Tennessee’s defensive front knows their challenge; Vols focused on now

Tennessee’s defensive line has led the way with 12 of the Vols 16 sacks this season. Tyler Baron leads the way with four sacks. 

Prior to this season, Baron had 7.5 sacks in his career. Why the improvement? Baron said it’s not about him. 

“It’s a simple answer,” Baron said. “It’s the entire D-line room. We do a really good job of working together. I give a Hugh shout out to the rest of the d-line room. Everyone is doing a great job, we just have to keep working.” 

The defensive line has a great challenge this week in trying to defend South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler who had his arrival moment in Columbia last year against the Vols. 

“Well, obviously, he’s able to extend plays with his legs, so that’s really stressful with defense, especially with defensive line,” defensive line coach Rodney Garner said. “We’ve gotta make sure that we’re very disciplined in our rush lane integrity. And then also we gotta make sure we can finish on top of the rush and make sure we can get him on the ground. He’s a very good player. You saw what he did last week against Mississippi State, what he did last year against us. We just gotta make sure that we’re disciplined in everything that we do. And we gotta make sure that we try to restrict it and keep them in the pocket.”

Offensively, Tennessee on paper has opportunities this week. South Carolina has struggled in both pass coverage and against the run through he first four games of the season. Tennessee’s run game leads the SEC and a year ago in this game the Vols put up plenty of yards. Fans are certainly looking for revenge from the loss last year that took the Vols out of the playoff hunt. Senior Jabari Small said the team is just focusing on now. 

“No sir,” Small said of if they had thought about last year. “I’m not even thinking about last week. I am thinking about Wednesday’s practice and the task at hand.” 

On the perimeter, Squirrel White’s role continues to grow. White leads the team in receptions with 17 and clearly they are trying to get him more involved vertically down the field. White said the in consistency in connecting on the deep ball isn’t on his quarterback.

“It’s just been some miscommunication,” White said. “I will never blame the quarterback. I feel like it’s always on the receiver.” 

Tennessee center Cooper Mays continues to do more on the practice field doing the most work on Tuesday that he has done since his hernia surgery back in August. 

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