Tennessee has been winning games this season by controlling the clock on offense and relying on its defense to keep opponents off the scoreboard.

That formula, which is unlike what we’ve seen during most of Josh Heupel’s tenure at Tennessee, has the Vols in a position to reach the College Football Playoff with just three games remaining in the regular season.

The formula, though, doesn’t work without one key player who isn’t getting nearly enough credit this season.

Punter Jackson Ross.

Ross’s ability to pin opponents deep in their own territory has allowed the Vols to win the field position battle, and that’s been a huge key to making this new formula work for Tennessee.

The Australia native has punted 36 times this season and 18 of those pinned the opponent inside the 20-yard line.

Ross had five punts downed inside the 20 in the Vols’ 24-14 win over Auburn in early October, and he had three downed inside the 20 in Tennessee’s 34-6 win over Kentucky last weekend.

It’s obviously been a total team effort for the Volunteers this season, but Ross has been a huge part of Tennessee’s success. If the Vols weren’t winning the field position battle, maybe this formula doesn’t work.

The bad news for Tennessee is that Ross is a fifth-year senior, so this is his final year at Tennessee.

The good news is that Tennessee has another Australian punter waiting to take over for Ross. The Volunteers signed Logan Foley during the 2026 recruiting cycle, and it would appear that he’ll be the guy for Tennessee in 2027.

Foley is 6-foot-6/237 lbs. He is from the same Prokick Australia program that produced Ross, so there’s some hope that the Vols can be elite in the field position game again in 2027.