As great as the 2022 season was for Tennessee, it is time to turn the page and look forward to the 2023 schedule.

And while the Volunteers are hoping for an upward move in all aspects of the game, that’s a truly impossible ask.

Let’s try to figure out 5 areas in which Tennessee will be better this upcoming season and 5 more where the Vols will be worse.

5 areas the Vols will be better

1. Offensive line

This is going to be a tough ask because Tennessee’s offensive line played very well in 2022, then Darnell Wright got picked in the 1st round of the NFL Draft.

But looking at what is coming back, this could be a special year for the guys up front. There is experience across the board. Ollie Lane, Cooper Mays, Javontez Spraggins, Jeremiah Crawford and Gerald Mincey … these are all players who have gotten a lot of important snaps.

The Vols will also have Jackson Lampley, Dane Davis, Miami transfer John Campbell and Texas transfer Andrej Karic. There are a lot of options there.

This group should be a bit better than the 2022 version.

2. The South Carolina game result

Looking back, the South Carolina contest in 2022 was a trap game for the Vols. They lost a bit of their swagger after the Georgia loss 2 weeks earlier, the Gamecocks hadn’t struck fear yet into any opponent in 2022, and frankly weird things often happen when the matchup is staged in Columbia.

But this season the game will be played in late September at Neyland, not in mid-November at Williams Brice. Tennessee will be favored to enter this game at 4-0 and would like nothing more than to get payback.

Neyland Stadium should be rocking. If it ends up being a night game, hide your condiment bottles.

3. Scoring defense

It was surprising to see that Tennessee was ranked 36th in the country in points allowed in 2022. The Vols only gave up a little under 23 points per game. It felt like a lot more than that, maybe because we saw a lot of “bend, don’t break” from the defense. Tennessee was 91st in yards allowed.

The Vols’ defense is developing depth, and that should help it improve a bit across the board.

4. Turnovers forced

Along those same lines, 1 of the ways that Tennessee made up for giving up yards was stealing possessions. In 2022, the Vols collected 11 interceptions and recovered 11 opponent fumbles. Recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff of the LSU game was 1 of the key moments not only of that game but of the entire season.

The Volunteers will best those 22 turnovers this season.

5. Rushing yards

In 2022, the Vols rushed for 2,593 yards. And they are going to eclipse that number this fall.

Jabari Small, Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson are back, and speedy Cameron Seldon has shown signs of being an impact freshman.

Joe Milton probably won’t run as much as Hendon Hooker did, but he won’t have to for the Vols to top last season’s yardage total on the ground.

5 areas the Vols will be worse

1. Quarterback play

Look, Joe Milton is going to have a huge year. He’s got a lot of talented running backs and wide receivers to help make that happen, too.

But Hendon Hooker put together 1 of the all-time greatest seasons in Tennessee football history. He was the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, leading the nation’s top-ranked offense while racking up 3,565 total yards of offense. Hooker completed nearly 70% of his passes and threw for 3,135 yards with a 27 to 2 TD-to-interception ratio. He also rushed for 430 yards and 5 touchdowns.

Hooker racked up those numbers despite missing the final 2 games thanks to the knee injury he suffered in the South Carolina game.

If I’m wrong, Milton will be a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate, just like Hooker was for most of the 2022 season.

2. Big-play receiver

This is like the QB comparison. Tennessee has 1 of the best wide receiver rooms in the SEC with Bru McCoy, Ramel Keyton, Squirrel White and Oregon transfer Dont’e Thornton Jr. ready to make some noise. Any or each of those guys could put up big numbers.

But Jalin Hyatt was a force in 2022. He had 67 catches for 1,267 yards and 15 receiving TDs, tops in the SEC in each category. He also became the 1st Tennessee player to win the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver.

The Vols won’t have 1 pass catcher match that output.

3. Fewer NFL Draft picks

Back in April, we heard a whole bunch of Vols selected in the NFL Draft. In fact, 5 Tennessee players were picked in the 1st 3 rounds. This was yet another sign that the Vols program was back.

This season will be a showcase for guys like Joe Milton and defensive end Tyler Baron. But the Vols won’t have more than 5 guys going in the opening 2 days of the draft.

4. Field goal kicking

Chase McGrath’s 40-yard field goal to beat Alabama will be tough for any future Vols kicker to top. But McGrath was more than that 1 moment in time. He converted on 80% of his field goal attempts last season, with a long of 51 yards.

Indiana transfer Charles Campbell takes over placekicking duties. His career numbers aren’t too far away from McGrath’s, but it’ll take a lot for Campbell to match McGrath at Tennessee.

5. Scoring offense

Last season, Tennessee scored 599 points, an average of 46 points per game. The Vols had the best offense in all of college football.

That was a historic group.

And Tennessee will be good once again this season on offense. But without Hooker and Hyatt, the Vols won’t put up that many points again.