Vol's Roster After Spring Portal Window Thoughts

Intro welcome back to the bluechair breakdown balls fans I'm your host Bull and today's video we'll be talking about the transfer portal for our football team it is April the 30th and it came and went very quickly but what that means is the transfer portal is going to be closing tonight so players that want to enter their name into the portal have got to get it done by tonight A lot of times you know with the people inside the offices that the players have to kind of go to and say hey look we want to get into the portal they have up to 48 hours to get it done and it sounds like everything is staying put at the time that we are recording this video the Insiders do not know or have not talked about any other players that are potentially going to be leaving us from Tennessee we haven't added anyone yet but there's still a chance that we could add someone after the portal closes so we'll talk about the two players that we know for sure are leaving us what it means to this team and how I think the roster looks overall heading into summer and then heading into fall what I think that the ceiling and floor is for this team but please do us a really big favor if you like our content if you love this Chann Channel make sure to like And subscribe all right so first and Offensive Line foremost let's talk about the positions of need heading into spring and also throughout spring number one for me heading into spring was left guard I think that we definitely addressed that position of need with shamrad umarov been very impressive I would give him you know about a solid b-grade anywhere from I would say an 80 to about an 85 to an 86 saw him looking good not only with the first string okay which isn't our real first string but going up against those studs and we can kind of echo the same sentim for all of our offensive line whenever they're blocking in the orange and white game they're going up against SEC caliber players about 95% of the time ACC caliber starters I would say and I would say anywhere you know about 10 to 20% of the time if you're in that first string then you're going up against some guys that are going to be in the upper echelon of defensive line players so he held his own again with any uh group that he got to go with whether it's the first string second string all freshman and younger play players he looked really good so I think that we're fine there but behind him we've got Dane Davis who's been That Swing guy saw him start at Right Guard for us I would give him anywhere from about a C+ to maybe a B minus with what I saw okay so anywhere from about a 78 to about an 83 would be the grade that I would give him looked solid in several reps just holding his own and I also saw him kind of passing off players very well knowing who to block that's going to be the biggest thing for any player on the offensive line and him being a year senior he should know what to do but guard is not his natural position I think that tackle is he's a taller guy that doesn't Bend as well as a shamrad umod dove I think I think that they are about the same height but sham just bends a little bit better and that's why I think that he's more of a guard body we've also got Jackson Lampley who's another fifth year senior he's going to know who to pick up he's going to give us all for Tennessee I like him a lot you know I think that he could come in and spell guys or you know come in if someone God forbid goes down for any reason he can come in and give us a pretty solid repper too but I still just don't think and again we haven't really seen him go through spring because he was out for most of if not all the spring I think that you know he's not a guy that you would want playing throughout an entire game not versus the upper echelon teams in the SEC I would Offensive Guard say that probably Andre Carrick a lot of people have't talked about him saw some flashes for him you know showing some good things on film last year but he's just so inconsistent I mean he goes from having a really good rep to having an absolutely awful rep and I don't mean to talk down on him by any means I'm just keeping it real with y'all like I don't think that he's a guy that we would want out there starting but we've also got Aiden Buell who was playing R guard for us uh as kind of like second and third stram guy so far this spring um I liked what I saw from him I'm not as high on him coming into spring or you know I'm not as high as I was on him coming in Spring as I am at this point I saw some things that I understand now why they didn't try to work him more at the left guard position and it's really just all fundamental stuff he's just got to work on some technical things and if he does that then he's going to be just fine but I still think he does have the skill set to be a really good guard for us I just think that it's going to take him maybe throughout all the summer to see if he can progress into one of those bodies but I would say that Aiden Buell and Sham probably have the most upside at the left guard position again we didn't really see Aiden do it at left guard it was all at Right Guard so can he slide over there to the other side is yet to be determined now another position of need while we're talking about the offensive line that we kind of identified as we're going through spring is at the backup center position and we've got vion Lang who is a sophomore um or a red shirt freshman whatever this is second year on campus with us at first I wasn't too sold on him but throughout the spring game as you know I've kind of gone back and been watching more film I like what I've seen again whenever you think about him going up against a very good defensive front especially on the interior he held his own there was a couple coup reps that we saw uh with the members only video breakdowns or you know the film breakdowns where we see him going up against Big O and he's holding his own he might get push back some but at some point he does end up anchoring down and he does enough that Nico can still kind of operate inside of the pocket that's all that you can ask for as a backup center I think that he will end up being especially as he goes through summer and heads into fall Camp I think that he will end up being better than the backup centers that we had last year once um once Co ma goes down so hopefully Coupe is going to be able to stay healthy that's going to be really big for us obviously with you know a sendoff season for him hopefully he can get drafted but you know I just I still think that we're going to be fine but you don't want to see K May goes down he's a critical part of that offensive line outside of that though y'all once all the starters come back I think that we are very solid up there should be the best offensive line even not just with the starters but even like from a death perspective that we've seen on campus up in Knoxville I would say even before coach hypo okay it's going to be one of the better offensive lines or probably the best offensive lines that we've seen in a while I just I believe in that group from top to Running Back bottom wholeheartedly now as spring kind of went on we saw that cam Seldon goes down he was a veteran he was a bigger body running back felt like he was going to have a huge breakout year uh coming up in 2024 but now that he's down I said well we got Dylan Samson and we've got a lot of guys that haven't played a whole lot of SEC football you know some underclassman I felt like it would have been in our team's benefit to go out and try to find someone in that transfer portal that isn't necessarily going to be a starter but can rotate in and that's a veteran and that has that bigger body if this team needs it because at running back you're going to take the most hits like you're going to take the most I would say uh you know Critical Hits because it's coming at you know 7 to 10 yards or even more of a full head of steam from the defense and also from that running back so it's just some very very physical collisions at that position now we've been blessed over the past few seasons haven't seen a whole lot of injuries out of that group but I do like what we have so far I mean obviously Dylan Samson is going to be really good a few concerns with his pass protection haven't seen him play that much throughout spring to know if he's progressed in that aspect of his game but I would just have to anticipate with how mature he is and uh his understanding of football and I'm sure that the coaches have talked to him about it I know that he's gotten better at it and he still has all the summer to get better at that as well now Deshawn Bishop looks like probably running back number two at this point um he looks good I mean he was very impressive in Spring last year I think that he got hurt either in Spring it probably was in summer where he goes down he misses all of 2023 but if he didn't I think that he probably would have gotten some you know maybe not significant rest but he would have gotten into the game some more but love his entire style of play he's just in my opinion a little bit too similar uh in his style of play to a Dylan Samson I think that is good to have kind of like a one-w punch where you've got a guy that's a little bit of a different change of pace and that's what cam Seldon would have been but whenever we're talking about a guy that can be a change of pace we'll talk about Khalifa Keith first because he's going to be a red shirt freshman or maybe even a sophomore this year this is a second year up on campus with us he's a bigger body guy he's actually the biggest running back that we have on this team right now 6' one about 230 lbs my biggest concern was can he really run with that physicality because hadn't seen a whole lot of that as a true freshman and really not a ton of it in his high school film as well but we did see that in his uh spring game okay A lot of times that he was willing to lower his shoulder and just kind of get those tough yards that's what I think we brought him into to do and as long as he's willing to do that on a consistent basis yeah he can most definitely get into that three-back rotation it's important just to keep in mind guys that it's not so much about having running backs that can always hit those home runs it's just about keeping those chains moving if they can average you know I would say four to five yards a carry which last season I want to say um Jabari small was probably our uh you know lowest yards per carry guy and I think that he had about five yards per carry so if we can kind of shoot for that number our offense is going to do what it does that's the whole thing is that we're seeing lighter boxes and if these players are can just kind of take what's given there that's going to be good enough for me I don't need for them to always hit home runs that's not necessary okay it's not necessary in any of football but even more specifically with the way that our offense is set up it just is not necessary we're going to spread you out and we're going to take advantage of those numbers if it's on the inside we'll get four to five right or you know we'll get five to seven and then if it's on the outside hey we might hit you for six points here or you know we'll just take a quick first down whatever comes but that's what football is really all about it's a chess match so I feel fine with all those players and we have not talked about Payton Lewis who's coming in as a true freshman I said even coming into spring that I felt like he was a guy at about 6'1 220 in pound with real legitimate track speed that he could be a player that could work himself into that three back rotation you've got Dylan Samson you've got cam Seldon and then you've got another bigger body guy that's also fast and Payton Lewis yeah that would have been a big time problem but we haven't seen him throughout all the spring he had like a little minor surgery but he's going to be back I believe for summer camp so summer camp is going to be very important for the running back position we've got to find what our three back rotation is and really honestly speaking y'all with everything that we're talking about everything that we've seen so far it's going either going to be going off of last season and what we would expect the players to uh you know progress at uh coming into the 2024 year but you've got to keep in mind that really over the summer is when that big jump is going to come because you're getting all those reps you're practicing two three times a day all you do from about 5:00 a.m. 4 a.m. is you're going to be eating with your teammates you're going to be watching film you're going to be practicing and you're going to be eating in between all that and showering that's and then sleeping that's pretty much all you have time to do so they're going to get those reps and they're going to get a lot better so I would just say that the spring so far for us has been what the floor should be for this team again we've got to keep in mind that injuries will always play a very big factor on any team it's not just ours it's any team but I do feel like we're deep enough at the running back position as long as we don't lose Dylan Samson I think that we're deep enough that we shouldn't be too concerned Dylan Samson is the guy that we've got to protect at all cost and again cam selding you know by the time that he comes back our room should be very very deep because those younger guys have gotten all those reps and they are now veterans and they understand what to do and now we've got five legitimate running bags at that position um you know instead of just four so I think that we're going to be fine there would I like to see us still go out and maybe try to tamper with somebody in the final hour and add one more person of course I would I think that that would be ideal add that that extra body like we kind of started this segment off with yes we need to do that as far as I'm concerned but I'm going to obviously defer to the coaching staff they're with these players on a day in and day out basis they know what we have and they understand the uh you know I guess durability of all these players so we'll see how everything plays out but I don't think that there's a huge cause for concern at the running back position as much as people have kind of made it out to be some big problem I don't think that it's going to be that this year now LBs on to uh the players that actually left us okay we'll start off with Elijah hering at the linebacker position he was one of the starters for us last year we play a whole lot of nickel which means we only are going to have two linebackers starting for us most of the time I would say about 90% of the time and Elijah is a guy that does have a good upside but he just didn't show it for whatever reasons last season is it because he is physically too slow to kind of get to those plays or was it because he was doing too much processing as a newer player and also was coach BJ Maybe not getting the message into our linebacking Corp as well as he could have because we could kind of echo the same Sentiments of being a step too slow in certain situations throughout that entire room I have not seen that so far with coach in and that's kind of why I felt like this would be a good season for Elijah Herring with a new coach in coach in to maybe have a better understanding of what's going on and hey we can see what you do out there but that room is still deep from a you know Talent perspective maybe not super deep from a body's perspective and we talked about this in the video yesterday I would say that Keenan py who is 25 years old okay he's at the window of the prime of his football career he's played a whole lot of ball okay we saw what he did at BYU we saw what he did last spring for us um and really even in that first game he looked good I think he's going to be an absolute total stud at 6'3 6'4 about 250 lbs he can play inside of the Box he's sideline to sideline he can get there he can get to the outside he can get outside of the numbers if it's a wide receiver quick screen you're going to see him coming from the inside and making those plays he's going to be able to identify quickly as well which will help him be a step faster but he's also going to be very good in coverage again understanding the game understanding the sets the down and distance and this understanding football as a whole will help him understand what windows to kind of sink into based off of the coverage help to get everyone in the you know right positions I feel fine with Keenan phy as the starter again had to hope that he stays healthy and if he did stay healthy all of last season Elijah Herring would have been a guy that just rotated in but since Kenny phy did go down last year we saw some of the underclassman some of those true freshman get a big opportunity to play a lot with Arion Carter who I think will end up being the starter right next to Keenan phy at about 6'1 last year he was probably about 240 plus pounds gained a little bit too much weight too quickly a little bit of bad weight and he was a step slow again is that just because of the coaching and not being able to process things as quickly or is it really because he gained tooo much weight I think it's a good combination of both but with him now looking like he's lost some weight he looks a lot faster even though we didn't really get to see him playing P throughout all the spring I'm watching him very closely because his buzz was as high as a guy like Eric Barry coming up on campus as a true freshman last year I think that he's going to be phenomenal because he's you know I would say two to three steps faster this year but we have to see him do it in pads right so I do feel fine with that and then uh I think behind Keenan phy at the Mike position but they're really kind of both mice and a nickel uh is going to be Jeremiah Tander he looked really good last season for us played you know most of the season Once AC goes down we see jeremi tiand getting a lot more reps very impressed with him he's just a football player through and through and he's another one that looks like he's lost some weight actually I want to say nval Club Confidential with Austin Price we heard him talking about getting you know cutting a little bit of weight so that he could get a couple of steps faster that's going to be so beneficial because I cannot emphasize this enough linebackers inside of our system and pretty much every system from college to the NFL you've got to be able to play in the open field out there in space I think that Jeremiah T can do that at a very high level so that's my top three at the linebacker position but we've also got Caleb Perry who's been up on campus for a while he's an upper classman now he's about 6'4 240 pounds he moves well he's a great athlete but we didn't see that a whole lot last season again like I said to kind of start this whole thing off with all the linebackers you can say the exact same thing we were step too slow with him what I'm seeing is a little bit of a lack of willingness to get in on the physicality of the game he just can't have that at linebacker but he's looked a lot better this spring so I trust in him Edwin spilman is a guy that we know wants to get in on the physicality we heard coach in talking about that so he's going to be fine obviously just has to kind of like pick up the Playbook shouldn't be too difficult uh you know I would not imagine but there is a lot for the players to process because playing at linebacker in this scheme and the system both of the linebackers need to know what the front's doing what they're doing and then what the back end is doing so it all ties in together but I think that you know early on yes edn spilman is going to get some Reps for sure and we can trust him to pick things up he's a very intelligent player and uh I think he's going to be fine we've also got Jaylen Smith who a lot of what we talked about with some of the guys that came in with his class in 2023 he's still kind of showing some of that right he's gained a little bit too much weight he looks step slow out on the open field he's going to have to cut some weight from now to the start of the season and kind of get back to playing fast I don't think that you have to be the biggest player to play at linebacker not if you like to go out there and thump and he likes to do it play more with your speed Jaylen Smith lose a little bit of weight and be a fast player for us and you can most definitely work to that rotation now we've also got Jordan Burns who is going to be joining us on campus coming up here over the summer as a true freshman we actually said that he was you know about on the same level as a guy like Edwin spilman so we'll see how true that is once he does get on campus but I think that he could help us out as well so at the linebacker position losing a guy like Elijah Herring does it hurt you some sure it does right I mean like you want to have as much death as possible is it an absolute GameChanger does it Crush our team at the linebacker position I don't think so now on to the next player that we did lose in the portal and that is going to be Christian Conor and Christian Conor plays cornerback for us we talked about him some in the video yesterday he's a guy that's a little bit longer it sounds like he wanted some more playing time maybe the staff told him hey we've got you know three four guys ahead of you and uh you know he just said well you know I'm going to try to go somewhere else and have some better opportunity to get some real playing time I think that we're okay right there because someone that I didn't mention in yesterday's video uh is Marcus gory Jr who has looked pretty solid as a true freshman now again he is just a true freshman do you trust him that much to throw him out there well I would try to throw him out there as early as possible just to get that death ready for later on in the season we don't know if coach Martinez is going to do that he hasn't really shown that he's very willing to throw those younger players out there that often and I don't think that it's really necessary I mean you know I would you know again I would do it but I don't know if it's necessary just because at quarterback you usually only rotate I would say about four guys but we also have bu Carter okay we're going to have Caleb Beasley once he does come back as well um you know we still have Jaylen McMurray um you know we've got several players right uh you know Christian Harrison is a guy that we can throw in there a quarterback we don't know when Christian Charles is going to be back but he can also play corner I believe that's where he started off at so we've got some bodies that we can throw in there and we're probably only going to be rotating you know four to five guys and unless we have someone go down it's not going to be a big problem for us but yeah I mean I would have loved to have retained Christian Conor but we don't know if that's going to happen or not so at this point like we just kind of talked about the transer portal is going to be closing tonight is of players that can enter in but I think you know I don't know exactly what that window is to be able to go out uh and you know still Target some players and I don't know when they have to be enrolled in school I guess you would probably have until the season starts ideally you want to do it before summer starts so like before summer classes you would probably want to start that which is in June at some point so we still have plenty of time to go out and Target someone else if we need to I would still say again that maybe running back would be where you would want to do that at um and you know that would probably be it for me anyway but outside of that I feel very good with every other position on this team I think that we're deep you know I think that we're fast I think that we're physical I think we've got a great mix of some veterans and some young Talent some young hungry talent and that young hungry Talent is pushing those veterans to play even harder to stay on top of their game and uh just the culture overall has been great at the University of Tennessee and that's why we've been able to retain so many players and I still think that this roster is Championship caliber so we'll see how things kind of progress throughout summer and heading into fall camp but that's it for this video thank you'all for sticking all the way to the end please make sure to like subscribe hit that notification Bell share with your friends family and other volunteer fans leave your thoughts down in the comment section below and we'll see youall on the next one thanks peace