Vols ’23 position preview: secondary
The million dollar question surrounding the third edition of Tim Banks’ Tennessee defense is can the Vols defend the pass better and who are the right pieces in the right spots to make that happen?
Tennessee has bodies. And those bodies are more athletic than they have been even though some the best athletes are young. They have experience as well with nine seniors in the room.
So this secondary should be improved, but in order for that to happen this coaching staff has to figure out who best fits where and make it work.
Last season:
Defensively, Tennessee was improved in the red zone and they were better on third down, but they still struggled defending the pass.
In 2021, the Vols gave up 3,551 yards through the air to go with 23 touchdown passes. Banks’ secondary gave up 11.8 yards a completion.
In 2022, they gave up 11.3 yards a catch, 3,764 total yards passing and 21 touchdowns. They had 11 interceptions after having 13 the previous year.
So the numbers didn’t improve and the Vols definitely missed two NFL players in Alontae Taylor and Theo Jackson who went to the NFL after the 2021 season.
There were definitely some good moments for the secondary like the Kentucky game, but there were plenty of moments where that position group didn’t play with enough aggressiveness and at times their lack of speed and athleticism showed up.
The room
Doneiko Slaughter, sr, 6-0, 190
Jaylen McCollough, sr, 6-0, 205
Warren Burrell, sr, 6-0, 190
Kamal Hadden, r-sr, 6-1, 190
Dee Williams, sr, 5-11, 190
Brandon Turnage, r-sr, 6-1, 190
Tamarion McDonald, sr, 6-2, 200
Wesley Walker, r-sr, 6-1, 205
Christian Charles, jr, 6-1, 186
Andre Turrentine, r-so, 5-11, 195
Jourdan Thomas, so, 6-2, 200
Cameron Miller, r-fr, 6-1, 210
Christian Harrison, so, 6-1, 190
DeShawn Rucker, jr, 6-0, 190
Jordan Matthews, fr, 6-1, 175
Rickey Gibson, fr, 5-11, 165
John Slaughter, fr, 6-1, 195
Cristian Conyer, fr, 6-1, 170
Jack Luttrell, fr, 6-0, 180
Gabriel Jeudy, sr, 6-1, 172
By the numbers
8Number of interceptions by the Tennessee secondary in 20223Number of PBU’s by Tennessee’s two starting safeties last year. Omari Thomas at DT had four7,315Number of passing yards given up the last two seasons. That’s 266 less than the Vol offense has thrown four the last two years
The big question
Who are the right pieces for this secondary to take a real step from last year to this year? It’s a step that starts with being more aggressive.
“Just being able to tighten up on the back end, and it’s not just the back end because linebackers are included in that,” Banks said of what needs to happen. “Making sure when we are in some zone principles that guys are where they need to be consistently. Just like anything, there were a lot of good things that we did in the pass game, but for us to continue to grow, we have to be able to affect the quarterback a little bit better, particularly in some of our four-man concepts, and then we have to be able to hold up, whether we are in man or zone, linebackers and defensive backs included.”
In other to tighten up, some veterans if they are on the field have to change their style of play. And if you go with the better athletes then you are going to go through some growing pains with youth.
The August question with this group is what’s the pecking order at corner, and what does the safety spot look like opposite of Wesley Walker?
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