of by-committee starters at different positions, and that makes for very few guarantees as to who starts this year.

At the same time, it made for not too many intriguing position battles to start off the Vols’ fall camp. After all, we don’t know for sure if some places will have position battles, and many of the people technically involved with them will play no matter what.

Because of that, there are more confirmed starting roles secured heading into Tennessee football’s 2020 campaign than wide open position battles. Provided there are no injuries, a few spots are certain for UT’s opener at the South Carolina Gamecocks.

In this post, we’re going to rank the players with the most secure starting spots. Almost all of these players are 100 percent going to start at their respective positions when the opening week comes, and a few of them are overwhelmingly likely to start.

We’ll be basing these rankings off of who started more last season, which players saw less action towards the end of the season and the health of the current players involved. Level of depth at the position matters as well.

Obviously, lots of factors will come into play, including offseason developments that may have altered the roster or may leave certain players in a bit of limbo. Injuries and dismissals can change things as well.

Now, whether or not these players hold onto their starting jobs throughout the season is a completely different story. But they will start the year as the firmly entrenched starter at each role we name.

So which ones are lucky enough to be in this position? How certain is it that they will have a hold on those roles throughout fall camp? Let’s go ahead and break it down. These are the 10 safest starting spots on Tennessee football’s roster heading into the 2020 season.

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