Tennessee football: Ranking position groups by 2022 spring practice play

Obviously, teams are not at full strength during spring practice. As a result, it’s hard to pick up on anything about a certain position group. However, Tennessee football had 13 early enrollees, so for the most part, one major exception, they were able to show signs of what they may look like entering Josh Heupel’s second season.

At the same time, though, there was no official spring game, and only one scrimmage was open to the public. As a result, when breaking down position groups, we can only go on that second scrimmage and what was said throughout the year in press conferences.

That’s not a lot to go on, and the situation is fluid, but it’s enough to break down the units heading into the summer. Rankings are based on how they performed in the spring, not how they will look like when summer enrollees arrive or when players get healthy. This is how each position group stacks up following Tennessee football’s 2022 spring practice.

10. Offensive line

All you had to do was plug in the tape from the scrimmage. The offensive line allowed sacks all day, including one stat line giving true freshman Tyre West five sacks alone, and they allowed Elijah Herring to score a defensive touchdown. Although Cade Mays is the only player from the unit gone, it was concerning.

Now, there are some caveats, as Cooper Mays was out at center, but he was banged up a lot last year. What’s more concerning is that Rocky Top didn’t seem able to replace him. Jerome Carvin still struggled at center, and in that open scrimmage, there were tons of low snaps.

The desperation led to Tennessee football trying out Jeremiah Crawford and Addison Nichols at center during practices, two players who should be firmly entrenched into the rotation at tackle. Taking all that into account, it’s clear this group didn’t do what it needed to do in the spring, but experimentation could be a part of that.