Vols insider projects Tennessee's starting offensive line for the Citrus Bowl
The Tennessee Vols are expected to be down a couple of offensive linemen in the Citrus Bowl against the Iowa Hawkeyes. VolQuest's Brent Hubbs joined 104.5 The Zone's "Ramon, Kayla, and Will" on Friday morning and he gave his take on what he expects Tennessee's offensive line rotation to look like in the Citrus Bowl. […]
The Tennessee Vols are expected to be down a couple of offensive linemen in the Citrus Bowl against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
VolQuest's Brent Hubbs joined 104.5 The Zone's "Ramon, Kayla, and Will" on Friday morning and he gave his take on what he expects Tennessee's offensive line rotation to look like in the Citrus Bowl.
Starting left tackle John Campbell and starting right guard Javontez Spraggins are expected to miss the game due to injury.
"I think it's going to be very similar to what we saw in the Vanderbilt game to close out the year," said Hubbs. "Cooper Mays is going to be back for the '24 season and nobody's happier than Nico (Iamaleava). He'll be the starting center for Tennessee on Monday and the starting center for next year. They're going to start Ollie Lane, who will not be back next year. I think they're going to try to get as much experience on the field to help Nico and those young running backs as they can."
"I think you're gonna see Dayne Davis probably at right tackle," continued Hubbs. "I think you'll see Gerald Mincey at left tackle because I don't think John Campbell is going to play. Cooper Mays at center, Ollie Lane at left guard. And then your right guard is going to be Jackson Lampley. The question then becomes who's the first guard in if you need to go to a sixth guy for whatever reason. You're probably going to slide Dayne Davis inside and play Jeremiah Crawford out at tackle — even though Crawford won't be back next year."
"I'm not sure how ready Vysen Lang is at guard," added Hubbs. "I guess he'd be the next one off the bench."
So according to Hubbs, the starting offensive line for the Vols in the Citrus Bowl should look like this:
LT — Gerald Mincey
LG — Ollie Lane
C — Cooper Mays
RG — Jackson Lampley
RT — Dayne Davis
Backup tackle — Jeremiah Crawford
Backup guard — Davis (with Crawford moving to tackle)
The Citrus Bowl matchup between Tennessee and Iowa will kick off at 1:00 PM ET on Monday.
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