A big potential issue.
There’s a lot to like about this Tennessee football team heading into the fall. From a stout defensive front, to an emerging Nico Iamaleava, to a veteran offensive line — the arrow is pointed in the right direction in Knoxville.
However, on the offensive line specifically, what happens if the Volunteers take a couple of injuries? It’s pretty much inevitable that the injury bug is going to hit at some point. While the veteran group of Cooper Mays, Javontez Spraggins, John Campbell, Lance Heard, Andrej Karic and Jackson Lampley sound good on paper, what’s left behind them?
Frankly, there’s not a lot of proven depth there. Even looking ahead to 2025, Tennessee is set to have a lot of turnover with Mays, Spraggins, Campbell and Lampley seeing their eligibility expire after this season. So this spring, summer and fall periods have been big for Glen Elarbee to continue to develop for the future.
In the more immediate situation, a handful of of these guys have to be ready to go this year. A veteran like Dayne Davis will have a big depth role, but then you’re talking about players that we haven’t seen much of just yet. Guys like Vysen Lang, Ayden Bussell, Larry Johnson, Masai Reddick — even down to the true freshman who are just entering the program.
“That’s the silver lining — we’re building the depth,” Tennessee offensive line coach Glen Elarbee said back in the spring. “The young guys are getting tons and tons of reps, tons of looks. I told them all the day before the day in pads, I was like, ‘Man, there’s probably going to be some dark moments here for the next three weeks. There’s going to be a light at the end of the tunnel. You will be better for it. We will be better as a team for it, and man, when we get to fall camp, our depth will be right where you want it.”
It does seem like Dayne Davis will have a large role this fall, which makes plenty of sense. He’s a guy that’s been the program for a while and can play a number of different positions up front for Elarbee.
“Ollie last year, man, was like a bouncing rubber ball,” Elarbee said during the spring. “That poor guy had to move and got banged up and fought through everything. Dayne’s kind of picked up where he left off. One, leadership-wise, like he’s helping command some of that room. He’s gotten, ‘I need you at left guard. Man, actually I need you at right guard. Oh crap, I need you to jump in there at center. You know what, hey, I know you already played all three, but can you go back out to right tackle?’”
Center is a point of emphasis for Tennessee this offseason following the departure of Addison Nichols, who seemed to be being groomed to take over for Mays down the road. With Nichols gone, Vysen Lang stepped up to the plate to fill that role. Center is always a tough spot in college, simply because it seems like you’re always shifting a guard or tackle over to learn a new spot.
Lang got that treatment during the spring.
“Vysen’s got to take steps (with) physicality and movement and all those things,” Elarbee said. “I think he’s made a big effort. He knows, man, the spotlight’s on him. The guys in the room are on him, and he’s got broad shoulders and he’s fighting and straining and competing every day, doing a great job.”
Outside of Karic/Lampley, who will battle it out in camp for the final starting job, and Davis and Lang who seem to make up the rest of the top eight, it will be interesting to see if we get a pecking order for the rest of the bunch once fall camp opens in a handful of days.