Perhaps the biggest question for Tennessee football heading into the Music City Bowl against Illinois is what the team will do at its open cornerback position. The Vols have been without Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson III for essentially the entire season, but Colton Hood is now also off to the NFL and won’t play in the game.
With the room already thin, there aren’t many options to fill in for the large number of snaps that have opened up after Hood’s departure. On Friday, Heupel was asked about what he planned to do to fill Hood’s shoes against the Illini.
“We’ve been practicing that way through December with Colton leaning towards making that decision,” Heupel said. “Excited for him and his journey and what comes next. Some of our young guys are gonna get an opportunity to go play on game day and young guys have had good preparation and expect them to go play in a really, really good way.”
Heupel saying ‘young guys’ are going to get an opportunity likely rules out two of the options for the spot. Tennessee could’ve gone to veteran William Wright, who has primarily played special teams and a bit of corner, or Jalen McMurray, who has played STAR this year, but was a cornerback a season ago.
More From RTI: Tennessee Football Practice Highlights: Vols Prepare For The Music City Bowl Against Illinois
Instead, it’s likely that it’ll be freshmen filling that position. If you look at who played cornerback behind Hood, Ty Redmond and Wright in the blowout win over New Mexico State, it was Timothy Merritt and Tre Poteat. Dylan Lewis also got run at safety.
Heupel gave his thoughts on where Poteat is at right now compared to just a couple of months ago.
“Tre’s done a phenomenal job during the course of the season of continuing to grow,” Heupel said. “Made plays on special teams, got some action on the defensive side of the ball early in the year, but his preparation here in December has been really good. Expect him to be ready to go play at a really high level.”
The decision to go with young players makes a lot of sense. While the immediate ceiling for the bowl game may not be as high, the experience could be extremely valuable going forward.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Illinois is at 5:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Dec. 30, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. ESPN is broadcasting the game.
