This guy has some HUGE shoes to fill for the Tennessee Volunteers

AtoZ Sports

Lucas Panzica discusses which position the Tennessee Volunteers will miss the most heading into the 2025 season!

Transcript

00:00We are almost exactly one month away from the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay,

00:05and there are some former Tennessee Vols that will expect to hear their name called,

00:09and they're going to be very tough for Josh Heupel to replace.

00:12I think there is one that stands above the rest in how much Tennessee will miss him,

00:16and it may not be one of the first to get his name picked off the pile on draft night.

00:24Hey, Lucas Panzeca here from 104.5 The Zone and A to Z Sports. So Tennessee's got a couple of

00:29high-level prospects in this upcoming draft. First of all, the name that we all expect to

00:34hear first wearing Tennessee orange will be edge rusher James Pierce Jr. Thought of as a

00:40bonafide first-round pick leading into the 2024 season, we've seen James Pierce Jr.'s draft stock

00:46fall just a little bit. Abdul Carter has surged past him as that number one edge rusher, and now

00:52James Pierce is looked at as kind of that fringe first rounder. Maybe he falls to day two in the

00:58second round, but however it shakes out, I strongly believe James Pierce Jr. will be that

01:02first name called from Tennessee in the upcoming NFL draft. And then, of course, you have Dylan

01:08Sampson, who just broke a single-season program record in multiple rushing categories. Expect his

01:14name to be called in the upcoming draft. Guys like Omar Norman-Lott, Dante Thornton that have

01:19at different points flashed throughout the course of the pre-draft process, whether it's the senior

01:24ball the combine or pro day. But the guy that I think is going to be toughest to replace for

01:29Tennessee is none of those guys. I think it's Cooper Mays at the very top of that list. The

01:35longtime Tennessee center. Think about this. Josh Heupel and Cooper Mays was healthy, did not start

01:41a single other center at that spot. Of course, at the start of the 2023 season, Mays was injured in

01:47the first few weeks and Tennessee had to find solutions, but he has been a stalwart for that

01:52offensive line in the entirety of the Josh Heupel era. When you look at his career at Tennessee,

01:58recruited by Jeremy Pruitt, retained, of course, by Josh Heupel, local guy, Knox Catholic High

02:03School, legacy player with his father and brother, Cade, both playing for the university. 45 starts

02:10in Cooper Mays' long career as Tennessee center and a Remington Award finalist for the best center

02:16in the country in 2024. You talk about what this offense needs from the center position,

02:22A, from a leadership standpoint, B, just from an athletic standpoint and getting guys lined up with

02:27that tempo offense. Cooper Mays was a huge part of Tennessee's offensive success under Josh Heupel.

02:34So how will Tennessee replace the longtime center? There are a few names to look at here,

02:40but one that stands out in particular, in fact, one that Tennessee quarterback Nico Iemoliava

02:45shouted out in meeting with the media after a spring practice, and that is William Satterwhite,

02:50who enters his second year with the program. Former four-star prospect, but seems like William

02:55Satterwhite is going to be the incumbent starter, at least the early favorite, to replace Cooper

03:01Mays. Now that's a big deal on multiple levels. First of all, as I said, the importance of that

03:06position within the offense, one that Cooper Mays filled very, very well. Second of all, Tennessee

03:13has yet to find success in the Josh Heupel era with an offensive lineman that was recruited to

03:19Tennessee by Josh Heupel and his coaching staff. And you go back and you think of all of the

03:24biggest names that have started and played well on the offensive line under Josh Heupel, they were

03:29either acquired via the transfer portal or brought in by the previous coaching staff. You think to

03:34darn ill right, a top 10 pick, somebody like Cooper Mays, Javante Spragans, Lance Hurd, all either

03:41transfers or players that were already in-house when Josh Heupel got here in 2021. So it would

03:46be a huge development for Heupel and his staff finally to have not one, but multiple offensive

03:52linemen starting for this team in 2025 that were recruited by this coaching staff. Obviously the

03:58other name that comes to mind is David Sanders Jr., the five-star tackle that is expected to

04:03be a day one starter. Now, whether that's that left or right tackle remains to be seen. Point is

04:08there are a lot of moving parts on this offensive line. Cooper Mays has been a constant with this

04:14team and with this tempo that the offense runs for the last four plus years. So if it is indeed

04:20William Satterwhite stepping in as Tennessee's starting center in 2025, he has got some massive

04:26shoes to fill as Cooper Mays. Hopefully here's his name called at the 2025 NFL draft.

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