Resurrecting Tennessee’s 2019 football season from a historically bad season opening loss may depend largely on team leadership. The question is where does that leadership come from if there’s actually any at all.

Let’s look back over some of the recent developments since the Vols lost to Georgia State.

First, Tennessee wide receiver Jordan Murphy pointed out how funny it was that the Vols actually paid the Panthers $950,000 to play Saturday’s game. Murphy found it quite entertaining that UT actually paid for such an embarrassing loss via a social media post. UT fans didn’t get much of a chuckle out of that. Nor should they. Murphy embarrassed himself as much as the program.

Then, UT defensive back Terrell Bailey decided he should enter the transfer portal. That’s clearly not a good sign. It indicates that he doesn’t believe in the direction that the Vols are heading. Bailey was the 3rd Vol to enter the transfer portal in the past month. Tennessee announced Wednesday that Bailey and WR Jordan Murphy have left. Transferring is certainly more common than ever, but this recent rash of defections has one wondering if players sense that the Vols are on a sinking ship led by coach Jeremy Pruitt.

Pruitt’s postgame press conference was more and more befuddling the more one watches it. Pruitt took blame for UT’s shortcomings against Georgia State, as he should. However, he certainly didn’t seem incensed by it. He actually seemed quite calm. At least his predecessors, former UT coaches Derek Dooley and Butch Jones, showed passion after their dissapointing losses. Pruitt just seemed like he had wrapped up another day at the office.

There’s no question in my mind that Pruitt knows football on a schematic level better than Dooley and Jones, but does he know how to lead? At least Dooley and Jones had been head coaches, had faced adversity and had led some fire-and-brimstone speeches. Pruitt felt as if he was playing the violin on The Titanic. Again, where is the leadership?

Perhaps it can come from the players, who led a players-only meeting. For the record, those rarely work. It usually results in more finger pointing and more division, but at least the Vols are trying. One wonders if UT’s freshmen can be leaders during such a pivotal time. Probably not. The Vols have some talented young players, but it’s nearly impossible to be a strong voice in the locker room when you just recently arrived on campus.

Quarterbacks are always looked upon to be leaders, but that doesn’t seem to be Jarrett Guarantano’s style. Let’s remember his freshman year when he was seen pouting on the sideline because he wasn’t playing. He seems like a better teammate now, but a leader? I doubt it.

UT’s most likely leader might be receiver Jauan Jennings. That should tell you just how lacking this team is in leadership. Jennings was the player who was best known for cursing out his coaches on social media following the 2017 season. Now, he’s at least saying all the right things.

“I didn’t sign up for a 1-game fight,” the senior said Tuesday. “This is a 12-game fight. That’s what we’re going to do each and every week from here on out. That’s all we’ve got to do, prepare and focus on one game at a time.”

That’s the right approach. Then, Jennings was a bit more revealing, which was rather scary.

“I feel like this team wasn’t juiced up on the sideline and, as a leader, I take full responsibility for that,” Jennings said. “I’ve got to be out there, and I’ve got to be in their heads, in their ears 24-7. As a leader, I admit that I did not do that. This week and here on out, that’s what I’m going to focus on doing – making sure that this team knows that we’ve got a lot of fight left in us and we’re not going to give up.

“As a leader, I’ve just come out each and every day fired up. I want to let these guys know that what happened last weekend is unacceptable, and it won’t happen again. We continue to prepare for this weekend and, as a leader, I just made sure I keep their heads up.”

The question is how can a team with so much to prove and so much heartache behind it not have been emotional in the season opener. And as for Jennings being a more vocal leader, that’s about as volatile as a roman candle. It might work. It might explode in UT’s face.

This much is clear: UT’s biggest problems Saturday were on defense. The Vols couldn’t get aligned correctly and even had at least one occasion in which they only had 1 defensive player on the line of scrimmage. You don’t need to be Vince Lombardi to know that’s not fundamentally sound. However, the defensive shortcomings have been well chronicled. There’s not much Jennings can do to help that.

However, his vocal leadership can come into play on offense. The Vols have to attack downfield more often. When it comes to SEC play, they won’t have many clear mismatches against their opponents. However, Jennings and his fellow receivers Marquez Callaway and Josh Palmer can be a more than formidable group for most any defense they’ll face. They need to be the centerpiece of UT’s offense.

Offensive coordinator Jim Chaney would prefer to be more ground-based on offense and I’m sure Pruitt would prefer that as well. However, this is the time for the Vols to be more creative and there is one unlikely leader that can be at the center of that.