'That group's going to be better, that's what I'm told' - College football analyst optimistic about important position group for Tennessee

SEC Network analyst and McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning co-host Cole Cubelic is feeling optimistic about an extremely important position group for the Tennessee Vols in 2025. 

Cubelic thinks the Vols' offensive line has the potential be a lot better in 2025 than it was in 2024. 

"The offensive linemen coming back all have more (recruiting) stars than the guys did last year," said Cubelic this week. "That group's going to be better. That's what I'm told, that group will be better. 

"I do like Wendell Moe that you got from Arizona. I think he's a good player and a bit of a tone setter guy that you need. But I don't know if individually that's going to be enough (for the whole team to have success)." 

Tennessee will definitely need more than just the offensive line to show up for the offense to be better in 2025. But the offensive line showing significant improvement would certainly give the rest of the offense a chance to reach its ceiling. Poor offensive line plays wrecks an offense faster than anything. 

The Vols' offensive line will have plenty of talent in 2025, though it's still a bit unsettled as far as who will start where. 

The three positions that are essentially locked in are Lance Heard at left tackle, Arizona transfer Wendell Moe at left guard, and true freshman David Sanders at right tackle (Heard and Sanders are both former five-star recruits). 

Notre Dame transfer Sam Pendleton will start for the Vols, but we don't know yet if that will be at center or at right guard (he has experience at both positions). 

William Satterwhite is a candidate to start at center. But if he doesn't win the job this fall, it could be Pendleton at center and someone else (Shamurad Umarov perhaps) at right guard. 

Either way, this group has the potential to be really good -- as long as the stay healthy (offensive line depth could be a concern for the Vols in 2025....but that's a concern most programs have these days thanks to NIL and the NCAA transfer portal).