Who Will Tennessee Football Miss The Most In 2025?
In today's Wednesday Wonder column, I wonder who the Vols will most most from the 2024 team.
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The Tennessee Volunteers could have as many as nine new starters on offense next season. Gone are longtime leaders of the offense in Cooper Mays, Bru McCoy and Dylan Sampson. Tennessee could start as many as four new offensive linemen. The wide receiver rotation will look radically different. A heavy rotation at running back is likely to return.
On defense, they lose star LEO James Pearce Jr., interior forces Omar Norman-Lott and Omari Thomas along with linebacker Keenan Pili and safety Will Brooks. As good as Pearce Jr. and Norman-Lott were for the Vols and defensive coordinator Tim Banks’ defense last season, there is not a position group that Tennessee has recruited, developed and replaced better than the defensive line in the Josh Heupel era in Knoxville. The defensive line should be elite again in 2025. The linebackers should be better in 2025 with more blue-chip talent than ever. The secondary should even be a bit better with Boo Carter a year older along with the return of the best Tennessee cornerback duo this century in Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson II.
Banks’ unit is going to be just fine in 2025.
When I think about who the Vols will miss most in 2025, I don’t think that it will include any particular player from the defense. Yes, Banks’ unit was a top-10 unit in scoring in 2024, but I think with how much talent is still on that side of the ball, it would not surprise me in the least if Tennessee’s defense was even a bit better in 2025.
I don’t feel the same about the offensive side of the ball.
On the surface, it seems like Sampson may be the obvious answer to this question. After all, he nearly ran for 1,500 yards last season. He scored 22 touchdowns. He averaged nearly 6.0 YPC. The Vols were 9th nationally in rushing and a lot of that had to do with the heroics, particularly in the second half, from the former four-star recruit out of Louisiana. However, the Vols were also 10th in rushing the previous season with Jaylen Wright as the lead tailback. Wright, now heading into his second season with the Miami Dolphins, averaged a blistering 7.4 YPA for the Vols in his final season on Rocky Top. The Vols were top-6 in team average yards per carry that season, too. The rushing offense, as a whole, was better than what we saw last season at Tennessee. The Vol rushing attack will look different in 2025 with Peyton Lewis, DeSean Bishop, Star Thomas and maybe even a bit of Daune Morris rotating in and out at tailback. However, Tennessee has averaged between 4.9-5.5 YPC as a team in all four seasons under Heupel. While it might be hard to replace a special player like Sampson at other places, history suggests the Vols will continue to run the ball efficiently even without their star tailback in 2025. Wide splits, light boxes, can’t lose at Tennessee.
Perhaps most importantly, though, is that in 2022, when the Vols offense was No. 1 in scoring nationally, the Vols were 26th in rushing yards per game – the lowest in the Heupel era. I suspect if Sampson is the most missed Vol in 2025, the offense likely didn’t fix its issues from the last two seasons. It is a gigantic year for redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava. There is no question about that. With the Vols not dipping into the transfer portal for a wide receiver in the winter cycle, the projected trio out wide looks to be Mike Matthews, Braylon Staley and Chris Brazzell II along with three true freshmen and one redshirt freshman behind them. Wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope has an extremely inexperienced room. Very talented, but very inexperienced.
Even with the Vols replacing as many as four starters on the offensive line in 2025, there is a nice mixture of transfers who have played and played well along with the in-house guys who were recruited out of high school by the staff. Wendell Moe Jr. started along the interior for two years at Arizona. Sam Pendleton started seven games for CFP national champion runner-up Notre Dame last season. David Sanders Jr. is a five-star offensive tackle, freshman or not, and William Satterwhite was the No. 20 IOL recruit in his class. That’s, on paper, a nice balance of potential new starters on the offensive line along with the return of former five-star transfer left tackle Lance Heard. You don’t have to squint too hard to see it all working out on the offensive line in 2025.
It’s different with the wide receiver position group, though. You’ve got to be George Costanza spotting those raccoons. As much as this position group struggled in 2024, one player in particular did not. Dont’e Thornton Jr. started to turn the corner when he was moved outside late in 2023, and he picked up right where he left off in 2024. You could argue that Thornton Jr. was the most underrated reason for reaching their first-ever CFP last season. Thornton Jr. led all FBS receivers nationally in yards per reception last season at 25.4. He may have only averaged two receptions per game as well, but he made them count. Always. Against Vanderbilt, the Oregon transfer had three receptions and two touchdowns, with one of those receptions going for 86 yards. In Tennessee’s three losses, Thornton Jr. had just three receptions. Zero against Georgia. Zero touchdowns in all three. In all three Tennessee losses in 2024, the wide receiver room averaged as a unit less than 10 YPR.
Against Arkansas, the Vols averaged 9.3 YPR and zero wideouts scored in the upset loss in Fayetteville. Against Georgia, the Vols averaged 8.4 YPR and zero wideouts scored in a game where Tennessee was shut out in the second half against the Bulldogs for the second straight season. In the blowout CFP loss in Columbus, the Vols averaged 7.4 YPR and zero wideouts scored in a game that got ugly in a hurry. Three losses in three games with zero touchdowns from the wide receivers.
Sure, Thornton Jr. only had 26 receptions total in 2024, but they were often critical, big-time explosive plays that the Tennessee offense desperately needed – just think back to his big-time catch down the Tennessee sideline in the second half against Alabama. Tennessee has talent in the wide receiver room next season, highlighted by former five-star recruit Mike Matthews, but they don’t have an obvious, veteran wideout who can be counted on for explosive plays. Maybe that’s Brazzell II next season – they need it to be Brazzell II next season. If that’s the case, then Thornton Jr. will be missed a whole lot less in 2025, but if the Tulane transfer doesn’t make the second-year leap the Oregon transfer made in 2024 this Vol passing attack could be in a whole lot of trouble once again.
That’s why when you wonder who the Vols will miss most from the 2024 CFP team next season, my answer remains firmly Dont’e Thornton Jr.
Chase Thomas is Tennessee’s Sports Renaissance Man, Atlanta Sports Guy & VFL. On today's program, Chase is joined by Rocky Top Insider's Ryan Schumpert to talk about Tennessee storming back to beat Vanderbilt, Zakai Zeigler's second-half heroics, Tennessee vs. Texas A&M preview, Tennessee baseball's opening weekend domination of Hofstra, and the Tennessee offensive line depth chart for 2025.
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