Tennessee football: Jahmir Johnson to Aggies means more trouble at OL

Another offensive tackle has left Tennessee football. Two weeks after Jahmir Johnson entered the transfer portal, he found another destination. Johnson, who has one year of eligibility left, will be joining Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M Aggies

Three days before the Pennsylvania native’s decision to enter the portal, rising star offensive tackle Wanya Morris announced he was joining the Oklahoma Sooners. Morris made the move five days after he entered the portal.

One of Tennessee football’s first commitments under Jeremy Pruitt, Johnson was a junior college transfer in the Vols’ 2018 recruiting class out of Arizona Western Community College. Before that, he attended the Rhode Island Rams in 2016, meaning 2021 will be a sixth year of eligibility for him. He announced his decision to join A&M Saturday afternoon on Twitter.

In three years with the Vols, Johnson appeared in 24 games and had 17 starts. A 6’5″ 300-pound versatile blocker initially from Imhotep High School in Philadelphia, Pa., his first 11 starts were at left guard in 2018. However, after that, he moved outside to tackle.

Given the fact that Morris started almost every game the past two years at tackle, Josh Heupel now has a major problem there. A known quarterback guru who focuses on an elite passing attack, Heupel needs his offensive tackle play to be elite in his system. Losing both Johnson and Morris is a big deal.

Now, Darnell Wright is returning, and he’s a huge help. Four linemen have committed to the 2021 class, including junior college transfer Jeremiah Crawford. Also, K’Rojhn Calbert and Jerome Carvin could play on the outside.

However, Tennessee football still now has an issue at the position. Given the tempo Heupel likes to run, he needs to keep his tackles fresh, and losing two experienced blockers really limits the depth for Heupel to be able to do that.

To be fair, the changes to the system would likely have had Morris and Johnson behind the eight-ball as much as anybody. However, Morris has raw talent, and Johnson has experience in different systems already, so he would have been prepared for what Heupel was going to bring.

Simply put, it’s not a good situation for the Vols to be in to have two experienced tackles both gone from the program. They already have an issue on the inside with Trey Smith now gone, so the line in general could be in trouble.

There was even the chance that Heupel would have moved Johnson back to guard based on his needs. As you saw in our previous breakdown, he clearly has the ability to play both positions, and that’s a valuable skill for a head coach coming in with a new system.

Plenty of linemen are still in the system, but many are inexperienced, and now Heupel has his work cut out for him to find the rotation he wants. Losing Morris hurt Tennessee football’s future on that front. Johnson leaving hurts the depth for this year, and given the fact that the Vols need to make an early splash, that could be a problem.