After a weird offseason in Knoxville, let’s keep it positive today.
Let’s focus on the fact that Tennessee is months removed from its first Playoff berth in program history. Let’s focus on the fact that Josh Heupel has an elite defensive coordinator in Tim Banks, who led top-25 defenses in consecutive seasons and is entering Year 5 in Knoxville. Let’s focus on the fact that the Vols are coming off their best 3-year stretch in 2 decades with 1 loss in Neyland Stadium.
The positives are there. Does that mean they’ll be on the top of mind throughout 2025? No, but those positives should be a reminder that life can be infinitely worse, despite what the Tennessee storylines after Nov. 2024 would suggest.
There’s no better time to be positive than talkin’ season. That’s what I always say. Each of the next 16 days, we’ll look at the best things about each SEC team. This daily series will align with the SEC Network Takeover, which runs from Saturday, June 28 until July 13, AKA just before talkin’ season officially kicks off at SEC Media Days on July 14.
For those keeping track at home, that’s alphabetical order.
So far, here are the teams that we’ve done:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Florida
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- LSU
- Ole Miss
- Mississippi State
- Mizzou
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
Today, we’ll continue with the best things about Tennessee in 2025:
Best offensive player: Miles Kitselman, TE
I’ll be honest. This was extremely difficult to settle on, and not because the roster is stockpiled with proven options. You could certainly go with someone in the backfield like Duke transfer Star Thomas or DeSean Bishop, and if former Tulane transfer Chris Brazzell or former 5-star receiver Mike Matthews become a go-to option for Nico Iamaleava’s successor, it won’t be a stunner.
But give me Kitselman, AKA the offensive leader and perhaps the leader of that entire team. The numbers won’t jump out to you (22 catches, 301 yards, 4 receiving touchdowns), but the impact of an every-down tight end who helped create running lanes for 2024 SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson goes beyond receiving numbers. The former Alabama transfer was one of the few positive non-Sampson developments of the Vols’ 2024 offense because of how reliable he was. He didn’t drop a pass, and as we saw in that Kentucky game, he can take over in the right matchup.
I just get the feeling that Tennessee’s quarterback — whoever that becomes — will rely heavily on a safety blanket like Kitselman, especially in the red zone. Don’t be surprised if he becomes a key piece of the run game while leading the Vols in receiving touchdowns en route to an All-SEC season.
Best defensive player: Jermod McCoy, CB
It’s a bummer that McCoy tore his ACL during offseason workouts in Texas. If healthy, he’s an obvious Jim Thorpe Award candidate who could take away an entire side of the field on a weekly basis, despite what Jeremiah Smith did against him and that secondary in the Playoff game.
Sorry. That was far too negative. This is a place of positivity.
The positive with McCoy was a revelation. In 2024, the Oregon State transfer allowed a 50% completion rate and a 53.6 NFL QB rating when targeted. He also picked off 4 passes, 3 of which were inside the 5 yard-line. Was he clutch? You bet. Against Alabama, he got targeted 9 times, and he allowed 3 catches for 16 yards while picking off a pass on a goal-line fade attempt in press coverage against Ryan Williams.
Against Florida, he allowed 1 catch for 18 yards on 5 targets, and against Oklahoma, he didn’t allow a catch on 4 targets, but he picked off Jackson Arnold on a fantastic play in zone coverage.
I bring that up because the Ohio State performance might have some doubting his abilities in big-time moments, and they’ll conveniently ignore that playing man coverage on Smith is usually a lost cause. McCoy’s 2024 sample size was much more promising than what that night suggested. He has to cut down on the penalties — he had 8 last year — and show that he’s over that knee injury, but the instincts and physical abilities are as good as there is among returning corners in the sport.
Fingers crossed that a full recovery and a full season is in store in 2025. And if that’s not the case, just pretend I put Arion Carter in this spot.
Best freshman: David Sanders Jr., OT
If you sign up to be an offensive tackle at Tennessee, you know that you’re taking on a unique experience. It’s an offense that forces guys to play with such wide splits, and with the tempo that it demands, you’re not going through the motions if you’re getting on the field as a true freshman offensive lineman. Sanders, by all accounts, is built for this.
The No. 11 recruit in the entire 2025 class has a path to be a Day 1 right tackle. He’s been with the team since mid-December, so mastering the offense shouldn’t necessarily stand in his way, and neither should the lack of experienced options at that spot after Larry Johnson III hit the portal in the post-spring window. That position was a struggle for the Vols in 2024. Shoot, both tackle spots were an issue if we include decorated LSU transfer Lance Heard at left tackle. Sanders will ideally follow the LSU star that Heard was stuck behind, Will Campbell, and become a set-it-and-forget-it, 3-year starter at tackle.
Sanders could struggle at times with not having ideal tackle size yet, but even if he’s just average at that spot as a true freshman, doing that in the Tennessee offense would be among the more impressive feats from a first-year SEC player.
Best game: Week 3, Georgia vs. Tennessee
You don’t need me to tell you the history and why 8 consecutive losses to Georgia since “Dobbsnail Boot” is the “yeah, but” during Tennessee’s climb out of the decade of dysfunction. The Vols have multiple wins vs. Florida and Alabama during the 2020s, yet for whatever reason, Georgia has always been a step ahead. Hence, why the Dawgs handed the Vols their lone Neyland loss in the last 3 seasons. Will history repeat itself?
It’s worth noting that unlike those previous matchups in 8-year streak, it’ll be the first career road start for the Georgia starting quarterback, Gunner Stockton. There’s nothing that he can do to prepare for that, especially if the Vols are riding the juice of a 2-0, “win the breakup” kind of start. Perhaps of equal significance will be that an unproven UGA offensive line will also be figuring things out in its first road game of the year. Could that be exactly what a Banks-led defense needs to win some sort of 17-14 game?
If that happens, it’ll feel more like ’98 than the vast majority of the 21st century.
Best reason for improvement: Just 4 true road games … and all vs. teams the Vols beat in 2024
If you’re wondering why Tennessee’s over/under stayed at 8.5 wins after the post-spring Iamaleava transfer, well, there it is. The floor is still high for a team that didn’t exactly have an All-SEC quarterback the last 2 seasons. With its 4th starting quarterback in as many seasons, what’s to say that the bottom will fall out with a favorable schedule?
Heupel hasn’t had a losing season overall or in conference play in his 7 years as an FBS head coach. In each of those seasons, he’s had either a top-25 scoring offense or defense. The only time he failed to have a team reach the top 15 of the AP Poll was Year 1 at Tennessee, which wildly surpassed some low expectations in the post-Jeremy Pruitt era. Heupel has shown that he’s nothing like his predecessor. Perhaps like with that 2021 team, he can surpass the lowest preseason expectations he’s had since that first season.
For what it’s worth, “improvement” would be a 10-2 regular season with a respectable Round 1 Playoff showing. That’s an awfully high bar. But road games at Kentucky and Mississippi State aren’t daunting, and getting the rare late-season game at Florida could be what the doctor ordered for the Vols to get their first win in The Swamp in more than 2 decades. Tennessee could check those boxes while continuing to beat every non-Georgia team at home, but fall at Alabama and still be looking at a 10-2 regular season with another elite defense and a dominant run game.
Crazier things have happened. Perhaps a little crazy — on the positive side — awaits on Rocky Top.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
