Tennessee's OL Won't Prevent the Vols from Contending in the SEC East

This is the time of year when, ideally, players and teams don't want to be in the news.

Unfortunately for Tennessee and head coach Butch Jones, that didn't happen this week. The Vols lost starting offensive guard and redshirt senior Marcus Jackson to an injured biceps.

"Yeah with Marcus, there's no time table set," Jones said in quotes released by Tennessee. "It could be the season, it could be eight months, it could be nine months. It's really based on how his surgery comes, and how his body performs."

Is this a big blow for the 2015 Vols?

Of course. While the offensive line was more of a laughing stock last year as it gave up a conference-worst 43 sacks and 101 tackles for loss, it returned four starters under center, and an entire offseason of work would do wonders toward developing the continuity and familiarity needed to develop into a power. 

What's more, Jackson was one of the reasons that the Vols thrived down the stretch, as Jack Farrell of Pro Football Focus noted in June.

Now, the Vols have to hit the reset button a little bit. Although, for the first time since Jones has been head coach on Rocky Top, the Vols have options.

"For the first time since we've been at Tennessee, we've been able to walk out of spring practice and have two full lines of scholarship players," Jones said at SEC media days. "The overall development and maturation of that group has come a long way. We have the competitive depth that's needed."

Who will that be?

As Ryan Callahan of 247Sports notes, 6'4", 307-pound freshman Jack Jones had been running with the "ones" at right guard due to some minor fall camp injuries up front. The Murfreesboro, Tennessee, native has been impressing the staff.

"Jack is still going through his first training camp, but I see progress every day," Jones said.

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

The loss of Jackson hurts, but it's only a minor shakeup. The offensive line as a whole progressed last year once quarterback Joshua Dobbs was inserted into the lineup.

The Vols gave up two or fewer sacks in four of the final six games of the year, all of which were games in which Dobbs—a dual-threat and returning starter—served as the primary quarterback. The only team to truly light up Dobbs during that stretch—which included a game against the fearsome Alabama front seven—was Missouri on Nov. 22, a loss in which Dobbs was sacked six times.

Dobbs' presence, and more of a focus on a multi-dimensional running game with Dobbs and newcomer Alvin Kamara as running threats in the same backfield as sophomore star running back Jalen Hurd, will help hide any minor deficiencies that exist along the offensive line.

As Patrick Brown of the Chattanooga Times Free Press notes, the trio in the same backfield could cause nightmares to opposing defenses.

It's never ideal to lose a starter in fall camp, especially one up front who was being counted on to be the centerpiece of a developing unit. 

But three returning starters up front remain of an offensive line that not only has depth, but also has the luxury of evolving with a dual-threat quarterback who's getting first-team snaps for a full offseason for the first time in his career.

The Vols have evolved all offseason and have time to do it again between now and the time toe meets leather vs. Bowling Green in Nashville on Sept. 5.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports. Statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93 XM 208.

Follow Barrett on Twitter: @BarrettSallee.