Depth by Class 2024 (Fall Update)

Here’s the updated Depth by Class chart, with explanation below:

Some FAQs:

• What is this? Originally, this was a way to track where the team needed to focus recruiting efforts by seeing where future weaknesses might be. If you saw that, for example, the entire offensive line was aging out, and your coaching staff wasn’t recruiting offensive linemen **coughDerekDooleycough** then you’d know there was a problem a comin’. BTW, have you realized that Tennessee doesn’t have a single offensive lineman classed as a junior? Because I have.

• What do the stars mean? Players with a composite 4-star recruiting ranking or higher have a full star, high-3 star composite players have a half star, below that have an empty star, unranked players are NR. This is based on the idea of the blue chip ratio—no team has won a national championship in the last decade without at least half of its recruits being 4 & 5-star players. This is just a way to help visualize that, although this graph also includes walk-ons that wouldn’t count in that equation anyway.

• Doesn’t the transfer portal make this kinda useless? I wrestled with this question a little bit in deciding if this project was worth continuing at all. Obviously, holes in the depth chart can be filled with the portal now, and holes will open unexpectedly when players jump in the portal. I still feel like this is a good snapshot of the health of the current roster, and I think you can draw some conclusions about players who do enter the portal from it.

• You messed up (player name/position/rating/etc.). That’s not a question, but yeah, probably. I used the current roster on utsports.com to make this, but it’s entirely likely that I mistyped or misread something. A future improvement I’d like to make is separating DL into DT and DE—the official UT roster doesn’t make that distinction. Your suggestions for improvement in the comments below are appreciated.