Tennessee still has a New Year’s Day date against Iowa in the Citrus Bowl before turning the page on its 2023 season, but the 2024 Volunteers could start four fifth-year seniors and one seventh-year senior across the offensive line.
Which would qualify as significant experience.
“I think that’s huge,” Vols center Cooper Mays said Tuesday afternoon in a news conference. “I’m obviously a little bit biased, but I think there is no better place to start than the O-line. We’re kind of the foundation of any team, and having experienced guys like us leading the charge I think is a good scenario.”
The 6-foot-3, 305-pounder out of Knoxville Catholic announced late last week that he would be returning for a fifth season with the Vols, having made multiple starts in each of his first four. Right tackle Gerald Mincey has revealed that he will be back at Tennessee as a fifth-year senior, while left tackle John Campbell Jr. announced that he is returning as a seventh-year senior.
Campbell redshirted at Miami as a freshman in 2018 and received a medical redshirt with the Hurricanes in 2021 while recovering from leg surgery, so his second season at Tennessee next year will be the result of the NCAA’s extra season of eligibility that was allowed at the outbreak of the coronavirus in March 2020.