Fall camp is upon us, and that means it’s time for preseason predictions and expectations to roll through the internet and grace us with the opinions of the pundits.
One expert from ESPN sees the Tennessee Volunteers as a threat to return to the College Football Playoff for the second straight year. College football writer/analyst Bill Connelly, he of the SP+ ratings, has the Vols in the upper echelon of the SEC and the last team in his tier of College Football Playoff and SEC title contenders.
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That goes a little bit against where the media had the Vols tabbed in the preseason poll, which was 9th. The Vols came in behind teams like South Carolina and Florida that they’re ahead of in Connelly’s poll.
But what caught my eye is what Connelly said about Tennessee’s offense and defense in 2025.
Learning a third offense in less than a year isn’t optimal, and if Aguilar isn’t up to speed, redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger could take over. The Vols are probably fine at running back, where sophomores DeSean Bishop and Peyton Lewis could replicate new Cleveland Brown Dylan Sampson’s production, but sophomore Mike Matthews and redshirt freshman Braylon Staley both might start after combining for 10 catches last year, while the second string is littered with freshmen and, potentially, Carter, who played on both sides of the ball in the spring. It’s a similar story up front, where the two-deep will consist of Heard, transfers Wendell Moe Jr. (Arizona) and Sam Pendleton (Notre Dame) and an assembly line of redshirt freshmen and sophomores. It feels like the Vols could end up with their best defense and worst offense yet in the Heupel era.
I actually that this is a bit of an overstatement for one, but not for the other. First, Tennessee’s defense from 2024 is going to be very tough to replicate as far as week-to-week consistency and dominance. If Jermod McCoy is ready to roll early in the season – which is a complete unknown at this point, the Vols’ secondary will hit the ground running as a team strength.
But last year’s defensive line rotation simply was the engine that drove the unit, and it loses some rare talent in James Pearce, Jr. and Omarr Norman-Lott, with Elijah Simmons also in the NFL now. I will say Joshua Josephs could be set up for a tremendous season at the LEO spot, and Tyre West was terrific in relatively limited pass rushing opportunities last year. There’s talent and potential coming in to fill spots as well. But man, that group last year was a special unit that played tremendously as a unit. It won’t be so easy to match that group, much less surpass it.
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I do think the offense has enough question marks to make a statement of the offense being potentially the worst during Heupel’s tenure a possibility. I’m not saying it will be. I just think there’s enough uncertainty in enough areas that, if things don’t break Tennessee’s way, it could be a real struggle offensively in 2025.
The Vols have at least two new starters on the offensive line from the transfer portal and 4 of 5 new starters overall. That’s a whole lot of uncertainty, and Cooper Mays’ experience from the all-important center position is gone.
The engine from the offense last season is gone, as Dylan Sampson is now a Cleveland Brown. Tennessee has a trio of candidates to fill in, but Sampson was flat-out special last year. The wide receivers are a gigantic question mark, with 7 players gone from last year. Mike Matthews simply has to be awesome, and Braylon Staley needs to emerge as well. And is Chris Brazzell II capable of being a bigger and more consistent contributor after a mixed bag of a season last year? So many questions with that group.
And then, of course, the QB room. Is Joey Aguilar the 2023 version or the 2024 one? Can he cut down the turnovers in Heupel’s offense (which his QBs seem to do)? Is he even good enough to be the guy over Jake Merklinger or George MacIntyre?
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There’s just so much uncertainty throughout the entire offense that many of those question marks and X-factors needing to emerge create a situation where failures or answers in the negative could lead to a bad year on that side of the ball. For that reason, I think Heupel having his worst offense is at least a possibility in 2025.
We’ll find out soon enough, as the QB battle gets underway starting this week.
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