4. OT Dontavius Blair 
Why: Brought in as a junior college transfer to be the answer at left tackle this season, Blair struggled in practice and was beat out by former walk-on Jacob Gilliam in the preseason. Even after Gilliam’s injury, the Vols never turned to Blair. And as inconsistency and other injuries piled up, the Vols never even seemed to consider Blair as an option this season, clearly indicating that he needed the full year to develop. He’s not even on UT’s travel roster at this point.
Future outlook: Hard to say. He certainly looks the part at 6-foot-8, 300 pounds. We’ve seen some good things in practice from him, but the coaches seemed to have no faith in putting him on the field this year. Sometimes a redshirt can be somewhat of a compliment. It means the coaches want the player on campus for an extra year, so it’s difficult to say if that’s the case with Blair or if it’s just a matter of him being nowhere near SEC caliber. Gilliam will be gone after 2014, so the Vols certainly don’t have their offensive tackle jobs nailed down going forward. Don’t write Blair off yet. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s back in the mix next season.
