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Tennessee Football: Expectations vs Reality for 2016 Vols Defensive Line

By Caleb Calhoun

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The 2016 Tennessee football defensive line appears to be loaded this year. But what is the reality for the Volunteers up front going into the season?

The question has followed the Vols since the beginning of the offseason. Just how great can the Tennessee football defensive line be this year?

Although Tennessee owns the Wide Receiver U title, the defensive line has produced more elite NFL talent. Paul Lipscomb, Doug Atkins, Darris McCord, Steve DeLong, Reggie White, Leonard Little, Shaun Ellis, John Henderson, and Albert Haynesworth are just a few legendary names in a long (defensive) line of Vols up front dating back to 1950.

In 2001, Tennessee produced a historically great interior line with Henderson and Haynesworth both in the middle.

The talent in the middle made for one of the best overall defensive lines in history. And Vols fans in Knoxville expect something similar this year.

Related Story: Tennessee Football: 10 Things that Set 2016 Vols Apart from Other SEC Teams

Why the expectations?

It’s not hard to see why the expectations are so high for Tennessee football on the defensive line. A combination of returning proven talent, experience, and great recruiting by Butch Jones is the answer.

Let’s start with the returning proven talent.

Junior defensive end Derek Barnett is the superstar of the Vols defense after two straight seasons with 10 sacks. All but two of those 20 sacks were in SEC games, showing just how productive he is.

Complementing Barnett, Corey Vereen established himself as a valuable edge rusher down the stretch last season filling in for Curt Maggitt. He’s back as well after nine and a half tackles for a loss and three and a half sacks.

Meanwhile, defensive tackle Danny O’Brien struggled last year due to extenuating circumstances, but before that he was a valuable starter for the Vols in the middle.

Experience is a big factor as well. Vereen, O’Brien, and defensive end LaTroy Lewis all have three years’ playing experience, while Barnett and Kendal Vickers have two years. That makes for five guys who would qualify as veterans in the nine-man rotation.

The only contributing player from last year that they lost is Owen Williams.

Three more saw action with the Vols last year, and another is a junior-college transfer, which means all of them are experienced. And moving to those four guys brings us to our next point: recruiting.

Of those four guys with limited playing experience, three are five-star recruits: sophomore defensive tackle Kahlil McKenzie and sophomore defensive ends Kyle Phillips and Jonathan Kongbo. The other guy, sophomore defensive tackle Shy Tuttle, is a four-star.

Even the proven performers were highly rated recruits. Barnett and O’Brien were both four-stars in high school.

So when you combine the stars by the recruits, the proven on-field production of some, and the experience, it’s easy to see why fans expect the line to be loaded. Add in Bob Shoop as new defensive coordinator, and it becomes more obvious.

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Are there concerns?

Yes. This is a question Tennessee football fans did not want to broach, but it’s true. For starters, they are one person short in the rotation.

Shoop and Butch Jones wanted a full 10-man rotation, but four-star junior college defensive tackle Alexis Johnson ran into some legal issues. Even if he rejoins the team at any point, it won’t be in time to get on the field this year.

However, the biggest reason for the concerns is last year’s performance.

Despite all the names on the Vols’ line, the team stats didn’t show it. The Vols were only ninth in the SEC in team rush defense and No. 45 overall, they were only sixth in the SEC in team sacks and No. 45 overall, and they were 10th in the SEC in team tackles for a loss and No. 74 overall.

Last year, Tennessee gave up over 150 yards per game on the ground. That’s not the best stat for a team touting its defensive line.

Sure, they have a proven sack-getter in Barnett, and they have a ton of talented individual players. But it didn’t necessarily translate on the field consistently last year.

With that in mind, why should the expectations be so high this year? Recruiting? Experience?

On-field performance should count for something. And let’s face it: Tennessee’s on-field performance in 2015 doesn’t justify the high expectations for the defensive line in 2016.

Saving Grace

Yes, there is a saving grace to these stats. Tennessee’s rush defense stats were skewed last year by allowing 275 yards to Arkansas and then over 200 against Vanderbilt and 160 against Kentucky in garbage time after they pulled their starters in both games.

They also gave up 160 yards against Oklahoma. The Arkansas and Oklahoma games were on the heels of Curt Maggitt’s season-ending injury and O’Brien being very rusty, and the Vols were in the process of trying to replace him.

Vereen hadn’t arrived yet. He emerged down the stretch should be fully ready to go this year. The same holds true for O’Brien.

If they were ready to go early, those rushing numbers wouldn’t have happened. Also, the defense was thin at linebacker early on as they had not found a starter in the middle there. Colton Jumper got torched too often, which allowed Oklahoma to rack up yards.

That won’t happen again with Darrin Kirkland Jr. this year.

If you really want to see how things changed for Tennessee up front, look what they did against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Vereen had arrived, and Kirkland was a linebacker. The Vols sacked Jake Coker five times and held the Tide to just 117 yards on the ground despite 143 from Derrick Henry.

must read: Tennessee Football: 10 Ways to Define Success for Vols in 2016

Final Take

Tennessee’s defensive line is right to have lots of expectations this year, but they may be a bit too high. This wasn’t an elite unit on a consistent basis last year, and while all the evidence points to it being much better this year, it’s unlikely to be historically great.

The best thing going for the Vols’ line this year is that it shouldn’t get tired late in the fourth as it did at times last year.

However, there’s no reason to expect a level of dominance on the line that was never there last year with eight of the guys back.

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