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Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols’ spring roster for 2022

By Caleb Calhoun

Players warm up at Tennessee Vols football first spring practice, Tuesday, March 22, 2022.Kns Vols Spring Parctice Cm
Players warm up at Tennessee Vols football first spring practice, Tuesday, March 22, 2022.Kns Vols Spring Parctice Cm /
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Tennessee’s Byron Young is seen at Tennessee football spring practice at University of Tennessee, Thursday, March 24, 2022.Volspractice0324 0850
Tennessee’s Byron Young is seen at Tennessee football spring practice at University of Tennessee, Thursday, March 24, 2022.Volspractice0324 0850 /

It’s not quite like last year, but the COVID eligibility ruling combined with the transfers left a lot of questions as to what the roster would look like for Tennessee football entering Josh Heupel’s second spring practice. Last week, Heupel revealed the roster, and while some things are unexplained, there weren’t too many surprises.

However, in a couple of cases, there were shockers, some pleasant and some disappointing for Rocky Top. As we get set to look at the things that stood out the most from the list, we’ll discuss those surprises a bit more in-depth than some of the generic roster takeaways.

Even with a ton of returning talent, there will be a lot of competition at multiple positions, and spring practice has already opened the door for that. You can take a look at the roster yourself by clicking here. These are the five biggest takeaways from Tennessee football’s spring practice roster that was revealed for 2022.

5. No position changes and new position titles for edge rushers

In reality, the lack of position changes is the biggest one here, but these two go hand in hand. Anyway, lots of players were starting at new positions last year or converted positions from previous years, and it’s safe to say that’s a reason some of them struggled. However, with more stability, Heupel could avoid that this year.

He’s done it so far. There are no official position changes on the roster, and every early enrollee is playing the position they were recruited to play. Since the class had no signee who could be considered an “athlete” across all the recruiting services, this likely won’t change either.

What did stand out, though, is the fact that Tennessee football’s edge rushers are no longer officially just linebackers anymore. That was a holdover from the Jeremy Pruitt era and his 3-4 defense. In Tim Banks’ nickel-heavy 4-3 defense, they are officially listed as defensive line/linebacker hybrids. Byron Young, Roman Harrison and Tyler Baron fit that mold.

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