Tennessee football: Top five seniors for 2020

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - OCTOBER 26: Shawn Shamburger #12 of the Tennessee Titans celebrates defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks after the game at Neyland Stadium on October 26, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - OCTOBER 26: Shawn Shamburger #12 of the Tennessee Titans celebrates defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks after the game at Neyland Stadium on October 26, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images
Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images /

These are the five best Tennessee football Volunteers seniors for the year.

Last year, Tennessee football had a small senior class that was heavily relied upon. The Vols’ top two playmakers on offense and their three best playmakers on defense were all seniors, and there is still a question as to whether or not they can replace those guys for the 2020 season.

Well, if they are going to do it, they’ll have another collection of seniors who may be able to step in. While UT is deeper this year, the biggest way to help it improve is for those seniors to step up and turn into highly productive stars themselves.

This class has gone through a lot. It saw Tennessee football go through a disastrous 2017 campaign and then a crazy coaching search that resulted in Jeremy Pruitt being hired and Phillip Fulmer being named athletic director.

Now, entering 2020, they are part of what may be considered a validation year in terms of those decisions nearly three years ago. Whether or not Fulmer’s decision to take over and hire Pruitt is proven to be a right one could depend on these seniors.

Which members of the class, though, will play a role in that? In this post, we’re going to rank those seniors most likely to be the most productive for Rocky Top this year. We are basing this solely on what they’ve done in the past to see how needed they’ll be during the 2020 season.

Many of these players have shown dramatic development over time, and others have had great stories. This is obviously a unique senior class because, given the new NCAA ruling on eligibility, there’s a chance that in 2021 some of them come back.

But what does that mean for this year? Let’s go ahead and break it all down here. With hopes of helping the program take a big step forward in 2020 under Jeremy Pruitt, these are Tennessee football’s five best seniors.