Chaney: 'A Lot of Competition' in the Tight End Group

Last week, Tennessee Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt announced that despite recent back surgery, tight end Austin Pope is expected to be ready to go for Tennessee's season-opener against South Carolina.

Pruitt said, "He's been out there every day. He continues to improve, and if he continues to improve like he has the last five weeks, he should be ready to play for the opener."

With Pope, Tennessee has stability at the position, especially as a blocker, but behind him, there are plenty of uncertainties.

During today's media availability, Tennessee's offensive coordinator, Jim Chaney, gave an update on the position grouping.

It all starts with Pope, as Chaney said, "Well Austin (Pope) is that, he's a stabilizing force. He's a good kid, been around football a long time. We like what he brings to the table. He will always be that consistent kid that we like."

Last season, the reps at the position were primarily given to Pope and Dominick Wood-Anderson, but Chaney offered insight as to who is stepping up at the position.

Behind him (Pope), we have Princeton Fant, who is a young man who bounced around a lot early in his career. We feel real comfortable where we have him right now doing what he needs to be doing. Jacob Warren is doing a fine job. There is a lot of competition in the room. They all have a little different skill set it seems like, it's interesting to me. Behind him, you have Jordan Allen, and you got Sean Brown. You got some other guys that are just mixing around. There's a lot of competition there, waiting on someone to jump above the other ones and emerge as a solid football player. They're just continually learning. You're talking about guys that haven't played a lot of football for us in those five. That is a position that we are trying to force-feed real fast on development, and we are doing it, hopefully, through competition."

Tennessee is set to take the field on September 26th against South Carolina, and the Vols will have to find an answer at this position between now and then.