Tennessee Football: 5 Things to look forward to on Saturday

#5: Who will win the other position battles?

We have partially covered this in the other slides, especially at the quarterback, running back, and cornerback spot, but there is also more position battles to be decided by Saturday.

Along with those spots, the tight end spot, as well as many offensive line spots are up for grabs still.

It will be very interesting to see who wins the tight end spot. The Volunteers lost Ethan Wolf to graduation. The projected depth chart has the tight end spot as Dominick Wood-Anderson OR Eli Wolf OR Austin Pope. Wood-Anderson was the No. 1 JUCO tight end in the 2018 JUCO class. All three tight ends will likely see action on Saturday, but I think Wood-Anderson will get the nod here.

The offensive line has a lot of “OR’s” listed by their names as well. To no surprise, Trey Smith will be starting at left tackle, while Alabama graduate transfer Brandon Kennedy will be starting at center for the Volunteers on Saturday.

Jahmir Johnson or Riley Locklear will start a left guard for the Volunteers. Johnson comes from Arizona Western College, which is the same JUCO Wood-Anderson came from. Locklear saw action last season for the Volunteers, especially after the injury bug struck the line position.

Ryan Johnson or Jerome Carvin will start at the right guard position. Johnson, like Locklear, started a good bit last year after many offensive linemen suffered season-ending injuries. Carvin is a true freshman who could possibly see action in his first ever collegiate game.

Right tackle is a toss-up right now, as three guys are listed right now at that spot. Drew Richmond, Marcus Tatum, and Chance Hall are all listed at the right tackle position. Each of those linemen has a played a good bit during their time at Tennessee.

Another position up for grabs is one of the wide receiver spots. Callaway and Brandon Johnson have already secured their starting spots. Josh Palmer and Jennings are both listed at the wide receiver position. Both guys will see a good bit of action, so it doesn’t matter who will start there. It’ll just depend on the formation the Volunteers are in

Not many defensive positions are up for grabs. Besides one of the cornerback spots, the other spot up for grabs is weakside linebacker. Darrin Kirkland and Quart’e Sapp are listed at WLB. Both will see the field, but it just depends on what formation the Volunteers are in at the time.

The only other spot up for grabs is the punter spot. Either Joe Doyle or true freshman Paxton Brooks will get the starting punter spot.