There's one big concern that could keep the Tennessee Vols from reaching the 12-team College Football Playoff

The Tennessee Vols look like a legitimate College Football Playoff team through the first four games of the 2024 season.

Tennessee completely dominated three inferior opponents (Chattanooga, NC State, and Kent State) before winning a tough prime time road matchup against the Oklahoma Sooners this past weekend.

The Vols have an elite defense and their offense is explosive. That's a championship-winning recipe.

As long as Tennessee continues to play at a high level, they should be one of the 12 teams that's playing for a national championship this winter.

There's just one thing, outside of an injury to starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, that could keep Tennessee from reaching the playoff -- the health of the offensive line.

Tennessee has the deepest roster its had since Phillip Fulmer was roaming the sidelines in Knoxville. The offensive line position, however, is the one group where the Vols aren't extremely deep.

And that showed last week against Oklahoma.

Starting left tackle Lance Heard missed the game due to an ankle injury, which forced redshirt senior Dayne Davis into a bigger role. Davis has played well for the Vols at times while filling in at various positions, but he's not a future NFL player.

Right tackle John Campbell has also been banged up this season (he played just 34 of 75 snaps against the Sooners). And the feeling is that Campbell's availability will be a week-by-week deal as the season progresses (in other words, don't expect a clean bill of health this season for the Miami Hurricanes transfer).

Tennessee has some talent behind the starting offensive line, but that talent is unproven. If the Vols are going to make a deep playoff run, they'll need their starting five, which is clearly a step or two above their backups, to stay healthy into January.

And that's obviously easier said than done.

The offensive line takes a beating in the trenches. As a result, offensive linemen are rarely completely healthy.

For now, Tennessee isn't in a position where they can afford to lose any of their starting offensive linemen. They've gotta find a way to stay healthy (it's a good thing the Vols are off this weekend).

Everything has to go just right for a team to win a national championship. For the Vols, the biggest thing that needs to go right this fall is the offensive line staying healthy. If that happens, Tennessee will have a real chance to bring a national championship trophy back to Knoxville.

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