Tennessee football: 2022 Preseason All-SEC shows Coaches know Vols better than media

As a sportswriter myself, I’m never one to say coaches automatically know more about players than the media. However, when it comes to Tennessee football entering 2022, SEC coaches are much more in-tune to the Vols than SEC media.

Just over one month to the day after the Media Preseason All-SEC Teams were released, the coaches released their versions of this year’s Preseason All-SEC. In many ways, they were identical, as the three teams in total had the same number of Vols.

However, who the coaches selected for Tennessee football and where certain players landed made all the difference. Any analysis of the Vols would show the coaches were much more accurate heading into the season.

Let’s start with First Team All-SEC. Both outlets had Byron Young there on defense. However, the Coaches also had Cedric Tillman on the first team. Tillman is the only returning 1,000-yard receiver in the league. Of course he belongs there.

Somehow, thought, the media had Tillman Second Team so Alabama Crimson Tide receiver Jermaine Burton could be First Team. Kayshon Boutte of the LSU Tigers was the other first team receiver on both, but honestly, Tillman should have been above both of them.

Where they also parted ways was around a player on the third team. The Media Preseason All-SEC had Cooper Mays as that unit’s center, and while Mays has potential, he simply didn’t do enough last year to warrant that spot heading into this season.

Well, that was offset by Jabari Small somehow being left off every All-SEC team. The coaches got that right, though, as Small, who ran for nearly 800 yards last year despite splitting time and not even entering the year as Tennessee football’s feature back, made Coaches Third Team All-SEC.

Those two differences alone show that the coaches have a much better understanding of the Vols than the writers do, at least for this year. Having Tillman second team and ignoring Small were two ridiculous decisions by the media, and the coaches fixed that.

Sticking to other areas of similarity, both had Hendon Hooker as Second Team All-SEC with Trevon Flowers and Paxton Brooks as Third Team All-SEC. They were right with all three of those players, just as they both were when it came to Young.

Jeremy Banks made Third Team All-SEC on both. Given his production, that’s disrespectful by both coaches, but it’s not as unforgivable as ignoring Small or leaving Tillman off the first unit, as Banks did have one of the lowest PFF regular season grades on defense last year.

In terms of undeserved praise, Darnell Wright was Second Team All-SEC on both. Wright has potential with Tennessee football, but he doesn’t seem to have shown enough on the line yet, and he’s move back over to right tackle.

As a result, there are areas where both missed and hit with their projections, but by and large, the coaches have shown to be much more accurate so far. Perhaps things could change as the season progresses. For now, though, trust the coaches over the media.