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

4. Knoxville, Tenn.

Surprisingly, even with walk-ons, Knoxville hasn’t loaded up Tennessee football’s roster this year. However, the players who are on the roster are expected to be major contributors, so the city actually had a case to be up at No. 3 on the list, but for now, it’s down here at No. 4.

There are nine players from the metro area on the roster. Two of them are from outside the city limits: Ollie Lane of Corryton and Matthew Salansky of Morristown. The others are Cooper Mays, Jacob Warren, Tyler Baron, Jack Jancek, West Shuler, Shannon Blair Jr. and Josh Turbyville.

In terms of contributors, Lane is the utility offensive lineman to fill in for wherever there’s an injury, so he’s basically a starter. Salansky is the starting long snapper. Mays is the starting center. Warren is a co-starter at tight end, and Baron is competing for a starting job at edge rusher. That makes five contributors of the nine players on the roster.

Four of those players are on scholarship, Salansky being the only one who isn’t, but that means every scholarship player from the area is a major contributor. Now, you could debate Morristown, as that’s cusp Knoxville area, but again, that would only knock out Salansky, so this area is once again loaded with contributors.