The coaches who hit it big at Tennessee’s rival institutions – Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Kirby Smart – all validated themselves in year two. It’s a well-documented leap, one great coaches tend to make. The foundation Jeremy Pruitt inherits isn’t as strong as the ones those three built from: fewer bricks, more mess, etc. But for Tennessee, the 2019 goal also doesn’t have to be the College Football Playoff for Pruitt to be a year two success story.
We almost certainly won’t be entertaining any of these in 2018, but in 2019 Pruitt could validate himself by being the first Tennessee coach in a long time to:
- Win 10 games (2007)
- Win the SEC East (2007)
- Lose less than four games (2004)
While Butch Jones made progress from Derek Dooley’s tenure in total victories and ranked wins, these three barriers still stand. Jones’ teams flirted with them in 2015 and 2016, but were left with only a pair of 9-4 seasons. As such, there is still a step the Vols can make, now under Pruitt’s watch, between year one and competing for the national championship.
All of that to say: this team has a ton of questions in 2018. But we’ll start with the one that might be the biggest question mark for 2019, which could stand in the way of a breakthrough.
#10: Defensive Line Depth
A coaching change brings a fresh start, and a significant part of that is falling back on recruiting rankings for players who haven’t panned out yet. “They were ranked so high for a reason,” we tell ourselves, “and these new coaches, who are always better than our old coaches, can get the most out of them!”
The more optimistic you like to be, the more you’ll lean on this kind of thinking for players like Jarrett Guarantano and Drew Richmond. Lane Kiffin did this very thing for Jonathan Crompton and Montario Hardesty. But nowhere could it be more helpful for Tennessee this fall than on the defensive line.
In Tennessee’s celebrated 2015 recruiting class, three of the five highest-rated signees were defensive linemen. The other two were Preston Williams, who left the team, and Alvin Kamara, who’s doing alright for himself. Kahlil McKenzie elected to go early to the NFL.
But two remain: Kyle Phillips and Shy Tuttle. And in Tennessee’s 2016 class, the third highest-rated signee was Jonathan Kongbo.
Kongbo complicated my analogy by moving to outside linebacker, but in a 3-4 scheme there’s still some truth to the point.
So the Vols might get more production from one or all of these three under a new coaching staff. If so, awesome! That could go a long way toward the Vols having a successful 2018.
But it won’t matter in 2019, because all three of them are seniors.
So no matter how well guys like Phillips and Tuttle play, they aren’t long-term answers for the program. One can hope we don’t need too many of the backups this fall, but next year? Those guys will be the guys.
So who are those guys?
Darrell Taylor, a redshirt junior, could play a similar role to Kongbo; we’ll learn more about that this fall. Two options on the interior – Paul Bain and Alexis Johnson – are also seniors. So as it stands today, here are the returning, 2019-eligible players listed as defensive linemen on Tennessee’s roster:
- Deandre Johnson, Jr (2019)
- Darrell Taylor, R-Sr
- Matthew Butler, Jr
- Kivon Bennett, Jr
- Eric Crosby, Jr
- Ja’Quain Blakely, R-Jr
Darrell Taylor, who again could be better categorized as a linebacker in Pruitt’s scheme, had 27 tackles last year. Alexis Johnson had 14. The rest of those guys combined for seven.
This makes Tennessee’s 2018 signees – Greg Emerson, Brant Lawless, Emmit Gooden, plus Jordan Allen at DE/OLB – critical to next season’s success. How soon and how often will we see them this fall? And will one or more from the existing depth chart take a step up?
If the old recruiting stars pan out for Phillips, Tuttle, and Kongbo this fall, that’s great news for the short-term. But whether they do or not, Tennessee’s long-term future faces a significant question mark on the defensive line. We should get our first taste of the answers this fall.