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

Coming in at No. 16 in the countdown is local product and redshirt senior tight end Jacob Warren.

Hindsight

Knoxville Farragut High School product Jacob Warren enters his fifth year on Rocky Top looking to whittle his role as a physical tight end down to a science.

Warren has been a constant threat in the blocking game ever since he started seeing action in 2019. His 6-foot-6, 250-pound frame has served him well on the line. Warren has also recently become a threat in the passing game under now-second-year head coach Josh Heupel.

Warren saw no action in his first season in 2018 under first-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt. In 2019, Warren saw his first minutes against BYU in a reserve role, appearing in five total games by season’s end. Warren caught just one pass for one yard in that time.

The first touchdown of Warren’s collegiate career came two years after his eight-touchdown senior season at Farragut. The Knoxville native hauled in a 33-yard scoring reception in the final game of his redshirt sophomore season against Texas A&M.

That game was also the caboose of the Pruitt era for Tennessee football. Warren, who was primarily a blocker in Pruitt’s scheme, saw most of his production during his redshirt junior season. He and Virginia Tech standout transfer quarterback Hendon Hooker developed a legitimate connection throughout the season, seeing Warren snag a career-record-shattering 18 catches for 179 yards and three touchdowns.

Warren saw action in all 13 games, sharing starts with fellow redshirt senior Princeton Fant. The tight end position was more utilized under one year season from Heupel than all three seasons under Jeremy Pruitt, and there’s no reason to assume that production will wither away.

Opportunities

The aforementioned relationship between Hooker and Warren could give the Knoxville native the nod in production in the long run. Warren, like Fant, has stumbled into a revitalized role under Josh Heupel. The second-year head coach has proved he can use his tight ends well – a reality born out of necessity.

Tennessee’s up-tempo offense doesn’t work without flexible, reliable blockers out of Warren and Fant. The former has shown more prowess in that arena.

Tight ends in Tennessee’s system are weighed well in the grand scheme of what Josh Heupel and offensive coordinator Alex Golesh are trying to do. Warren and Fant, though similar in production, are not similar in stature. They do different things well on the field. This has succeeded because the Vols are able to find that medium between having solid tight ends that do separate things and being able to use and not waste that talent that is on the field. The Vols are not wide receiver heavy, running back heavy or tight end heavy – and that suits a player with Warren’s playstyle well.

In many ways, Warren’s opportunity lies in his ability to push everything he was doing last season up a couple notches and become that dominant presence that Heupel wants him to be, whether as a passing threat or throwing a block for Jabari Small.

Hear it from…

Warren detailed his expectations for the 2022 season.

“I think that obviously, for the past however long the tight end hasn’t been a notable part of our offense,” Warren told Off The Hook Sports. “Since we’ve been here, we’ve always been role players, made plays here and there whenever our number would get called on. But now, last year we were able to go out and be a part of the first, second and third down offense, making catches on first down, making catches on third down. Make big plays to move the sticks.”

And that’s what a tight end is supposed to be. Leave the long vertical routes for guys like Hyatt and Tillman – Warren’s job for Heupel has been consistent, short gain receptions when Tennessee needs that big body to move the chains. Warren did that in 2021 against Florida, Pitt and Kentucky. He had gave the Vols a chance to do it on fourth and 23 against Ole Miss in that controversial ending.

Next season, Warren’s goal is to leave no doubt. To quell that controversy entirely and pick up that extra yard. In essence, nullifying those simple mistakes is at the root of what Tennessee football needs to improve upon as well.

And just as Vols fans expect a more polished, well-oiled machine from Tennessee and Heupel in year two, Warren expects it from the tight end room.

“I think that that, just as the same way the offense is going to get better first year to second year, just as a whole team I think that our tight end position is going to do the same thing,” Warren said. “We’re going to have a big leap from where we were last year to where we’re going to be this year just as far as production, as far as you guys seeing us with the ball in our hands or seeing us making big blocks.”