Tennessee football: Jacob Warren on Mackey watch list. Why wasn’t Princeton Fant?

An underrated part of Tennessee football this year is the return of both contributing tight ends, Jacob Warren and Princeton Fant. At 6’6″ 250, Warren is the more physical tight end, so he’s used in more red zone sets, which is why he had three touchdown catches last year.

Fant, meanwhile, is used more to make big plays before then given his 6’2″ 235-pound frame. This is why he had just one touchdown last year, but he had 16 catches for 220 yards while Warren had 18 catches for just 179 yards.

Despite those small differences, only one of them is getting preseason recognition. Warren is on the 2022 John Mackey Award Preseason Watch List, which is given annually to the best tight end. Tennessee football now has four different players taking up six spots on five award preseason watch lists.

Given the 54 tight ends to make the list, it’s fair to put Warren on there. He has more receiving yards and touchdowns than many of them. However, to leave Fant off is absolutely egregious, and it’s a sign of ultimate disrespect for UT.

You could make the argument that this list values touchdowns more than yards, but there are tight ends with fewer of both than Fant. In fact, 14 of the tight ends on this list had fewer yards last year and as many or fewer touchdowns.

There could be an argument that Warren and Fant splitting time is what’s working against Fant, and among the two, Warren has a stronger case. However, that also doesn’t make sense given the fact that five teams have two players on here. Heck, the Georgia Bulldogs have three on here.

In fact, two of Georgia’s tight ends on here, Darnell Washington and Arik Gilbert, are players who had fewer yards and as many or fewer touchdowns than Fant last year. Now, Gilbert gets a pass since he didn’t play last year and had more yards and touchdowns with the LSU Tigers in 2020.

However, like Washington, Theo Johnson of the Penn State Lions also had fewer yards last year and as many touchdowns, and he’s got a teammate on this list. Also, with Velus Jones Jr. and JaVonta Payton gone, Josh Heupel will likely rely more on tight ends in the passing game this year.

As a result, by any metric, Fant should have been on over Johnson and Washington. Leaving him off is just more evidence of the disrespect Tennessee football receives with these awards. It’s not shocking, as the Vols have a history of players not winning what they should have won..

Eric Berry was snubbed out of the Thorpe Award in 2008, Dustin Colquitt the Ray Guy Award in 2003 and Travis Stephens the Doak Walker Award in 2001. Then there are the infamous Heisman snubs of Peyton Manning in 1997 and Johnny Majors in 1956.

Either way, congratulations to Warren for getting on. It was a big deal for Tennessee football that both Fant and Warren decided to come back. That gives Heupel lots of flexibility this year with his system, and it should make for another elite offense.