Tennessee football’s 2025 regular season came to a disappointing finish last weekend when Vanderbilt routed the Vols at Neyland Stadium. Josh Heupel’s fifth Tennessee team finished the regular season 8-4 (4-4 SEC) and without a win over a team that qualified for a bowl game.
The poor end to the season leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouth as the Vols enter the first stage of the offseason. But here’s three reasons to be optimistic about Tennessee’s 2026 football season.
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Tennessee Has A Stout Group Of Returning Skill Position Players
The important caveat to begin all of this is that player retention is no certainty. Any player could end up entering the transfer portal for greener pastures and dollars elsewhere.
But entering the offseason, Tennessee has a very talented group of returning players. DeSean Bishop will be back a season after finishing fifth in the SEC in rushing. Both Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews finished in the top 10 in the conference in receiving this season and likely will be, at the very least, two of the five most productive returning receivers in the SEC.
Then there’s tight end Ethan Davis who finally started reaching his potential late in his junior season. Davis had big performances against Kentucky, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt to end the season.
Tennessee very well could have the SEC’s best group of returning skill players for the 2026 season.
The Vols Could Return Entire Offensive Line
There’s more good news on the offensive side of the ball. Tennessee could return the entirety of its starting offensive line next season. None of the Vols’ five starters from this past season were seniors though left tackle Lance Heard is a junior and could potentially declare for the draft or seek a bigger pay day in the portal.
But either way, Tennessee should return the bulk of its snaps along the offensive front. Even if Heard leaves, Tennessee could move Jesse Perry to tackle and plug Sham Umarov into the interior— something they did early last season when David Sanders was injured.
Tennessee’s offensive line was mostly good in 2025 but struggled down the stretch of the season. It’s a good returning group that could be great if players improve over the offseason. Combine the returning offensive linemen with the returning skill guys and Tennessee should be an attractive destination for portal quarterbacks.
Young Defensive Players Flashed Late In Season
Tennessee’s defense struggled for much of the 2025 season and the Vols lose a good bit of their production. But a number of young players flashed late in the season with an offseason jump could be true difference makers next season.
Start at linebacker where sophomore Edwin Spillman was not a starter but was perhaps Tennessee’s best backer. Then there’s true freshman Jadon Perlotte who played more-and-more as the season progressed and performed pretty well. Both give reason to believe that Tennessee should be better at linebacker next season.
Freshman corner Ty Redmond was thrown in the fire early after Rickey Gibson suffered an injury in the Syracuse game. Redmond struggled early in the year but got better-and-better as the season progressed and played his best football in November.
The same can be said about sophomore safety Edrees Farooq who improved over the course of the season. Tennessee still badly needs to address its shortcomings at safety but there’s reasons to want Farooq back and part of the rotation next season.
