Joey Halzle confident in Tennessee's selected starting five offensive linemen

Tennessee begins its 2023 season with expectations as high as they’ve been in a long, long time in Knoxville. But there’s a group that could have an outsized impact on the outcome: the starting five offensive linemen.

Gone is quarterback Hendon Hooker, who made the whole operation run a year ago. In steps Joe Milton, a seasoned veteran who will need to be protected as he adjusts to the full-time role.

“Feel really good about the five we’re going to roll out there with in a couple weeks and feel like we can put a good product on the field with them,” offensive coordinator Joey Halze said of the unit that will be protecting Milton.

The Volunteers have several good options up front for the starting five offensive linemen.

Center Cooper Mays is a shoe-in for that spot, having started 19 consecutive games up front and 23 games overall. Some of the others likely to join him are Javontez Spraggins (26 starts), Miami transfer John Campbell Jr. (16 starts), Gerald Mincey (seven starts), Jeremiah Crawford (six starts) and Ollie Lane (five starts).

There are a handful of other options, too.

Halzle expects that he can put together quite a competent starting five of offensive linemen given what he has to work with.

“Feel really good about how the offensive line’s looking,” he said. “There are guys that can rotate in, play a bunch of spots, that’s what’s really good about the guys we have. Guys can go in and out. We have guys that can play all three positions. It’s really helpful having that kind of utilization with the guys up front.”

Joe Milton should be more mobile

One thing that could really help the Tennessee starting five offensive linemen is that Milton has really prioritized his speed in the offseason. He trained to get quicker in short-area spaces.

“Last year, I was weighing like 245, 250,” Milton said. “My 10-yard splits, I wanted to be faster. I knew that if I did that I had to go back to towards my high school size and my freshman year of college size so I decided to do that.”

During his career so far, Milton has run for 362 yards and five touchdowns. He’s likely to improve on those numbers quite a bit this fall, as Hooker really thrived a year ago making off-schedule plays.

Tennessee will open its season on Sept. 2 against Virginia.