Tennessee football: Trevon Flowers return saves Vols secondary

Anybody who saw what the Purdue Boilermakers did to the Tennessee football secondary last week after Alontae Taylor’s opt-out is right to be concerned about the unit for next year. After all, Theo Jackson and Kenneth George Jr. are also now gone, and Warren Burrell did not look ready to take over Taylor’s role.

However, there is good news on multiple fronts for the Vols going forward. Their secondary won’t be as depleted as it could have been with Trevon Flowers, a three-year starter and four-year player, announcing that he’ll take advantage of the COVID eligibility ruling and come back for another season.

Over the past two years, Flowers has started at free safety alongside Jaylen McCollough, who was a junior at strong safety this past year. Both players will be back. Flowers announced his decision to return to Tennessee football Tuesday on Twitter.

With Flowers back, Josh Heupel and Tim Banks at least don’t have to worry about the safety position, barring injury. Both guys have tons of experience and should protect UT from giving up anything deep. They weren’t really at fault for what happened against Purdue anyway.

Meanwhile, in terms of cornerbacks, Kamal Hadden showed the most promise last week and proved he could be a star. Brandon Turnage, who missed the game due to injury, will be back as well and earned SEC Defensive Player of the Week earlier this year.

Although Burrell struggled at cornerback last week, he has proven he can still handle a starting role. Even if it’s not guarding the go-to receiver, he could move over to nickel or be the No. 2 cornerback. Either way, he’s better than what we saw last week.

Taking all this into account, Flowers’ return saves Tennessee football’s secondary. The Vols could have handled offsetting Taylor and Jackson, but losing one of their safeties on top of that would have proven devastating. Now, Banks has one part of that unit he doesn’t have to worry about.

Of course, he and Willie Martinez will have to find the right rotation at cornerback and nickel, but Flowers and McCollough still locking up the safety spots makes that a lot easier. Them not having to break in a new free safety specifically does wonders for their coverage.

Beyond Burrell, Hadden and Turnage, they could open up competition at both cornerback and nickel. De’Shawn Rucker and Tyus Fields can provide more competition at cornerback. Banks doesn’t have to experiment with them for depth elsewhere.

Christian Charles and Tamarion McDonald, one of whom would have had to be broken in at safety without Flowers, can compete at nickel with Doneiko Slaughter, who seems likely to fill the role. Also, technically, Cheyenne Labruzza could come back for another year, as he redshirted in 2017, and 2020 didn’t count against his eligibility.

Simply put, Tennessee football now has lots more flexibility in the secondary. This would have been the biggest concern for them going into next year had Flowers not returned, but with him back, the Vols now have experience all over the field.