In Jeremy Pruitt’s first spring practice at Tennessee, the Vols couldn’t even field a true two-deep along the offensive line.

Tennessee had just nine available scholarship lineman in camp last March, creating serious management challenges for a first-year staff.

Well, the situation isn’t quite as dire this spring, but once again, Tennessee is facing a real numbers issue at one of the most important positions on the team.

With the impending transfer of right tackle Drew Richmond, who has started 25 games the last three seasons, no Trey Smith and the medical retirements of Chance Hall, Tanner Antonutti and DeVante Brooks, Tennessee will have just 11 available scholarship offensive lineman for spring practice and that includes redshirt senior center Brandon Kennedy, who is coming off a torn ACL from last season. Eric Crosby, who moved to the OL last year but rarely participated in drills during open portions of practice in 2018, could make the available bodies at an even dozen should he stay on offense.

To simply say the situation is less than ideal would be like saying Jon Snow only found himself in a pickle when he and a couple of his buddies were surrounded by thousands of wigits.

Talk about an understatement.

Coaches prefer to have around 16 scholarship offensive lineman on the roster. The Vols won’t even have that again this fall.

You want a through-line as to why Tennessee has won just nine games the last two seasons? How about six lineman (the aforementioned Richmond, Hall, Antonutti, Brooks plus Jack Jones and Venzell Boulware) have left the program before their eligibility expired, while others have failed to develop.

So for the second straight spring, Tennessee must find a way to work around a thin trench unit.

Again, inconsistency along the OL was among Tennessee’s biggest problems in 2018, contributing to quarterback Jarrett Guarantano getting knocked out of three games and failing to consistently open up holes in the run game (SEC-worst 3.7 yards per carry). So it’s not some enlightening point to say that the Vols need the unit to show dramatic improvement to make a leap in 2019, but can that development truly happen with a lack of bodies again this spring?

New offensive coordinator Jim Chaney spoke a lot about “physicality” during one of the post-signing day celebrations, but Will Friend was singing the same song a year ago and then found out the reality of how hard it is to actually instill that attitude with a group that can barely fill a two-deep.

You can only do so many drills. Your scrimmage snaps become capped. How do you balance scheme install vs. fundamentals? And all this is also assuming there’s no additional injuries in camp from a group that includes several lineman — K’Rojhn Calbert (multiple knee injuries), Nathan Niehaus (concussion issues) and Riley Locklear (couple different injuries) — with histories of missing time.

The Vols (semi) worked around the problem a year ago to still play a pseudo Orange & White Game, but by the end of spring practice, they had little clarity on their best five and were scouring the transfer market for help.

Perhaps Pruitt and Friend have a better plan on how to manage the situation this year. Individually, several lineman need strong springs, from underclassmen like Wanya Morris and Jerome Carvin, to vets on the clock like Marcus Tatum and Ryan Johnson.

Once again, it will be the storyline of camp on how a shorthanded unit works around its numbers issue.