Look at Tennessee’s senior class before Senior Day vs Vanderbilt: who can’t return in 2024, who can, and who can but (probably) won’t.
With Senior Day approaching, it’s a good idea to know who can and who won’t have to make decisions in the upcoming weeks.
Senior Day was not very mysterious until four years ago, prior to the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020, since, well, you were a senior when you were a senior. However, in 2020—a year in which seasons were cut short, stadiums were empty, and procedures largely eliminated the experience of being a student-athlete—the NCAA granted all players a free year of eligibility. As a result, circumstances arose wherein players would enjoy two or even three senior seasons and, in Tennessee’s case, numerous T-final trips.
The sheer volume of players who can return next season clouds the transition from 2023 to 2024 for Heupel and his staff from a roster-management standpoint, too. The sooner the Vols can know who is returning, who is jumping to the NFL, who might hop in the transfer portal to play their final season elsewhere or who might start their post-football lives, the better so Tennessee can know what positions need reinforcement through the portal and where the scholarship numbers stand. The process will kick into full gear after Saturday, but it’s already begun in earnest.
“On the back end of the season, you want guys to make the right choice for them, their families, their future, so you have conversations with them,” Heupel said Monday. “You also try to help provide information to them and make sure that they’re putting themselves in the right position for their future on the field and off.”
He added: “At the end of the day, guys have got to be ready to make the decision — either way, right?” he said. “And if you try to rush or pressure them into that, they end up in a situation where they maybe make the wrong one. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be where your feet are, and I’m talking about for the next calendar year. So you provide information to them. Some of it takes longer as you’re trying to gather NFL information for those guys, too.”
The Vols have 31 scholarship seniors or redshirt seniors on the roster. (There are seven non-scholarship seniors as well.) Tennessee is yet to finalize the full list of who is and who isn’t going to walk on Senior Day, but it’s important to remember that for those that aren’t super seniors – there are 17 of them – that whether they go through Senior Day or not isn’t necessarily an indicator of their future plans.
Ahead of the regular-season finale, it’s a good time to look at Tennessee’s senior class in its entirety – who can’t return (the so-called super seniors using their Covid-exempt season in 2023), who has the option to return and what some of those who can return might decide about next season.