Gameday on Rocky Top

It’s finally football time in Tennessee, and we’ll be squeezing every morsel of news out of every word that escapes new coach Jeremy Pruitt’s mouth over the next month leading up to the season opener in Charlotte against West Virginia.

But we are here to fully arm you with every bit of information we can leading up to the season’ start. In order to do that, we’ve got to get you up-to-date on all the new personnel you’ll be seeing on the football field in 2018.

More than 30 new players will suit up for the Big Orange who didn’t this spring. Many of those weren’t even in orange and white for the worst season in school history a year ago. That’s not a bad thing, either.

Pruitt came in and immediately determined the team that went 4-8 last year wasn’t equipped to win this year, either. So, he called on reinforcements. Over the next few days, we’ll brief you on the newbies at each position.

Let’s take a look at the linebacking corps.

LINEBACKERS

We’re all on JJ Peterson watch, but the high 4-star linebacker and potential jewel of the 2018 haul under Jeremy Pruitt can’t be profiled until he gets on campus. When that will be, who knows? The Vols start classes soon, and Peterson’s high school coach Rush Propst said we’ll know something one way or another by next Friday.

That late, it’s hard to envision Peterson helping UT the first half of this season, but that doesn’t change the Vols needing him to get into school so he can help down the road. At this point, we don’t know what to expect.

Losing the centerpiece of Pruitt’s half-class would be bad. Oh well, you play the guys who’re here, right? Let’s take a look at them.

DARRIN KIRKLAND, 6’1″, 234-pound RS Junior

Perhaps it was an omen and a harbinger for the Vols during preseason drills when Kirkland went down with a season-ending injury. After all, he was supposed to be the defensive leader once Jalen Reeves-Maybin left for the NFL, and instead, the Vols were forced to play the entire season without their leader.

For a while, we all thought we’d watched our last down for Kirkland in orange and white, too. After graduating early, he nearly transferred from UT for his final two seasons of eligibility, but Kirkland was lured back onto the roster by Jeremy Pruitt. Now, he’s expected to anchor UT’s strongest unit alongside Daniel Bituli.

Kirkland is a familiar old face, but he’s “new” to this lineup because A) he missed last year, B) he nearly wasn’t in Knoxville and C) he didn’t play this spring. Kirkland has a chance to be one of the Vols’ best players if he’s healthy and if he grasps Pruitt’s defensive concepts. The Vols need him to quickly, and as smart as he is, it shouldn’t be a problem. A healthy Kirkland is excellent for UT’s defense.

DARRELL TAYLOR, 6’4″, 247-pound RS Junior

Another player who isn’t new to the roster is Taylor, who played defensive end for the Vols a season ago before shifting to the pass-rushing Jack outside linebacker this past spring. Taylor looked good at times in the spring despite the rust of learning a new position. The Vols need for him not only to be serviceable on the second level but to be a force.

Last year, he broke out with a 12-tackle performance and the game-winning stop in the season-opening escape against Georgia Tech. He finished the year with 27 tackles and a suspension. That’s not the kind of player the Vols need for Taylor to be in his final two years of eligibility.

They need a difference-maker who can get after opposing quarterbacks and take some of the pressure off the young secondary. Taylor must do that. He needs a new lease on life in his new position. He has the highest upside of any linebacker on the roster, but can he realize his massive potential? It could be fun watching Chris Rumph develop him.

JONATHAN KONGBO, 6’5″, 254-pound RS Senior

Speaking of a fresh start, if anybody needs one, it’s Kongbo. He needs to wash the stench of the Butch Jones era off him. The former top JUCO player in the nation committed to Tennessee over the top schools in the country with three years of eligibility remaining. He now has one season left to go and has yet to make any real impact on the defense.

At times over the past two years, Kongbo has looked lost, out of position and has watched runners blow by him. Last year, he had 29 tackles, but his run containment was awful, and he finished with just 2.5 tackles for a loss. The coaches this year decided to move him to linebacker, and he can focus on one major thing this year, his final year:

Getting after the quarterback.

If Kongbo could make an impact, whether starting or in a reserve role, it’ll be a good finish to a disappointing career. He is so big and talented, it’s hard to envision a career where he didn’t do anything. Maybe he just needs coaching; UT hopes so.

JORDAN ALLEN, 6’4″, 242-pound RS Sophomore

Without Peterson on campus, the Vols are left with just one linebacker in the 2018 class and that’s big-time JUCO prospect Allen, who they lured away from junior college in San Francisco. He certainly looks the part, and Allen has three years to play three. But UT needs him to make an impact this year.

An athlete who looks like him and is as fast as him needs to be able to play and provide quality snaps. That’s why Rumph and other coaches have been so hard on him; they’re trying to unlock his massive potential. Allen is an ideal linebacker for a 3-4 system, and though he doesn’t always play with a high motor or is consistent in where he is supposed to be, there are flashes of brilliance.

Once Allen gets acclimated with the defense, he is sure to fit in the rotation. The Vols could be deep and good at linebacker, so Allen will definitely have to earn his spot. But they’ll be better if he does.

DEANDRE JOHNSON, 6’3″, 244-pound Sophomore

One of my breakout candidates this year is Johnson, another player who isn’t new to Tennessee’s roster, but, like Taylor and Kongbo, moved back to linebacker from defensive end.

He never looked big enough to me to play with his hand down, but he’s big and athletic and looks like a player who could develop into a good linebacker. He’s quick even though he’s not fast, he’s a good athlete who could excel in a pass-rushing role. He’d probably get burned in coverage, but the Vols wouldn’t ask him to do that.

Johnson is a player that Miami and others really wanted, and the Vols won that battle. He played some as a true freshman, and UT hopes he continues to develop at his new spot. He could have a really big year. I think he’s got a strong future.

 

 

A good question came out of this week’s return of the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast: when did you have the bigger wait-and-see mentality, right now or five years ago?

It’s no sin to say you need to see it to believe it with Jeremy Pruitt; after the last ten years, we all might need a little sight to go with our faith. But how does that compare to the way we felt on the eve of Butch Jones’ first season?

Neither being Tennessee’s first choice, Jones and Pruitt also inherited more years of disappointment than their infamous predecessors in the last ten years. The additional years of disappointment under Jones might make us more wait-and-see with Pruitt by default; the Vols have now been down for ten years instead of five. Butch Jones also had the benefit of a more-celebrated group of commitments earlier in his tenure. Some of this was via name and location: early recruiting wins on guys like Jalen Hurd and Todd Kelly Jr. dramatically changed the conversation on Jones, giving one the impression that he could turn this program around with talent like that in the fold. Pruitt’s early set of commitments during his first fall camp is still impressive, but Jackson Lampley is the only in-state/legacy blue chipper on board at the moment; the new staff’s highest-rated commits are from Georgia and North Carolina.

However – and due, of course, to Jones’ recruiting – it feels like Tennessee easily has more talent on the roster right now than in 2013. Five years ago we knew the Vols had a sensational offensive line, but little else. Ultimately in that season three of Tennessee’s five leading receivers – Marquez North, Jason Croom, Josh Smith – were freshmen, and after injury freshman Josh Dobbs took over at quarterback. Cam Sutton and Malik Foreman were day one starters in the secondary, Corey Vereen was a factor on the defensive line…you get the idea. The talent that left after 2012 and some of the recruiting failures at the end of Dooley’s tenure left the cupboard far more bare than it seems right now.

Of course, the guys in the cupboard right now just went 4-8 last year and lost five times by 17+ points.

When you hire someone with six years of experience as a head coach, you know more going in. Butch Jones had done a good job on the mid-major level, and most of the initial questions with him were how he would recruit at the level Tennessee needed. We thought Jones could get us to at least nine wins, and he did…it just turned out that was also his ceiling. With Pruitt, the basement is deeper – he’s never done it, maybe he’s just a great coordinator but a lousy head coach – but the ceiling also seemed higher on day one. We applauded Phillip Fulmer when Pruitt was the choice for not playing it safe with Les Miles or easy with Tee Martin, but going with someone with more risk/reward.

So going into this first year, I find myself a little less wait-and-see with Pruitt than I was with Jones, even if I’m still significantly more wait-and-see than at any other point in my three decades of fandom. Dooley wasn’t a great hire and we knew it at the time, but anyone would’ve galvanized us after Kiffin, and in 2010 the Vols were only three years removed from a division title. For at least the year one prospects, I’m slightly more optimistic right now than I was five years ago.

You can see it a little bit from Vegas too. Right now the Vols are 9.5-point underdogs in a neutral site game against #20 West Virginia. In Jones’ first year, the Vols were 28-point underdogs at #2 Oregon. There’s plenty of room between #2 and #20, but +28 is the second-biggest underdog the Vols have been in the last five years (and maybe ever); Alabama was +36 last year (and covered). This time five years ago I was just worried about trying to beat Western Kentucky.

There’s not a right or wrong answer here, but there’s enough good happening with Pruitt and just enough good Jones did in recruiting to make me slightly less wait-and-see right now than I was five years ago. It’s starting over, but it might not be from scratch. We’ll see.

 

There’s no doubt that new Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt has been a very busy man since he was hired last December. His to-do list is full of major projects, but over the past seven months it’s become more and more clear that one of his main priorities was re-shaping his roster and the guys on it.

In a post we published back in January, we took an educated guess at what Pruitt’s ideal roster looks like and concluded that he had some work to do to make Tennessee fit his blueprint. He wasted no time attacking the problem on multiple fronts, adding freshmen, JUCO, and graduate transfers who fit his mold and asking many of his current players to change the shape of their bodies over the summer and/or switch positions.

So, now that the summer work is over, how much progress was he able to make in re-shaping the Vols’ roster into his ideal? It looks to me like he got almost all the way there in one short summer.

Here’s a look at the defensive roster blueprint and the current status of Tennessee’s defensive guys.

Nose Tackles

Goal

• 3-6
• Between 5’11” and 6’5”
• Between 290-340

Guys who meet the criteria (6-7)

Every defensive lineman meets the height criteria for a nose tackle, and seven guys also meet the weight criteria:

• Paul Bain (292)
• Shy Tuttle (300)
• Maurese Smith (305)
• Greg Emerson (305)
• Emmit Gooden (306)
• Alexis Johnson (314)
• Kingston Harris (316)

Status

Goal met. They want 3-6 nose tackles and have 6-7 of them. As with all of these positions, we’re talking only about numbers here, not talent, although I’d say that there’s a fair amount of talent on the roster as well.

Defensive Ends

Goal

• 6-10
• Between 6’2” and 6’6”
• Between 270-310

Guys who meet the criteria (4)

True freshman John Mincey (264) and sophomore Kivon Bennett (266) aren’t quite there yet, but there are eight guys who fit the mold of defensive end:

• Kyle Phillips (273)
• Kurott Garland (275)
• Matthew Butler (276)
• Paul Bain (292)
• Shy Tuttle (300)
• Maurese Smith (305)
• Greg Emerson (305)
• Emmit Gooden (306)

Several of those guys, though, are better suited for nose tackle. Shy Tuttle is likely your starter in the middle, and Emerson and Gooden are more likely nose tackles than ends. Maurese Smith appears to be a walk-on. So that leaves scholarship players Phillips, Garland, Butler, and Bain as the team’s primary defensive ends. That’s pretty low on numbers, so they’ll likely be looking for Mincey and Bennett to continue to gain weight, and in the meantime, help may need to come from some of the tweener nose tackles or outside linebackers.

Status

Goal not yet met. They want 6-10 and only have 4, so they’re 2-6 guys short at this position. Until they get their numbers here, expect some tweeners to move around as needed.

Linebackers

Goal for outside ‘backers

• 5-8
• Between 6’1” and 6’5”
• Between 220-260

Goal for inside ‘backer

• 5-8
• Between 6’0” and 6’3”
• Between 230-250

Guys who meet the criteria for OLB (5-6)

Only Shanon Reid and apparent walk-on Matt Ballard fall outside the ideal height, and only Solon Page III and walk-ons Nick Humphrey and Landon Knoll don’t meet the weight criteria. Everybody else is in the right range for outside ‘backer:

• Joshua Warren (222)
• Quart’e Sapp (223)
• Nyles Gaddy (226)
• Dillon Bates (229)
• JJ Peterson (231)
• Darrin Kirkland Jr. (234)
• Cole Hughes (237)
• Will Ignont (239)
• Jordan Allen (242)
• Deandre Johnson (244)
• Daniel Bituli (244)
• Austin Smith (246)
• Darrell Taylor (247)
• Jonathan Kongbo (254)

Guys who meet the criteria for ILB

Kongbo, Taylor, and Allen are too tall for inside linebacker, so they’re not candidates. Of the other guys, Page, Reid, Sapp, and Bates are under-weight for the inside. That leaves the following guys who are ideally-sized for inside linebacker:

• JJ Peterson (231)
• Darrin Kirkland Jr. (234)
• Cole Hughes (237)
• Will Ignont (239)
• Deandre Johnson (244)
• Daniel Bituli (244)
• Austin Smith (246)

One interesting note on ILB, Sapp is likely going to be relied on a lot at this position despite being slightly underweight at 223.

Bituli and Smith appear to be the tweeners between ILB and OLB, but they’re likely more suited for the inside. Either way, there appear to be 5-6 guys ideally-sized to play ILB, and if JJ Peterson ever gets to campus, he’ll help there tremendously.

As a general rule, outside linebackers are taller and heavier than inside ‘backers (although there’s a higher weight floor for ILB than OLB). Former defensive ends Kongbo and Taylor don’t meet the criteria for inside linebackers, so they’re pure OLBs (but they could also slide back to defensive end in a pinch.) In all, there are 14 linebackers who meet the criteria for outside linebacker. Three of those appear to be walk-ons, 5-8 of those guys need to be reserved for inside ‘backer, and JJ Peterson isn’t here yet, but that still leaves at least 5-6 guys for OLB.

Status

Goal met. There’s a fair amount of flexibility among the OLBs and ILBs, so let’s say the team has 5-6 OLBs and 5-6 ILBs. If they want a total of 10-16 total ‘backers, then having 10-12 is there, albeit just barely.

Cornerbacks and safeties

Goal for corner

• 5-10
• Between 5’8” and 6’2”
• Between 170-200

Goal for safety

• 4-8
• Between 5’10” and 6’2”
• Between 190-220

Guys who meet the criteria for corner (8)

Every guy listed as a defensive back meets both the height and weight criteria for corner. Here they are:

• Brandon Davis (170)
• Jake Powers (178) (WO)
• D.J. Henderson (179)
• Bryce Thompson (180)
• Carlin Fils-aime (180)
• Garrett Johnson (182) (WO)
• Bryce Collier (183) (WO)
• Trevon Flowers (184)
• Terrell Bailey (186)
• Alontae Taylor (186)
• Cheyenne Labruzza (188)
• Nigel Warrior (188)
• Marquill Osborne (190)
• Sam Harvin (192) (WO)
• Shawn Shamburger (193)
• Baylen Buchanan (193)
• Theo Jackson (193)
• MaLeik Gatewood (194)
• Kenneth George Jr. (195)
• Micah Abernathy (195)
• Todd Kelly Jr. (200)
• Maleik Gray (200)

Guys who meet the criteria for safety (9)

• Marquill Osborne (190)
• Sam Harvin (192) (WO)
• Shawn Shamburger (193)
• Baylen Buchanan (193)
• Theo Jackson (193)
• MaLeik Gatewood (194)
• Kenneth George Jr. (195)
• Micah Abernathy (195)
• Todd Kelly Jr. (200)
• Maleik Gray (200)

Not counting walk-ons, that’s 18 defensive backs available to play safety/corner/nickel. All of the safety-sized guys are on the low end, with Kelly and Gray weighing the most but still 20 pounds off the maximum weight. And safety starter Warrior doesn’t even fit the criteria for safety, as he’s two pounds shy now that he lost six pounds over the summer. Still, there appear to be nine guys ideally-sized to play safety, well over the need of 4-8.

At corner, I count eight non-walk-ons that meet the criteria. There is a concern there, but it isn’t numbers; it’s talent, although it’s sounding like Alontae Taylor is a huge step in the right direction.

Status

Goal met. If they want 5-10 corners and 4-8 safeties and have 8 corners and 9 safeties, they’re in good shape, numbers-wise. It’s a little heavy on safety and a perhaps a little light on corner, but still within the desired range, especially considering that Warrior — the defense’s best player — is essentially a tweener.

It’s finally football time in Tennessee, and we’ll be squeezing every morsel of news out of every word that escapes new coach Jeremy Pruitt’s mouth over the next month leading up to the season opener in Charlotte against West Virginia.

But we are here to fully arm you with every bit of information we can leading up to the season’ start. In order to do that, we’ve got to get you up-to-date on all the new personnel you’ll be seeing on the football field in 2018.

More than 30 new players will suit up for the Big Orange who didn’t this spring. Many of those weren’t even in orange and white for the worst season in school history a year ago. That’s not a bad thing, either.

Pruitt came in and immediately determined the team that went 4-8 last year wasn’t equipped to win this year, either. So, he called on reinforcements. Over the next few days, we’ll brief you on the newbies at each position.

Let’s take a look at the offensive line.

DEFENSIVE LINE

EMMIT GOODEN, 6’3″, 306-pound Junior

Gooden’s long-and-winding road to Tennessee is well-chronicled, but it’s amazing that the former West Tennessee high schooler who committed to the Vols as a junior, backed off that pledge, tried to go to Mississippi State, wound up at JUCO and still circled back around to UT is on Rocky Top and looks poised to contribute.

The Vols certainly need him to.

Gooden is getting a bit of fame right now as one of the featured players on Netflix’s “Last Chance U” but Gooden did get that final opportunity, and now he needs to take advantage of it. It’s unclear whether he’ll wind up playing the nose position or the jumbo defensive end in the 3-4, but the guess is he’ll be able to rotate at either place. He’s battling for a starting job, and though it’s no certainty he’ll get it, he almost definitely will be in the mix for key reps.

The coaching staff is trying to get Gooden to be more consistent, and it’s important that he immediately hops in the mix because the Vols are short on difference-makers up front. They have the ability to go really big up there, though, and if Gooden can work his way in and be a force against the run, that could really shore things up for a unit that has been porous in recent memory in the run game. The Vols need him to be a major pickup.

KINGSTON HARRIS, 6’3″, 316-pound Freshman

Much like receiver Cedric Tillman, it’s crazy Harris played at such a powerhouse high school program and few big teams wanted him, especially considering that he already has flashed at times during camp. He’s probably one of the two first-year players in line to get some reps if the season started today. He’s not ready to start or anything like that, and he isn’t consistent, but Harris looks the part.

He didn’t even start in high school, backing up a future 5-star Ohio State commitment at Florida’s prestigious IMG Academy. Still, once UT coaches saw him in person, they felt like he was worthy of an offer. He’s a huge guy, and the Vols needed an upgrade in size.

He has a great frame and already looks like an SEC defensive lineman. It’s going to be fun to watch him develop with Tracy Rocker coaching him up. Nobody expects Harris to step in and set the league on fire this year. He’s raw, and he has a ways to go, but the path to playing time up front for the Vols isn’t crowded. He could find himself right up there for snaps, and UT needs for him to pick things up quickly.

KUROTT GARLAND, 6’3″, 275-pound Freshman

Another guy who few programs wanted but the Vols believe is a diamond in the rough is Garland, a Conyers, Georgia, native that UT found while scouting, offering (and finally losing to Florida State) wide receiver Jordan Young. Garland had offers from Charlotte and Tulane, but that’s pretty much it.

He’s big and country-strong though, and UT likes him. He may just be ready to get some reps in a thin front for the Vols in 2018. That would be crazy considering the lack of interest and the fact that Garland was the 1,160th-ranked player in the 247Sports Composite. He has been getting some second-team reps along with Mincey early in camp. If that remains the case, Garland almost certainly will play in some big games and probably even the season-opener against West Virginia.

Is part of that an indictment of Tennessee’s depth and talent up front? Possibly, but this is a unit that has guys like Shy Tuttle, Kyle Phillips and Alexis Johnson, so these are some players who were wanted in the recruiting process. Behind them, though, there is little proven depth, and Garland will have every opportunity to make a name for himself right away. Is that an ideal situation? No. True freshmen don’t normally flash on the defensive line in the SEC. But it’s where the Vols are, and Garland will get a baptism by fire.

JOHN MINCEY, 6’3″, 264-pound Freshman

Late in the process when Tennessee was struggling to make a lot of noise in the late signing period, the Vols did win a recruiting battle for a defensive lineman against SEC foes South Carolina and Arkansas. That was for Mincey, who is another prospect from Georgia. He hails from Homerville where he played for Clinch County High School.

Heard of it? Me neither. But his signing was part of a tireless effort for Tennessee’s staff to scramble and find some good players to outfit the class late in the cycle. Mincey looks like a nice find, at least so far. As I said above, he’s earned second-team reps, and though it would behoove him to add 15-20 pounds and some strength, Mincey is the kind of player who must help the Vols right away.

He and Garland almost certainly will work their way onto the field, and it’s vital that they find ways to make plays. Mincey’s film looks like he’s strong at the point of attack, and while he may need to work on his quickness, he does plenty enough well that there’s a good basis there with which to work. He will be fun to monitor as pads go on.

GREG EMERSON 6’3″, 305-pound Freshman

Tennessee’s highest-rated defensive lineman in last year’s class and a major recruiting victory was West Tennessee native Emerson who committed to Butch Jones’ staff and stayed true to the Vols throughout the coaching transition. Part of the reason is UT stuck with him despite a brutal leg injury suffered at The Opening that cost him his senior season.

He was noticeably rusty this spring, and he even moved over to the offensive line for some practices because he lacked a burst, but he’s back on the defensive line and looks a little healthier this fall. Where will he be in the pecking order? That’s uncertain as of now.

Emerson probably needs more time to get back to 100 percent, but he has some upside, and he is versatile enough that he could project at nose or the big defensive end position. He’s not ready yet, but it wouldn’t be right to write him off. After all, he was a universal 4-star prospect, and he’s a big mauler who will find a role down the road. It may just not be in 2018.