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Tennessee football: Which SEC media picks will be proven right and wrong?

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 22: Smokey the live Tennessee Volunteers mascot on the sidelines during the game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on September 22, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Florida won the game 47-21. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 22: Smokey the live Tennessee Volunteers mascot on the sidelines during the game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on September 22, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Florida won the game 47-21. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee wide receiver Jimmy Calloway (9) during Tennessee football’s spring practice on campus in Knoxville on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.Kns Ut Football Practice Bp
Tennessee wide receiver Jimmy Calloway (9) during Tennessee football’s spring practice on campus in Knoxville on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.Kns Ut Football Practice Bp /

SEC Media Days for the 2021 season has come to an end, and all of the preseason SEC media projections are in. Tennessee football is projected to finish fifth in the East, and three players earned All-SEC, one first team, one second team and one third team.

It’s always hard to project how SEC teams will perform, but that’s especially case for a program like UT. The Vols have a new head coach in Josh Heupel, new systems on both sides of the ball, new players all over the field after suffering the biggest hit of any program in the transfer portal, and an NCAA investigation hanging over them that has not ended yet.

Simply put, nobody knows what to make of this team. However, the SEC media still did its best. How accurate are they going to be in their projections? Well, we’re going to break that down with our own projections here. Here are five projections SEC media members will be proven right on and five they will be proven wrong on when it comes to Tennessee football’s 2021 season.

10. WRONG No All-SEC return specialists

There was one special teams player from the Vols who earned All-SEC, and we’ll get to him later in this post. However, three All-SEC teams were listed, and none of them included a return specialist from UT. This is an area in which the Vols will shock some people.

USC Trojans transfer Velus Jones Jr. is in his second year with the Vols, and he has been returning kickoffs for four years already with a touchdown back in 2019 on his resume. Meanwhile, the Vols add an elite speedster in Jaylen Wright to their team this year at running back, and guys like Jimmy Calloway are also a threat.

One of those players is bound to earn All-SEC as a specialist this year just given their talents. Add in the fact that Heupel places a greater emphasis on special teams and brought in Mike Ekeler, a proven success in that field, to run the show, and Tennessee football will shock some people by making the return game a surprise advantage.

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