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Tennessee football’s top five redshirt freshmen for 2020

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images
Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images /

These are the top five Tennessee football Volunteers 2020 redshirt freshmen.

Every year, numerous freshmen take a redshirt as they enter college, realizing they need time to develop or just simply joining a roster with tons of depth at the specific position they play. It’s the same for Tennessee football as it is anywhere else.

Last year, however, the Vols didn’t have many freshmen take redshirts. Only eight of them who are currently on the roster did so, and only six of them were on scholarship. Jeremy Pruitt inserted lots of his true freshmen straight into the starting lineup last year.

With more depth, lots more newcomers are likely to take a redshirt this season. However, taking a redshirt as a freshman is no indicator of how effective a player will be in the future. Tennessee football’s starting quarterback and numerous other players expected to be major contributors this year all took redshirts their first year on campus.

Who among the guys who took a redshirt last year could break out? In this post, that’s what we’re going to break down. We’ll be ranking the redshirt freshmen most likely to have an impact on Rocky Top for the 2020 season.

Factors in these rankings are pretty simple. They include the projected talent of the player, how well they fit into the system of Pruitt and his staff and how many available spots on the roster there are at the positions that they play. Obviously, a thin position will provide more opportunities for playing time.

Remember, all of these guys could earn Freshman All-SEC or Freshman All-American despite being in the system already. They do, after all, still have four years of eligibility left, and they could become breakout stars.

Greg Emerson and Kurott Garland both made a splash last year with that label. Let’s go ahead and break down who could do it this year. These are the top five Tennessee football redshirt freshmen ranked by potential impact for 2020.

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