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