S Keyshawn Lawrence enters the Portal

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The Vols 247 write up:

The Vols had visions of Lawrence contributing right away in their secondary this past season, but some factors led to him not experiencing the breakthrough into the rotation in the back end. Tennessee viewed Lawrence as the kind of versatile defender capable of playing all six spots in the secondary, but to start his career the plan was to play him at cornerback and he started working there after getting on campus last summer. Not long after that, Tennessee shifted him to safety in hopes of using him in its dime packages.

However, during preseason practices the Vols had most of their cornerbacks get caught up in contact-tracing quarantines and decided to move Lawrence back to cornerback just so they could get through practices despite being so shorthanded. Midway through the season, Lawrence then shifted to the Star position, a trouble spot for the Vols in 2020, during the first open date at the end of October. Despite getting some extra weeks to work at the spot when the Vols had games postponed, Lawrence couldn't crack the starting lineup.

Lawrence perhaps his most extensive action of the season in the finale against Texas A&M and recorded a career-best four tackles against the Aggies. He had two tackles apiece against Alabama and Vanderbilt, broke up a fourth-down pass against the Commodores and also got a handful of snaps in the fourth quarter of the games against Kentucky, Arkansas and Georgia. Though he didn't play as much as he and Tennessee hoped on defense, Lawrence was a fixture on multiple special teams units.
 
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