Tennessee football: 10 Vols most likely to win postseason awards in 2021

6’6″ 195 pounds; Hometown: Lexington, S.C.

While Chase McGrath has the potential to be an elite special teams weapon for Tennessee football, Paxton Brooks is a proven special teams weapon. There’s no doubt about what he should do this year for the Vols.

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The graduate of Airport High School in West Columbia, S.C., which is still in Lexington County, is a projected first or second team All-SEC punter for the Vols across the board. South Carolina has been a place recently where UT has found standout talent such as cornerback Bryce Thompson and the hype this year behind Jalin Hyatt, and Brooks is no different.

In 2020, Brooks averaged 43.6 yards per punt on 49 punts, good for fifth in the SEC. That was third among returning punters for this year, behind Jake Camarda of the Georgia Bulldogs and Mac Brown of the Ole Miss Rebels.

Of those punts, Brooks had 17 pinned inside the 20-yard line, 18 fair caught and 13 go for 50 yards or more. He even nailed a 61-yarder at one point. Simply put, he’s elite and has a powerful leg. Then there is what he did as a kickoff specialist. He sent 27 of his 40 kickoffs for touchbacks, a rate of 67.5 percent, good for 17th in the nation.

Brooks also had a kickoff average of 64.1, good for top 15 in the nation. Simply put, he’s an elite kicker, and no scheme is why he’s Tennessee football’s most likely player to win an award. His talent and proven production alone puts him here.