Tennessee football: 10 players Vols can’t afford to lose in 2020

Hometown: Nashville, Tenn.

One of the most underrated aspects of the game is place kicking. Tennessee football only has one place kicker who has proven anything on the field, and that one place kicker could make a huge difference in games for the Vols. Brent Cimaglia has become a weapon for Rocky Top in a way that hasn’t existed for them since the mid-2000s.

The 6’0″ 210-pound graduate of Fred J. Page High School in Franklin, Tenn. nailed 23 of 27 field goals last year, making nine of 11 beyond 40 and both kicks beyond 50, including a 53-yarder, the longest by any UT player since Jeff Hall in the mid-1990s. On top of that, he also still hasn’t missed an extra point in three years of kicking, two full years, with the Vols.

While Jeremy Pruitt has three experienced punters in Paxton Brooks, Joe Doyle and Brett Graham, Cimaglia is all he has in place kicking. Sophomores Marshall Ware and Toby Wilson are the other two place kickers on the roster, and neither has attempted one field goal or extra point at this level, meaning Cimaglia is a star who has nothing proven behind him.

Combining those two things makes him crucial to the Vols as a kicker, and he has to make this list. By nature of being a kicker, we couldn’t put him higher on this list, although if he had made all 27 attempts last year, we would have considered it. The position is just that crucial.