Balanced defensive line setting an early tone

Tennessee’s defensive front has a blend of veterans like Tyler Baron, Omari Thomas, and Roman Harrison. 

The Vols also have youth with the arrival of six freshmen since last fall. 

Then there is the arrival of Arizona State transfer Omarr Norman-Lott and the return of guys like Byron Eason and Elijah Simmons who coaches are looking for a different gear out of this fall. 

Bottom line is that Tennessee veteran defensive line coach Rodney Garner has an interesting mix of youth, inexperience as well as veterans and most importantly he has a lot of competition. 

Norman-Lott didn’t get a lot of notoriety in spring practice, but had a successful 15 days of work adjusting to the Vols defense and to Garner’s style. Norman-Lott has impressed observers in fall camp and he’s clearly settled in. 

For Elijah Simmons and Bryson Eason, it’s a “contract” year as Austin Price likes to say. As veterans who have flashed, both are needing to show consistency if they are going to catch the eye of NFL scouts and have real opportunities at the next level. For both the off-season has been about reworking their bodies. Garner still wants to see more out of Simmons.

“Elijah, he, he is a powerful big man. He does have initial quickness, short air, quickness, he’s got built in pad level and leverage. He’s just gotta learn to, his biggest enemy is when fatigue sets in,, when he gets tired. Everybody knows he switched his number to 10, I’m saying, if you’re a D line 10, you need to be elite. So, you know, so my challenge to him, sometimes 10 shows up to practice, sometimes 51 shows up. We just gotta figure out who, who you are, what you gonna be, you know? 

So 10 and 51 are different guys. If he’s going to be 10, he needs to get his stuff in really, really good shape and be able to play the whole game like 10.” 

For Eason it’s about finally settling into a role as an interior defensive linemen now that he has found a position home at Tennessee.

“Just being able to be comfortable at the position,” Eason said of how things are different now for him. “Knowing my assignments and learning different details to help me be better at the position. It’s a great feeling to finally be somewhere that I can play and stay at that position. I have been enjoying it.

“I just want to continue to work on my pass rush and get better overall. I just am working on shooting my arms and disengaging better. Just the little things like that to take my game to another level.”

The post Balanced defensive line setting an early tone appeared first on On3.