Tennessee Football: The Vols’ defense is a bit more impressive than people think.

Tennessee football’s defense received a lot of criticism in 2016. But the Volunteers could be turning the defensive line around, and in a great way.

While they stepped up to create a rousing victory over Florida, it’s difficult to expect more wins against big time programs after surrendering 740 yards to Missouri and 635 yards to Kentucky. But that was the story for Tennessee football on defense down the stretch of last season.

After all the offseason hype that Bob Shoop had generated as the Vols’ new defensive coordinator, issues on defense derailed Tennessee throughout the second half of the year.

However, it’s no secret the injury bug overcame this gritty football team, and it mostly came on the defensive side of the ball. Nevertheless, college football is always about “next man up”.

Part of the issue is that they were never fully healthy in the secondary and were decimated at defensive tackle.

On top of that, they also lost their best linebacker in Jalen Reeves-Maybin.

So when you don’t get a push in the middle, you don’t have your leader, and you aren’t fully healthy in the secondary, you’re pretty much just shot.

The only saving grace were star defensive end Derek Barnett and his partner on the opposite side, Corey Vereen.

Those two did what they could with an elite pass-rush but were not able to overcome the dramatic issues elsewhere.

And after losing Barnett, Vereen, and even LaTroy Lewis, the Vols need immediate help on the defensive line.

Now for the good news: They certainly have some rising players that most fans overlook. Although they lost a lot of talent, the defensive line has plenty of guys with lots of potential waiting to explode. So it could even be a deeper unit than last year.

Here, we’ll take a look at the Tennessee football defensive line and its potential. Let’s go by class.