College football pundit Phil Steele has released his Preseason All-Conference and All-American teams, and several Vols made an appearance.
The most decorated Vol is defensive end/linebacker Curt Maggitt, who Steele named a Third-Team All-American and a Second-Team All-SEC player at linebacker.
No other Vols made any of the four teams worth of All-Americans, though receiver Marquez North, running back Jalen Hurd, defensive end Derek Barnett, cornerback Cam Sutton and safety LaDarrell McNeil were all named to the All-SEC Third-Team. Outside linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin was named to the All-SEC Fourth-Team.
Full All-SEC Teams
Full All-American Teams
Thoughts:
• Barnett might be the most undervalued on the list. Listed as high as a Second-Team All-American by CFBMatrix.com, he deserves better than Third-Team honors in the SEC. He played like a top-tier defensive lineman in the SEC as a true freshman and should only be better in 2015.
To put some numbers behind that, Barnett had 10 SEC sacks in 2014 compared to 3.5 conference sacks from first-teamer Myles Garrett of Texas A&M. Barnett also had more sacks than Jonathan Bullard and Jonathan Allen, the two ends selected to the second team, combined.
• Sutton is a little low in my opinion too. There are several elite defensive backs in the league, so you could probably put him on the second team without a ton of argument, but third seems a bit too low for a player who was one of the best cover corners in the league last year.
• I was surprised to see McNeil on the list. He does a lot of things well and can be a solid starter, but not sure he’s done enough to garner All-SEC honors at this point. North on the third team makes sense based on potential, but I might bump him down a bit until I see that he can stay healthy and produce on a consistent basis.
• Also surprised to see Kyle Allen and Maty Mauk get the nod in front of Joshua Dobbs. Mauk certainly has more experience, but Dobbs has a completion percentage about 10% higher and is also a bigger threat on the ground. Allen is a candidate to put up big numbers in Sumlin’s offense, but will also be competing for his job with super freshman Kyle Murray.
