One of the few things that we can answer about the 2017 Tennessee football season is who the No. 1 Wide Receiver is. That would be Jauan Jennings. The 6-3 junior is set to be featured in Larry Scott’s offense this fall.
But where does he rank in the SEC? According to SEC Country, 7th. Here’s what the SEC media outlet had to say.
Word out of Knoxville is that nobody on the Vols defense could cover him this spring. The junior’s misdemeanor marijuana citation earlier this year was a disappointing way for him to begin the offseason. But the charges were dropped and if Jennings can put it all together … well, everyone saw what he did against the Gators, who boasted two of the top cornerbacks in the country.
Christian Kirk, Calvin Ridley, Antonio Callaway, Deebo Samuel, J’Mon Moore and Donald Gray were all slotted ahead of Jennings.
Jennings didn’t have the best statistical output last season, playing second fiddle to Josh Malone. The offense was largely based around the rushing attack, however. I would expect Jennings to put up a big season, especially with the added targets.
The quarterback is the other part of the equation here, but Quinten Dormady and Jennings seemed to jive well together in the Orange and White game. I’ve talked a little bit about this before, but the passing game could take a step forward from last season — at least from an efficiency standpoint. Josh Dobbs was productive, yet erratic. Maybe I’m putting too much stock into a spring game, but Dormady looked might comfortable running the offense. That’s only going to (hopefully) help Jennings in 2017.
Is this ranking fair for Jennings? You could probably argue up to No. 5 for him, but the stats are holding him back, likely. It’ll be fun to revisit this in December.