Ever since Butch Jones began rebuilding the Tennessee Volunteers in 2013, he’s talked about how young the Vols have been. The 2013 squad had plenty of upperclassmen, but a number of those older players just weren’t SEC quality players. So the Vols had to rely on younger players in key positions. And the 2014 and 2015 teams had youth at every position.
But according to the the numbers, Jones’ 2016 team will be his most experienced team he’s had while at Tennessee.
In order to determine how experienced each of Butch Jones’ four Tennessee teams have been, I placed a value on each year a player had been with the program. Fifth-year seniors got a value of “5” while a true freshman got a “1.” Seniors and redshirt juniors got a “4,” juniors and redshirt sophomores got a “3,” and sophomores and redshirt freshmen got a “2.” For each team, I counted how many of each year there were and calculated the total value of each team. Then I divided that value by the total number of players on the team to determine the average value of each player on the roster.
The results aren’t all that surprising if you’ve been following Tennessee football much since Butch Jones took over in 2013.
This Vols team will be Butch Jones’ most experienced football team when it comes to average experience per player. With a score of 2.75, this year’s team edges out Jones’ first team in 2013 that had an average score of 2.71 per player. So the youth excuse is no longer an option for the 2016 Vols.
Oh, and remember when Butch Jones told Vol fans and media alike that the 2014 Vols were the youngest team in the nation? Well, he might have been right. They were at least the youngest team of Jones’ tenure at Tennessee.
The 2014 Vols had the lowest score of any of Jones’ four Tennessee teams, averaging a value of 2.47 per player. That team had only seven redshirt seniors and the smallest class of sophomores and redshsirt freshman of Jones’ four teams. The 2014 team had the largest number of freshman since Jones took over, bringing in 38 fresh faces to the roster.
Even the 2015 team was younger than you’d expect, averaging just a 2.5 value among all players on the roster. Last year’s team had 13 redshirt seniors and only four regular seniors. But an incoming class of 36 freshmen along with 26 redshirt freshman and sophomores provided depth.
Fast-forward to 2016, and those two huge freshman classes are a big reason this year’s Vols are far more experienced.
The 2016 roster isn’t completed just yet, as a few walk-ons will still be added in the fall. But as of now, 113 players are listed on Tennessee’s roster. Of those 113, approximately 66 will be juniors, redshirt sophomores, sophomores, and redshirt freshmen (including newcomer Jonathan Kongbo and the other junior college transfers). That’s by far the largest group of players with 1-2 years of experience Jones has ever had at Tennessee.
In 2015, the Vols had just 46 such players. The 2014 squad had even fewer with 44, and the 2013 team had 59. Although these players aren’t the most experienced players on the roster, it shows that Jones and his staff aren’t relying heavily on freshmen for depth like they had been in previous seasons.
The 2016 Vols will have by far the smallest number of true freshmen on the roster since Butch Jones took over in 2013. Right now, only 16 freshmen are listed on the roster. A few more walk-ons will boost that number, but it still won’t touch the second-lowest of 29 in 2013.
Not only will the 2016 Vols be the most experienced group of players Butch Jones has had, but they also have experience where it matters most.
Starting quarterback Josh Dobbs is a senior. Jalen Hurd is a junior, and fellow running back Alvin Kamara will be in his second year with the Vols. Cam Sutton will be a senior and the leader of the defensive backfield, Jalen Reeves-Maybin will bet the senior leader of the linebacking corps, and Derek Barnett is the most talented junior on the defensive line and possibly on the entire team.
And for the first time since 2013, Butch Jones won’t have to rely on a true freshman to start or play significant snaps along the offensive line barring some sort of injury to a current starter.
Youth and inexperience has been the excuse for the Vols since Butch Jones and his staff began rebuilding when they arrived three years ago. But that’s no longer the case in 2016.
