Tennessee football: 5 players who will make or break the Vols’ 2023 season

Well folks … we have almost made it.

The long offseason is nearly complete. It’s game week, with the Tennessee Volunteers getting set to face Virginia in Nashville on Saturday, kickoff at 11 a.m. CT. Volcano temps are possible, so make sure you hydrate.

There is a lot of hype around this UT squad. Certainly, the expectations are higher than has been seen on Rocky Top in several years. Can it match, or even exceed, last year’s 11-2 success?

Let’s look at 5 players who will make or break Tennessee’s 2023 season.

1. Joe Milton III

What a long, strange trip it has been for Tennessee’s starting QB. Milton spent 3 seasons at Michigan, starting 5 games for the Wolverines. He transferred to Tennessee, starting 2 games in 2021 before giving way to injury and the emergence of Hendon Hooker.

Instead of transferring, he was the consummate teammate for nearly 2 seasons while wowing crowds with his howitzer arm strength in a mostly mopup role. And after Hooker went down with an ACL tear near the end of last season, Milton led the Vols to a win over Clemson in the Orange Bowl. In that game, Milton threw for 251 yards and 3 TDs, taking home the game’s MVP award for his trouble.

And now, in his 6th and final season in college football, the Vols are truly Milton’s team. For as much as 5-star QB Nico Iamaleava has impressed during fall camp, if he’s playing significant minutes during key points of an important game this season, something has gone wrong.

Milton proved in that Orange Bowl win that he can lead the Vols on a big stage. Can he do that on a weekly basis?

2. Dont’e Thornton Jr.

Tennessee’s wide receiving corps should be one of the best in the Southeastern Conference. Bru McCoy, Ramel Keyton and Squirrel White combined for 113 catches, 1,710 yards and 11 scores in 2022, and each of those guys returns this season.

But should the Vols get a major jolt from transfer Thornton, this offense could break even more records this fall.

Thornton played in 25 games for Oregon, catching 26 passes for 541 yards and 3 scores. He can line up outside or in the slot, giving Milton yet another option in this Josh Heupel offense.

He’s also ridiculously fast. A few weeks ago, Thornton told reporters that he clocked in at 24.3 mph in a play for the Ducks last season.

3. Keenan Pili

The transfer portal was unkind to the Vols in the early days of the Heupel era, but the additions of Thornton and linebacker Pili from BYU are changing that reality.

Pili redshirted at BYU in 2016, spent 2 years on a mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Orlando, then returned to Provo to spend 4 more years with the Cougars. He made 190 tackles in 36 career games, and he is taking full advantage of the COVID year exemption with his transfer to UT.

Kids, stay in school.

With Jeremy Banks (and his 219 career tackles) departing, the Vols need Pili to fit in right away in that linebacker group. He should be in the starting lineup against Virginia.

4. Omari Thomas

Defense gets overlooked at times at Tennessee, and the tackles aren’t exactly playing a glamour position.

But the Vols need senior Omari Thomas to take another step this season. Thomas started every game for the Vols in 2022, collecting 26 tackles and 2 sacks.

Listed at 6-4 and 320 pounds, Thomas takes up a lot of space in the middle. While Tennessee is improving its depth across the board, the Memphis product will get as much playing time as he can handle this year.

5. Charles Campbell

The placekicker is someone that people notice when things go swimmingly and notice when something goes horribly wrong.

Last season, Chase McGrath made one of the biggest kicks in the history of Tennessee football. His 40 yarder at the buzzer gave Tennessee a 52-49 win over Alabama, snapping a 15-year losing streak to the hated Crimson Tide. The football might have looked like a wounded pigeon and traveled only 40 1/2 yards, but for Vols fans, it was a beautiful sight.

This season, Campbell, an Indiana grad transfer, is McGrath’s replacement. Campbell’s numbers are solid. He has made 39 of 51 career field-goal attempts and has never missed an extra point in 77 tries.

There very well may come a time this season when Campbell is called on for a big kick. Tennessee will need him to be as clutch as McGrath was against Alabama.

(Yes, I know he missed an extra point in that game. He made up for that error in a huge way.)

Mark Nagi

Mark Nagi has covered Tennessee athletics for over 20 years. He is the author of “Decade of Dysfunction,” an in-depth look at all that led to the crazy coaching search of 2017 at Tennessee. The book is available on Amazon.