Tennessee Vols already know one task that will be extremely important in the offseason
It's still early in the 2023 college football season, but one thing has already become abundantly clear when it comes to the Tennessee Vols. Offensive line depth is a major concern. There was plenty of concern about the Vols' offensive line in the offseason due to the loss of right tackle Darnell Wright and left […]
It's still early in the 2023 college football season, but one thing has already become abundantly clear when it comes to the Tennessee Vols.
Offensive line depth is a major concern.
There was plenty of concern about the Vols' offensive line in the offseason due to the loss of right tackle Darnell Wright and left guard Jerome Carvin (both went to the NFL).
Wright was a top 10 NFL draft pick and Carvin was a key leader for Tennessee.
The concern for the offensive line was amplified during fall camp when starting center Cooper Mays was sidelined after undergoing a procedure. Mays still hasn't retuned to action.
As a result, sixth-year senior Ollie Lane and fifth-year senior Dayne Davis have been sharing time at center.
And it hasn't been going well. Lane had a particularly rough game against Florida. Though honestly, the entire offensive line had a rough night thanks to pre-snap penalties and missed assignments.
The absence of Mays has certainly affected the play of Tennessee's offensive line. But it shouldn't be that way. Losing a center always hurts — those guys essentially run the show in the trenches — but an SEC program that spent most of the offseason talking about their goal of winning the SEC East should have enough offensive line depth to weather the loss of Mays.
But the Vols don't.
And a big reason why they don't is because they didn't utilize the portal enough during the offseason. Tennessee grabbed two offensive linemen from the portal — Miami offensive tackle John Campbell and Texas offensive guard Andrej Karic.
So far, Karic hasn't played at a championship level for Tennessee (he also had tough game against Florida). But he's going to continue to see a significant amount of action because of the Vols' lack of depth.
Tennessee obviously has to hit the portal hard this offseason. It's becoming increasingly tough to have success in college football without either raiding the portal or consistently landing top five recruiting classes (which UT is still working toward).
Most folks will probably agree that the portal needs to be a focus for the Vols after the 2023 season.
But it's a bit of a Catch-22 for Tennessee.
Continuity is extremely important in the Vols' offense because of their unique up-tempo style. It can take a while for new players to learn the scheme and grow comfortable in it. So landing a bunch of talented offensive linemen from the portal isn't a guaranteed fix.
The Vols could try to target offensive linemen that play in similar systems, but there's no way to know if players from similar systems will enter the portal.
It's a tough spot for the Vols to be in. But one thing they can't do is stay idle. They can't just rely on high school recruits for offensive line depth, otherwise they'll start falling behind the programs that better utilize the portal.
I know it's not the way the Vols want to build the program under Heupel — they'd prefer to use the portal to supplement their current roster — but because of the changing landscape of college football, they really don't have a choice but to raid to the portal this offseason in search of offensive linemen and whatever other roster holes emerge this fall.
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Featured image via Caitie McMekin / News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
