Vols ’23 — positional preview: defensive line
For the Tennessee defense, the 2022 season was a year of growth. There was improvement in some key areas like third down and red zone defense, but for Tim Banks’ defense there’s still room for improvement at all three levels of the defense, especially in defending the pass.
With fall camp just days away we breakdown the 2023 Vols with a position by position look at a team coming off an 11 win season and one with tons of expectations in 2023. Today we look at the Vol defensive front led by their most veteran assistant on staff in Rodney Garner and a group that his plenty of experience themselves.
2022 review:
Let’s start with the run defense. Tennessee gave up just 113 yards a game on the ground and held opponents to just 3.0 yards a carry in 2022. The defense held 10 of their 13 opponents to under 150 yards rushing. Missouri gained the most rushing for 168 yards and 106 of that came from quarterback Brady Cook in a 66-24 Vol win over the Tigers.
Bottom line is the Vols were solid all season against the run registering 94 TFL’s in 2022.
Opponents threw the ball too effectively against the defense and while much of that was on the back end of the defense, pass coverage does go hand in hand with the pass rush.
Tennessee recorded 31 sacks a season ago with departed defensive end Byron Young leading the way with 7.0. In total, Garner’s defensive front registered 23 sacks and six PBU’s.
The best part of last year was that Garner committed to playing 12 defensive linemen. The in season result was a defensive front that stayed healthier and fresher for four quarters. The longer term result is the fact that Garner built depth which should result in a more effective defensive front in 2023.
The room:
Omari Thomas, sr, 6-4, 320
Tyler Baron, sr, 6-5, 260
Bryson Eason, r-jr, 6-3, 300
Roman Harrison, sr, 6-2, 244
Joshua Josephs , so, 6-3, 235
James Pearce, so, 6-5, 245
Tyre West, so, 6-3, 295
Dominic Bailey, r-jr, 6-3, 270
Elijah Simmons, r-sr, 6-2, 340
Jayson Jenkins, r-fr, 6-6, 280
Kurott Garland, r-sr, 6-3, 310
Daevin Hobbs, fr, 6-3, 270
Caleb Herring, fr, 6-5, 227
Tyree Weathersby, fr, 6-4, 255
Nathan Robinson, fr, 6-5, 270
Omarr Norman-Lott, sr, 6-3, 295
Trevor Duncan, fr, 6-5, 270
Chandavian Bradley, fr, 6-4, 220
By the numbers:
10 Number of sacks returning from a year ago along the defensive front30 Number of TFL’s by the defensive line last season. In two seasons, the Vol defense as a whole has generated 196 TFL’s. 0 Number of games, Tennessee gave up 200 yards on the ground. The defensive gave up 200+ yards rushing 4 times in 2021, 168 was the most they gave up in 2022.
The big question:
It’s really simple up front. Can this defensive front get to the quarterback so that ‘Tim Banks doesn’t have to dial up a blitz on every obvious passing situation?
There’s some promise of being able to get home with four with the young trio of Tyre West, Joshua Josephs and James Pearce.
But that promise needs to translate into more production with the loss of Byron Young and Latrell Bumphus on the outside.
For the defense to take another step in year three under Tim Banks, getting to the quarterback and disrupting him with either a sack or a pressure is a must.
“We think we have made some strides,” Banks said of getting the the quarterback with the defensive front. “We also understand there is a lot of work yet to be done. We feel like we recruited at a higher level, and we have some young guys coming in here that we hope will be able to help us transition to being able to be more efficient with our four-man packages. I think we will be. But yeah, if we do that, do it at a high level, it just makes everyone else’s job that much easier.”
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