Instant Reaction: Week 1 Vols Depth Chart

By Tucker Harlin

Tennessee released its depth chart for the opener against Chattanooga Monday, and from what I can tell it’s going to be a big experiment

Or is it?

That little conjunction “or” appears around 35 times in the Vols’ depth chart.

The only positions that don’t have “or” next to them are quarterback, center, right guard, and punter.

Running back, tight end, left guard, both tackles, and the entire defensive line have every player on the depth chart listed with an “or” as a possibility that they could start.

There are a handful of positions on the 2024 squad that I can understand Tennessee using the word “or” for at the beginning of the season.

For example, left guard, tight end, defensive end, safety, and kicker were battles that were ongoing in the preseason.

We know Josh Heupel likes to run a tight ship and only wants to tell us what he wants us to know, so the uses of “or” at those spots are very unsurprising.

I don’t actually think the receivers, running backs, and offensive and defensive lines are engaged in too many real position battles.

The depth is strong at those positions, but the starters are still far ahead of the backups in terms of their abilities.

So, if you’re going to play around with different ideas in a game at any point in the regular season, an opener against an FCS opponent isn’t a bad place to do it.