Look: Tennessee Releases Depth Chart for Music City Bowl

Tennessee (7-5) will take on Purdue (8-4) on Thursday at 3:00 pm ET on the ESPN family of networks. The Volunteers and Boiler Makers have both arrived in Nashville. Tennessee released its depth chart on Monday to the media, and we take a look at it, as well as share our notes and key takeaways here. 

Notes/Key Takeaways

Right Tackle

Cade Mays is slotted as the starter and we saw him working out on the side yesterday. After practice, Mays worked with Darnell Wright on some pass protection steps, but his status still remains in doubt ahead of Thursday's game. Should Mays be able to go, he will be the starter, but if not, we expect Dayne Davis and Jeremiah Crawford to share time here. Crawford has continued to surge late in the season and is pushing to play. 

"Man, he's a guy that coming out of junior college got here middle part of the summer and continued to grow strength and conditioning wise just with his frame and strength as we've gone through the early part of the season," Heupel said on Sunday afternoon about Crawford. "Schematically, just understanding and growing into the position, has grown a ton throughout the course of it and (we) expect him to only continue to get better here inside of our program."

Cornerback

The Vols are thin here.Kenneth George was in street clothes on Sunday, and he will likely not be available for Thursday's game, leaving Warren Burrell, Kamal Hadden and Brandon Turnage. Burrell will start at one corner and Hadden and Turnage are both pushing for the other spot. Hadden had a strong fall camp but was setback by injury, and Turnage was lights out in his lone start of the season. We will see who earns the start, but there is a good chance they both see extensive work this week against Purdue, who will be without their top two receivers. 

STAR

As we noted yesterday, Theo Jackson was out of the partial contact jersey, and he looks healthy. He is slated to get the start at the star position in his hometown. 

Safety

Another note from yesterday was that Christian Charles was once again healthy. He is back in the two-deep rotation at safety, and he will likely slate right back in to his role on special teams. He blocked a punt this season before his injury setback.