Tennessee football released its week three depth chart Monday ahead of Saturday’s SEC opener at Florida. The Vols release a depth chart every week but there are very rarely changes made from week-to-week.
However, Tennessee’s week three depth chart included a number of mild changes from week two that it is worth noting.
The vast majority of changes were removing a handful ORs both in the starting lineup and in the two deep. Three of those changes came on the offensive side of the ball. While the Vols listed John Campbell Jr. and Gerald Mincey were as co-starters at left tackle and Jeremiah Crawford and Dayne Davis as co-starters at right tackle the first two weeks of the season, they now list Campbell and Crawford as the starters and Mincey and Davis as their backups.
Tennessee still lists Jackson Lampley, Ollie Lane and Andrej Karic as co-starters at left guard.
The Vols have frequently shuffled their offensive line through the first two weeks of the season. Mincey performed better than Crawford against Austin Peay which suggests not to read too much into the depth chart change. Asked about the offensive line rotation last Thursday, Heupel indicated the Vols would continue to play more than just their five starters.
“The guys that are going to prove that they’re going to play at a really high level that we have great trust in, those guys deserve the opportunity to play and I anticipate us at this point continuing to rotate guys,” Heupel said.
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The other OR removed from Tennessee’s offensive depth chart is at running back where Tennessee now lists Jaylen Wright as the full time starter, Jabari Small as the backup and Dylan Sampson as the third stringer.
There’s one true new starter on Tennessee’s defensive depth chart and it’s due to injury. With Keenan Pili indefinitely sidelined with an injury, Tennessee removed him from the depth chart and inserted Elijah Herring as the new starting Mike linebacker with freshman Jeremiah Telander as his backup.
James Pearce Jr. is now the lone backup LEO with Josh Josephs as the third string and Caleb Herring as the fourth string.
Tennessee still lists co-starters at defensive end (Tyler Baron and Dominic Bailey), defensive tackle (Omarr Norman-Lott and Bryson Eason) and both cornerback spots (Kamal Hadden and Warren Burrell as well as Doneiko Slaughter and Gabe Jeudy-Lally).
Josh Heupel’s third SEC team opens up SEC play Saturday night at Florida. Kickoff between the Vols and Gators is at 7 p.m. ET. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe are on the call for ESPN.
Couple ORs removed from Tennessee football’s depth chart.
Elijah Herring locked in as a starter with freshman Jeremiah Telander as his backup while Keenan Pili is sidelined.@rockytopinsider pic.twitter.com/JSLMmSYNKQ
— Ryan Schumpert (@rschump00) September 11, 2023
