Tennessee football: 3 biggest offseason questions
By John Buhler
Josh Heupel his work cut out for him to get the Tennessee football program back on track.
Tennessee football fans are hoping new head coach Josh Heupel can eventually get Rocky Top back on top.
It has been a long and frustrating decade-plus in Knoxville. The Tennessee Volunteers have not won the SEC East since 2007. Five head-coaching hires later and Heupel is tasked with, dare I say it, the impossible. Heupel comes to Tennessee after a brief stint leading the UCF Knights over in The American. While he had some success in Orlando, he is in for a rude awakening at Tennessee.
No, Heupel is not going to change this struggling football program overnight. However, he is entering a job with relatively low expectations, ones that he should be able to exceed in his first few years in Knoxville. With the program essentially at rock bottom, here are the biggest questions Heupel and the Tennessee program face this winter. What must they do to make 2021 a success?
3 biggest offseason questions for the Tennessee Volunteers
3. What true freshmen could be vying for early playing time?
Despite losing its former head coach Jeremy Pruitt this offseason, Tennessee did surprisingly well on the recruiting trail. The Vols finished with the No. 16 overall class in the 2021 cycle, according to the 247Sports Composite. Though they did not land a single five-star and only finished with the sixth-best class in the SEC, there are several players who could be early contributors for the Vols.
Tennessee had 11 early enrollees and 10 others sign their National Letters of Intent. The Vols also had three players transfer to the program and are immediately eligible to play, including former Auburn Tigers defensive lineman Big Kat Bryant. However, it is going to take more than a former Auburn standout to get this program trending in the right direction. Which freshmen will step up?
Look for inside linebacker Aaron Willis, dual-threat quarterback Kaidon Salter and wide receiver Walker Merrill to vie for early playing time. These are three of their 11 early enrollees and the only three early enrollees who are leaving high school a semester early with at least a four-star rating. The other four-star of note is junior college transfer running back Tiyon Evans, who will play, too.
With it being a new coaching staff, there will be ample opportunities for underclassmen to compete for starting jobs. Frankly, if the incumbents played better, they may still have Pruitt and his staff in Knoxville. While it was recruiting violations that were his undoing, you know Tennessee would have swept some of them under the rug if Pruitt was winning more games at Rocky Top.