Tennessee football: 5 breakout players to watch in 2020

Who will be the five breakout performers for Tennessee football in 2020?

If Tennessee football plans to have a big year, some guys are going to have to step up.

2020 will be the third year of the Jeremy Pruitt era of Tennessee Volunteers football. After missing out on a bowl game in 2018, Tennessee really turned it around in the second half of 2019. Tennessee finished the campaign with an 8-5 mark and a stunning come from behind victory over the Indiana Hoosiers in the Gator Bowl. From the looks of it, the Vols are trending up in 2020.

Though just on the outside looking in at a spot inside the initial Amway Coaches Poll at No. 26 overall, Tennessee has ample opportunity to make some noise in SEC play this season. With a 10-game, conference-only schedule, Rocky Top has no choice in that matter. The Vols need to assert themselves as one of the better teams in the SEC if they ever want anything to change for them.

In a typical 12-game season with eight SEC games, Tennessee would have been capable of going somewhere in the 8-4 to 9-3 range. However, that all shifts when it’s all SEC games and there are only 10 of them. Will the Vols be as good as 8-2 or will they stumble to a 6-4 record with one tough conference game after another? It’s time for certain players to have their breakout seasons.

So what we’re going to do today is look at the entire Tennessee football roster and determine which five players stand the best chance to have breakout seasons. Again, breakout campaigns mean different things to everyone. For this exercise, we’re looking at players who will be well-known in SEC circles, not just in Knoxville, possibly by some diehard fans with Power 5 allegiances.

Here are five players poised to have breakout years for Tennessee football.

With Marquez Callaway and Jauan Jennings now playing in the NFL, someone must step up in the Tennessee receiving corps in their absence. One player who might see his role expand in 2020 is true sophomore wide receiver Ramel Keyton. He was a former four-star recruit out of Marietta, Georgia in the 2019 class and the No. 111 overall prospect in the country, according to 247Sports.

As a true freshman, Keyton only had four catches for 104 yards. Though that’s nothing to write home about, keep in mind this was the first year Jim Chaney was back in Knoxville as the Vols’ offensive coordinator. Factor in Callaway and Jennings being NFL-caliber receivers and there wasn’t a ton of target share for a true freshman in his first year with the Power 5 program.

Now with three of the four top receivers from last year’s team no longer there, look for Keyton to take advantage of the situation and have a sensational sophomore season. He does come from a Georgia high school powerhouse in Marietta High School, a school that has produced top athletes in multiple sports for generations. Look for this former Blue Devil to become a star at Tennessee.

At 6-foot-2 and 189 pounds, Keyton has the frame to possess big down the field playmaking ability. In what’ll be quarterback Jarrett Guarantano’s final college football season, look for him to throw the ball more often in Keyton’s direction. If he’s the jump ball receiver he was projected to be coming out of Marietta High School, huge could have quite the sophomore year for the Vols.