The Roster (Talent Level)

[BACKDOC]

Nice analysis.
Emory Jones has the tools.

Anyway,
Tennessee is going to put a pretty good huritng on Florida this year, because of that Florida defense is WAAAY down this year.

We have a lot of speed and playmaking abilities at WR.
And you remember Dee Beckwith I'm sure. He's a monster RB now.

I still want to think Evans will be our best RB.

 

[chrismc1000]

And we are 85+ 4/5 stars short of beat bama and the like so OP idk why you're tryn to get but it really doesn't matter.

When we have 5 stars waiting 3 years to get their turn to play then we will be ready for bama and the like until then drink up cause this team is in for another long decade.

 

[Jackcrevol]

Here is the roster breakdown by recruiting class according to rivals. The names listed are the remaining players still on the roster according to utsports.com. If they were rated 4* or better, it is noted. If not, they were a 3*....for those of you into star gazing. What I found interesting is that the position group with the highest amount of 4* or better rated players is linebacker.....which tells you all you need to know about ratings. The positions were based on what is listed on utsports.com and not necessarily what they were recruited for out of high school. The hit taken for that 2021 recruiting class is almost probation like. That 2020 recruiting class is the key to any level of competitiveness over the next couple of years. Those guys have absolutely have to pan out.

2017 (7)
K’Rojhn Calbert
Latrell Bumphus (4*)-DL
Matthew Butler
Princeton Fant
Riley Locklear (4*)-OL
Solon Page
Theo Jackson

2018 (12)
Kurott Garland
Trevon Flowers
Jeremy Banks (4*)-LB
Cedric Tillman
Jerome Carvin (4*)-OL
Kingston Harris
Alontae Taylor (4*)-DB
Paxton Brooks
Greg Emerson (4*)-DL
Jacob Warren
Ollie Lane
Kenneth George

2019 (13)
Darnell Wright (5*)-OL
Darel Middleton
Jaylen McCullough (4*)-DB
Tyus Fields (4*)-DB
Warren Burrell (4*)-DB
Roman Harrison (4*)-LB
Elijah Simmons
Chris Akporoghene (4*)-OL
Brian Maurer
Aaron Beasley
Ramel Keyton (4*)-WR
Jackson Lampley (4*)-OL
Kenney Soloman


2020 (22)
Dee Beckwith
Malachi Wideman (4*)-WR
Morven Joseph (4*)-LB
Jimmy Holiday
Len’neth Whitehead
Reginald Perry
Tyler Baron (4*)-LB
Doneiko Slaughter (4*)-DB
Jabari Small
Omari Thomas (4*)-DL
Tamarion McDonald (4*)-DB
Bryson Eason (4*)-LB
Martavius French (4*)-LB
James Robinson
Jalin Hyatt (4*)-WR
Tee Hodge
Cooper Mays (4*)-OL
Javontez Spraggins
Jimmy Calloway (4*)-WR
Dominic Bailey (4*)-DL
Harrison Bailey (5*)-QB
Will Albright

2021 (11)
Tiyon Evans
Christian Charles
Byron Young
William Parker
Miles Campbell
Kaidon Salter (4*)-QB
Aaron Willis (4*)-LB
Walker Merrill (4*)-WR
Jaylen Wright
Isaac Washington
Andison Coby

65 total before transfers. Of the 4* or above rated players, there are 2 QBs, 5 WRs, 6, OL, 4 DL, 7 LBs, 6 DBs.

Transfers
Velus Jones
Hendon Hooker
Chase McGrath
Cade Mays
Aubrey Soloman
Bradley Jones

dude do you not have a home?

 

[chrismc1000]

Fair assessment.

Severely undercoachd roster. Ron Zook was a better HC than Jeremy Pruitt. Not even counting recruiting...

The Gators will face off against a very fast Tennessee team. Not just tempo. Field speed. And we have power in our Backfield now. Tennessee will be the suprise team in the entire country this year.

Lol.... LOL.... LMAO no we won't

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

LBs Baron and Eason are both DE's now. Both look to either start or heavily contribute there.

French and Willis are 4 star LBs that are suspended.

Joseph is starting at MLB
Jeremy Banks was a RB and will probably start beside Joseph.
Harrison just now moved to MLB, but has been injured just like Banks this Spring.

So stars ain't the problem with LB. It's availability and organization.

Whatever talent we may have though THIS is a good summary of what we are up against:

Let’s Expand the Playoff! Part 3 - Recruiting is an Oligopoly

We play 3 of these teams annually. Last year we played 4.

 

[ACvol3]

Lol.... LOL.... LMAO no we won't

Thanks miss Cleo.. I would’ve hated to have gotten my hopes up

 

[ACvol3]

And we are 85+ 4/5 stars short of beat bama and the like so OP idk why you're tryn to get but it really doesn't matter.

When we have 5 stars waiting 3 years to get their turn to play then we will be ready for bama and the like until then drink up cause this team is in for another long decade.

Bama has been beaten by plenty of teams with less talent. They’re not perfect. Ole miss gave them a hell of a game last year with similar talent and scheme as UT. I don’t think it’ll happen, but crazier things have happened

 

[99gator]

@99gator I'm guessing you don’t feel the same

I don't think it will be worse, but I say that because it's the worst defense I've seen in my lifetime. So, it has to get better. Someone also wrote a piece with some details as to why the COVID situation effected the defensive side of the ball for Florida more than the offensive side.

But, they made coaching changes. They added some pieces in the portal in a position of need.

And there are a couple of positions where I think the talent stepping in is better than the talent that left. It's just when you are a true freshman, some guys ain't ready. Now if the guys I am thinking of don't make a meaningful contribution this year, I'll be disappointed.

And where guys can usually hold their own as freshman, florida got a couple of guys in the secondary that I think will get immediate playing time and will eventually play on Sunday. That said, they are true freshman.

 

[njvols]

Here is the roster breakdown by recruiting class according to rivals. The names listed are the remaining players still on the roster according to utsports.com. If they were rated 4* or better, it is noted. If not, they were a 3*....for those of you into star gazing. What I found interesting is that the position group with the highest amount of 4* or better rated players is linebacker.....which tells you all you need to know about ratings. The positions were based on what is listed on utsports.com and not necessarily what they were recruited for out of high school. The hit taken for that 2021 recruiting class is almost probation like. That 2020 recruiting class is the key to any level of competitiveness over the next couple of years. Those guys have absolutely have to pan out.

2017 (7)
K’Rojhn Calbert
Latrell Bumphus (4*)-DL
Matthew Butler
Princeton Fant
Riley Locklear (4*)-OL
Solon Page
Theo Jackson

2018 (12)
Kurott Garland
Trevon Flowers
Jeremy Banks (4*)-LB
Cedric Tillman
Jerome Carvin (4*)-OL
Kingston Harris
Alontae Taylor (4*)-DB
Paxton Brooks
Greg Emerson (4*)-DL
Jacob Warren
Ollie Lane
Kenneth George

2019 (13)
Darnell Wright (5*)-OL
Darel Middleton
Jaylen McCullough (4*)-DB
Tyus Fields (4*)-DB
Warren Burrell (4*)-DB
Roman Harrison (4*)-LB
Elijah Simmons
Chris Akporoghene (4*)-OL
Brian Maurer
Aaron Beasley
Ramel Keyton (4*)-WR
Jackson Lampley (4*)-OL
Kenney Soloman


2020 (22)
Dee Beckwith
Malachi Wideman (4*)-WR
Morven Joseph (4*)-LB
Jimmy Holiday
Len’neth Whitehead
Reginald Perry
Tyler Baron (4*)-LB
Doneiko Slaughter (4*)-DB
Jabari Small
Omari Thomas (4*)-DL
Tamarion McDonald (4*)-DB
Bryson Eason (4*)-LB
Martavius French (4*)-LB
James Robinson
Jalin Hyatt (4*)-WR
Tee Hodge
Cooper Mays (4*)-OL
Javontez Spraggins
Jimmy Calloway (4*)-WR
Dominic Bailey (4*)-DL
Harrison Bailey (5*)-QB
Will Albright

2021 (11)
Tiyon Evans
Christian Charles
Byron Young
William Parker
Miles Campbell
Kaidon Salter (4*)-QB
Aaron Willis (4*)-LB
Walker Merrill (4*)-WR
Jaylen Wright
Isaac Washington
Andison Coby

65 total before transfers. Of the 4* or above rated players, there are 2 QBs, 5 WRs, 6, OL, 4 DL, 7 LBs, 6 DBs.

Transfers
Velus Jones
Hendon Hooker
Chase McGrath
Cade Mays
Aubrey Soloman
Bradley Jones

My contention all along is we aren’t devoid of talent but more devoid of scheme + development. Majorly handicapped by qb play. Talent level is probably higher than the three previous new hires had. If JH can coach up his speed offense and equalize talent defect and create some excitement recruits will come. If this feels like another Pruitt, Butch, Dooley 3-5 year tear of mediocrity, it’s going to get compounded by NCAA dark cloud.

 

[BlinghamptonVol]

After looking at this thread, I believe a) we have more talent than I thought we had, and b) we have a decent chance of beating Florida. The Dan Mullen running qb offense has generally been figured out in the SEC and Emory Jones is gonna take some hits. I think our new staff is gonna score a lot of points and Emory Jones isn’t going to finish the game against us.

 

[Sarms58]

Interesting info. Hopefully 247 will update their team composite rankings for 2021 and we’ll see how far the VOLs have dropped.

2020 College Football Team Talent Composite

 

[Longshank]

I think he is prolly bored with us not holding up our end of the bargain and would like to see us get better enough to where beating us is relevant again.

Thats the way I feel. I grew up on sone great Tennessee Florida games. Its not the same thinking going into games the last like 15 years when I expect a gator win.
Tennessee has always been a team ive like since I was a boy. I just like the gators better after going to school there.
Plus as ive said before you guys are the funnest people on the web in a good way.
I catch some flak here but I would say most are very cool as I am not here to insult or brag and try to provide insight or my prospective of the team.
I must say he(gator) is bring up an area on the with some question marks. Maybe he did it as a kind of a "ha ha" but it doesnt seem to be.
As for the gators, the offnesive side of the ball will be good. Jones passed pretty well last year. Coach seems to always have a pretty good offensive team. Last years WRs and back up TEs played very well with out pitts.
On defense they need to get it together. They had a decent pass rush and DBs but I thought the lbers were okay at best. I didnt think the coach called a good game some games either.
Mullen did some pretty good stuff with a team made up of a lot of the past coaches players. Now lets see ehat he does with his own.
Often we see coaches actually have better success early then kind of bomb with there own players.
See how it goes.
I point out when corn bread was hired, offensive head coaches with good proven offense and a history of players in nfl at least draft are going to get the best of the talent. Even if you hire the next best offensive mind ever and he kills it, he will be gone in a year or 2. Defense comes to winning teams. Easier to look good up by 20 cause the offense is on fire and the dline can pass rush.
I think this coach for Tennessee is the best hire thet have made in a while and the fans should be happy if he can get the team to winning 9-10 games a year and hope for a special year. The recruit competition is a 1000% harder then the mid 90s with almost every border states schools much better. Clemson, South Carolina, all the north carolina and Virginia schools, Georgia was Georgia but bama wasnt powerhouse nor was any of the western schools. Kentucky sucked. That whole area east of Tennessee they were king. They did well in other sec states.
Tennessee needs some years in the top 20 every week to get the really good elite players coming back to knoxville.

 

[LexVol71]

Here's my two cents:
1. We're thin at middle linebacker while Len'Neth Whitehead, who was ranked as the 11th best in the country at that position coming out of high school is overcoming surgery and remains buried in the running back rotation. It's time for him to man up and switch to LB where he can best help his team while offering him the best chance to play at the next level.
2. To'o and Crouch just enjoyed a free semester of college compliments of the University of Tennessee. That silliness must end. Now. Either they arrive on campus and rejoin the team before the next semester begins, or their scholarships will be revoked.

 

[chrismc1000]

Bama has been beaten by plenty of teams with less talent. They’re not perfect. Ole miss gave them a hell of a game last year with similar talent and scheme as UT. I don’t think it’ll happen, but crazier things have happened

Talking about the exceptions and thinking it's a standard lol

 

[chrismc1000]

Thanks miss Cleo.. I would’ve hated to have gotten my hopes up

Oof you're butthurt fo sho

 

[kbear01]

Nice analysis.
Emory Jones has the tools.

Anyway,
Tennessee is going to put a pretty good huritng on Florida this year, because of that Florida defense is WAAAY down this year.

We have a lot of speed and playmaking abilities at WR.
And you remember Dee Beckwith I'm sure. He's a monster RB now.

Love the enthusiasm, but I'm disagreeing on the outcome. Gators win BIG! UF 41-48 UT 23-28. We are not in Florida's league, or really even close. We probably will not be in Florida's league, for another decade. If Mullen EVER loses to UT, in the 5 years, he should be fired, immediately, in the damn locker room.

 

[LittleVol]

Whatever talent we may have though THIS is a good summary of what we are up against:

Let’s Expand the Playoff! Part 3 - Recruiting is an Oligopoly

We play 3 of these teams annually. Last year we played 4.

Very good article. The monopoly that the playoffs created isn't talked about enough.
UGA and Bama are the only teams with that absurd 75 percent and above Blue Chip Roster. Florida is closer to Tennessee in talent than they are to Alabama. Yet, they played within a score in Atlanta.

Bama had a defense filled with NFL talent. Ole Miss, Florida and even Mizzou somewhat moved the ball on them easily. The rules of the game favor offense.
And looking at our offensive skill players...honestly I wouldn't trade them for anyone elses. Bama or LSU maybe.
That's a crazy statement RIGHT NOW, but we will all TRULY realize how much Jeremy Pruitt absolutely sucked, when we beat Pittsburgh by 60 points. And yeah we beat Florida in 2021 because Emory Jones is too inconsistent throwing the football.

 

[FLVOL_79]

 

[sechamp2012]

I made the thread as people are talking about predictions for next season and I thought looking at the roster would help.their players

I know some of you are die-hard enough that you know the roster/depth chart backward and forward, but others may not.

While I am not a Tennessee fan, when you watch games all year you get familiar with the personnel. Attrition was discussed on the board, but I was surprised to see how few names I recognized, and the ones I did really didn't impress me much.

So do you go on all SEC boards and disect each team in the SEC? I would like for you to copy & paste each analysis, I'm assuming you've already done, especially all the teams we play this year. We in this context are UT. This seems like an obsession with a team that as you call them THEY beat UT nearly every year for the last 20 years are you that worried about a team that is striving to get to 6 wins.

 

[JRich]

It's going to be a different kind of offense and a more traditional Dan Mullen offense. It will be run heavy and the passing game will be more short safe or deep stuff without the variety of routes you saw last year.

The reason Florida hasn't run the ball very well is that the offense is predicated on having a QB that can run, so half of the stuff the offense is designed to do went out the window with Trask. It was fine for reasons that are obvious now. But, Jones was the third leading rusher last season and played very little. He averaged 6.8 yards per carry.

They have good tight ends, but they're not PItts and I'm not going to pretend they are Pitts. They have receivers in Copeland, Shorter and a couple of others who I expect to have a big impact (Henderson and Fraziers) but as I listed those names, I am sure you are thinking "who".

What is believed to be a major upgrade is at RB with Lingard and Bowman. But, between those two and Wright, they've got guys at RB they can line up at WR and match them up with linebackers in personnel groupings that put defenses in a bind. They killed Georgia doing that as the RBs had over 200 yards receiving in that game.

The key to stopping the offense will be to put Florida in an obvious passing situation. I have every belief Jones is capable of completing a pass on 3rd and 10 for a first down. So, I don't mean to suggest it's an instant punt. But, it's not his strength. If Florida is in down and distance situations where you have to honor the run and the pass, Florida will be just fine.

Jones will also be that guy that annoys everyone by picking up a 3rd and 10 with his legs, which frustrates me when opposing QB's do that.

I think the Florida offense will be fine, but not as explosive as last year. The question at Florida is how much better will the defense be.

Mullen does a nice job of working the offense to fit the players he has and putting them in positions to be successful, rather than forcing players to "fit his system." I don't anticipate this coming season to be any different. As long as he is there, UF will always be in contention. Personally, I hate Florida, but I can appreciate a reasonable and sensible Florida fan.

Thanks for your interest in the Vols!

 

[Longshank]

Talking about the exceptions and thinking it's a standard lol

Lane is a better coach then anyone on Tennessee's staff last year. His scheme was nothing like Tennessee running a QB out there week after week that didnt have it and could do little. Oh and nobody is more talented then alabama year in and out for several years. At best some teams are equal.

 

[Volfan2012]

With the exception of the linebacker positions I never thought we looked that bad talent wise just needed the proper coaching. Linebacker is definitely the weakness of the defense. I'm still hoping that even with all the changes this offensive line will be superior to that one we had last season even though on paper the one last season was more talented in stars and rankings.

 

[Jaws]

How is Emory Jones looking?

Who is replacing Pitts, Toney, and Grimes?

Emory looks good, Anthony Richardson does too.

Kemore Gamble, Keon Zipperer and Justin Shorter will be replacing Pitts. And look out for true freshman Nick Elksnis. Mullen and others were raving about him this spring.

Jacob Copeland, Xzavier Henderson, Justin Shorter, Trent Whittemore, Rick Wells will be the new featured WR’s, with some promising freshmen also competing for time. Florida also returns about 70 catches out of the backfield among Dameon Pierce, Nayquan Wright and Malik Davis. There will be plenty of elite pass catchers to take the place of some great ones that left.

One of the best things about Mullen’s offenses at Florida has been their development of WR’s and TE’s. He has replaced guys like Van Jefferson, Tyrie Cleveland, Freddie Swain and Josh Hammond with guys like Tre Grimes, Kyle Pitts and Keadrius Toney. Looking forward to seeing the new crop emerge this year.

 

[Jaws]

Nice analysis.
Emory Jones has the tools.

Anyway,
Tennessee is going to put a pretty good huritng on Florida this year, because of that Florida defense is WAAAY down this year.

We have a lot of speed and playmaking abilities at WR.
And you remember Dee Beckwith I'm sure. He's a monster RB now.

I respect your optimism but just a few corrections. Florida’s defense will be much improved. For starters, they can’t possibly be any worse than last year. But the added size/muscle on the interior defensive line via the transfer portal will have a major impact. They added two proven, upperclassman players in Shelton (from Penn State) and Newkirk (from Auburn). In addition, they return everyone of note at DE and LB, and some key pieces in the secondary in Trey Dean and Kaiir Elam. The defense has stars at every level; Zach Carter and Brenton Cox on the DL, Ventrell Miller, Kris Bogle and Mohammad Diabate at LB, Dean and Elam in secondary. A full spring, summer and fall camp will do wonders for this defense and they’ll be closer to 2018 and 2019 versions than the mess we saw in 2020.

As for Beckwith, I certainly remember him. He should be a great player, hope he does well this year.

 

[Jaws]

After looking at this thread, I believe a) we have more talent than I thought we had, and b) we have a decent chance of beating Florida. The Dan Mullen running qb offense has generally been figured out in the SEC and Emory Jones is gonna take some hits. I think our new staff is gonna score a lot of points and Emory Jones isn’t going to finish the game against us.

Big misconception, QB’s under Mullen have to be one or the other; runner or passer, but can’t be both. Yes they can, in fact, Mullen’s best QB’s have been really good at both; Alex Smith, Tim Tebow, Dak Prescott. But the genius of Mullen is that he can still beat you with any style QB. You want passer only? Ok, here’s Chris Leak and Kyle Trask. You want runner only, the man had Nick Fitzgerald getting Heisman talk at one point. You want a combination of both; Tebow and Prescott. Mullen even had Feleipe Franks playing excellent football in stretches as a dual-threat guy.

Mullen will always have a competent offense. The key to predicting UF’s season in 2021 is how their defense shows up.