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Tennessee football: Five strongest cities contributing to Vols’ 2022 roster

By Caleb Calhoun

Tennessee defensive linemen Omari Thomas (21) and lineman Kurott Garland (99) warming up before the NCAA football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and South Alabama Jaguars in Knoxville, Tenn. on Saturday, November 20, 2021.Utvsal1120
Tennessee defensive linemen Omari Thomas (21) and lineman Kurott Garland (99) warming up before the NCAA football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and South Alabama Jaguars in Knoxville, Tenn. on Saturday, November 20, 2021.Utvsal1120 /
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Part of going national as a program means lots of different cities contributing to your roster. Tennessee football has multiple players from in or around Detroit, New York City and Los Angeles. The Vols also have multiple players from cities all over the South in SEC and even ACC country, from Louisiana to Virginia.

As we get set to take a look at the cities that contribute the most to UT in 2022, a few factors will be taken into account. For starters, players from the metro area of a place will count, although we’ll weigh just how close they are to the actual city in that metro area.

Meanwhile, the projected contributions of those players is also a big deal. Who is on scholarship? how many from that are expected to start? What have they done in the past? Let’s break all of that down here. These are the five cities that appear to have made the biggest contribution to Tennessee football’s roster entering this year.

Tennessee punter Paxton Brooks (37) punts during the second quarter of the Music City Bowl, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.Cfb Music City Bowl Purdue Vs Tennessee
Tennessee punter Paxton Brooks (37) punts during the second quarter of the Music City Bowl, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.Cfb Music City Bowl Purdue Vs Tennessee /

5. Columbia, S.C.

There were lots of candidates for this last spot. Birmingham, Ala., actually has far more players in Squirrel White, Will Brooks, Hunter Salmon and then R.J. Perry of Fairfield, Ala., and the in-state Tri-Cities region is also big with Austin Lewis of Jonesborough, Will Albright of Greeneville, Charlie Browder of Kingsport and Dayne Davis of Bluff City. That made this a tough call.

Columbia, S.C., only has two players contributing to this roster, Paxton Brooks and Jalin Hyatt. Also, neither are from South Carolina’s state capital, as Brooks is from Lexington, and Hyatt is from Irmo. However, both are in Lexington County, where Columbia is, so they are direct suburbs of the city.

As a result, they are close enough to count, and both Brooks and Hyatt are now projected starters. Brooks is a returning three and a half year starter at punter. Hyatt was the favorite to take the slot role for Tennessee football to replace Velus Jones Jr., and it’s almost certain he’ll get that role now. That puts Columbia over the top among those three.

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