Tennessee football: Five Vols to watch for vs. Bowling Green
Defensive back. Junior. Jaylen McCollough. 4. 839. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. player
6’0″ 205 pounds; Hometown: Austell, Ga.
Scot Loeffler has to replace his top three receivers from last year, making things even harder for a team that relies on offense and went 0-5. His focus, though, won’t just be on the young talent at receiver. It’ll be on the young talent at tight end, and that’s where Tennessee football will have to zone in if it’s going to shut down this Bowling Green Falcons offense.
That’s where Jaylen McCollough comes in. In a secondary that has three seniors listed as starters, McCollough is the youngest guy out there. However, he also has two years of experience playing safety now, and his calling card is being a hard hitter.
In 2019, McCollough had three tackles for a loss and a sack. Last year, he had two and a half tackles for a loss. He’ll get his pass deflections as he had two of those each year as well, and he has a total of 76 tackles during that time, 53 of which were solo.
Simply put, McCollough will need to be his physical self to make sure BGSU doesn’t get its passing game going. He struggled doing that at times last year, but he was also battling some key injuries. This year, those should be behind him, and while Alontae Taylor and Trevon Flowers are more key defensive backs in 2021, this is McCollough’s chance to shine.