Vols OC Golesh Discusses Left Tackle Battle Heading Into Fall Camp

Last fall all eyes were glued on the quarterback battle that would ensue going into fall camp, but this season the Vols do not have to find their quarterback,

Last fall all eyes were glued on the quarterback battle that would ensue going into fall camp, but this season the Vols do not have to find their quarterback, instead they have to find who will protect Hendon Hooker's blindside. During Sunday's media day, offensive coordinator Alex Golesh discussed the position battle. 

"This is such a big question mark for us," Golesh said of the battle. "Who is it going to be, is there a rotation there, or what's it really going to look like? In a list of questions we have going into camp, that would be right up there. I think it'll be exciting to see."

Dayne Davis, Jeremiah Crawford and Gerald Mincey are all expected to get a fair shake at the left tackle spot as Darnell Wright is slotted into starting at right tackle. 

Moving Darnell (Wright) over to right (tackle) kind of solidifies that side of it, and you feel pretty good," Golesh added. "And then, letting Dayne (Davis), Gerald (Mincey) and JJ (Jeremiah Crawford) figure out who the second guy is and who can play over at left. We went through spring, left there feeling pretty good. I think just as important as who starts out there is who's the third and the fourth. Last year, we got to the third and fourth pretty quick. You hope you don't, but you have to have a third, a fourth and really even a fifth, and figuring out the depth there. Whoever's going to be there on the left side, hasn't played a whole lot of football. Dayne's played the most. He gives us a veteran presence and some flexibility with being able to play inside, but JJ and Mincey are going to be guys that (contribute). Obviously, Mince hasn't played any there for us, and JJ's played really limited snaps. It'll be a really good competition."

The Vols start fall camp on Monday, and they are going to hit the ground running with this position battle. 

"We're going to make it hard. We're going to go," Golesh said of this. "I think from a mental standpoint, both those guys are ready to roll. I think it'll just be a matter of who can be the most consistent. We just got done talking through as a whole offense about who can string days together, that spot especially. Who can string days together, that's who we're going to roll with. We've rotated there before. Gosh, you'd feel good leaving camp if you said we have four at tackle that we can go play with. It'll be a really interesting competition. It'll be graded daily. They'll both roll with the ones, Dayne will get some with the ones. Hopefully by that second scrimmage, by practice 12, you feel like okay, this is who it is. I would feel a lot better if we left saying we have seven or eight than saying, that's our starting left tackle."

Crawford and Davis both saw action at tackle last season, and Mincey provides plenty of upside, so this will be an interesting battle to watch.