The tight end position is one that Tennessee has not gotten a lot out of in the past two seasons, in terms of pass-catching production.
Dominick Wood-Anderson came in out of junior college in 2018 as one of the top signees in Jeremy Pruitt’s first class, but ended his UT career with just 408 yards and three touchdowns on 38 catches over two seasons.
It is no secret that the Vols have utilized the tight end position as more of a run blocking tool, evidenced by the amount of playing time seen by redshirt junior Austin Pope in 2019. Pope started 11 games and played in all 13, but caught just four passes for a total of 21 yards. When Pope was in, the Vols were comfortable running behind him.
Pope is back for his redshirt senior year in 2020, with a few other unproven prospects waiting in the wings. Tennessee knows it has a solid group of blocking tight ends, but can one of them step up as a receiving threat in Pruitt’s third season?
Offensive coordinator Jim Chaney is no stranger to deploying two-tight end sets, and only one other member of the group brings back extended experience in 2020. As Princeton Fant enters his redshirt junior year, he will be asked to step in with more snaps towards the end of a college career that has seen him bounce from running back to tight end. Fant caught just two balls for 19 yards in 2019 while appearing in eight games.
The unknown quantities in tight ends coach Brian Niedermeyer’s room are the duo from the 2018 class, Sean Brown and Jackson Lowe. Brown at 6-foot-5, 241-pounds was the No. 40 tight end in his class in the 247Sports Composite, while Lowe was a 4-star prospect rated as the No. 12 tight end prospect.
Neither player made an impact for Tennessee in 2019, but will steadily be in the rotation in 2020 after the Vols missed out on highly-touted prospects Arik Gilbert and Darnell Washington.
An outlier in the group is rising redshirt junior Jacob Warren out of local Farragut High School, who was committed to Butch Jones as part of the 2018 class and stayed with the program when Pruitt took over. Warren appeared in limited action through five games in 2019, and has been working on improving his size since Pruitt arrived on campus. Warren is now measured at 6-foot-6, 241-pounds on Tennessee’s official website.
Niedermeyer has proven to be an elite recruiter on UT’s staff, but has not gotten the production that was expected, particularly from the outgoing Wood-Anderson. Run-blocking will be a strength of the unit in 2020, but the ability to provide another option for whoever is operating under center for Tennessee is a question mark.