Off The Hook Sports continues its 2022 Tennessee football preseason preview on the top 25 impact players for the Vols this upcoming season.

Coming in at No. 11 is senior cornerback Warren Burrell.

Past Performance

Talk about a guy who seems to have been at Tennessee forever.

Senior outside corner Warren Burrell may not be the player on the team with the most experience, but his play for the Vols certainly speaks to his potential. Burrell has started at least four games out of each season he has played and legitimized his role as a solid player in Tennessee’s secondary.

Burrell started out in the Peach State. There, he led North Gwinnett High School to a 14-1 record as a four-star defensive back with offers from Florida and Alabama. He also garnered unanimous All-State honors before settling on Tennessee and Jeremy Pruitt in late 2018.

College was a lot of the same stuff to begin. He started his first four games before an injury sidelined him. He came back and ended his freshman campaign with 13 total tackles.

His responsibility grew his sophomore season. Burrell totaled 17 tackles and a pass break up with his best game yet as a Vol against No. 6 Florida. In that game, Burrell notched eight tackles in his second straight start of the season.

The Warren Burrell and Alontae Taylor show aired in 2021 following the departure of Bryce Thompson. It was the first season Burrell was a legitimate full-time starter, and it was a shaky performance at best – mixed in with some shining moments. He totaled a career-high 41 tackles and seven pass breakups across the season with extended responsibilities.

Opportunities

Tennessee football needs a big year out of Warren Burrell – at the very least, as a leader who can lead the secondary when necessary and hold his own against potential NFL talent.

He was asked to be the No. 2 corner after Thompson left in 2020. Now, he’s going to be asked to be the premier cornerback on a secondary that was torched at times last season following the departure of Taylor. Unproven members of the secondary can’t be expected to lock down top SEC receivers in their first starting roles.

Perhaps this adds credence to Trevon Flowers’ recent move to STAR in spring training. Flowers is good tackling in space and can be trusted to make plays on the ball to up the dreary turnover numbers from last season. Burrell has to do his part as well.

Tennessee only has one example of Burrell as corner No. 1 to work off of. Taylor sat out last season’s bowl game against Purdue to tend an injury. Brandon Turnage was also out with an  injury.

And Burrell struggled against the Boilermakers. He was called for multiple penalties and gave up 200 yards receiving and a pair of touchdowns with future NFL prospect David Bell preparing for the draft and not in uniform.

Simply put, that can’t happen all season – and it likely won’t. With time comes preparation, and Burrell didn’t have much of either.

The excuses will run dry soon, though. Burrell will be given the opportunity to be great for Tennessee football in 2022. He’s shown he has the talent to make the leap, and he’s really the best Tennessee has at the position from a production standpoint. An off year could put even more pressure on Tennessee’s offense to keep up.

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Alleviating the bad juju from that Purdue game won’t be an easy ask for Burrell.

Secondary coach Willie Martinez noted his hard work in the offseason to take another step, including his work off the field. He talked about how Brian Randolph, a former Tennessee safety, approached improving himself and challenged not just Burrell, but the entire secondary to follow in his footsteps.

“So, if you’re smart. If you’re passionate about all the small details each and every day; you can be prepared,” Martinez said. “Especially the guys who have the starts that they have, some of those older guys.”

Let’s see if he can do it.