Tennessee football: 5 takeaways from Vols first week of spring practice

3. Defense is a major concern.

Part of what may be making Jarrett Guarantano look so good is the poor defense. Jeremy Pruitt has said in multiple press conferences that Tennessee football is far ahead on offense of where it is on defense at this point. He noted that in the third practice the offense “kicked the defense’s tail,” and he added that it was about as bad as he’d seen in a full-padded practice.

We already mentioned in another post the fact that the Vols being so far ahead on offense can signal concerns for the season. That’s just been the history of spring ball. You always want your defense to be ahead, and for the second straight year, that’s not the case on Rocky Top.

However, one thing that stood out is that despite his touting of the offense, Pruitt was more negative when he got into the details. That includes pointing out specific mistakes such as too many fumbles at times, quarterback-center exchange issues and penalties.

Taking that into account, the only thing you can gather is that the Vols are simply a disaster on defense right now, and it’s making the offense look way better than it is. To be fair, they have much more experience on offense.

But early signs suggest every negative we mentioned about the defensive line is coming true. UT lost all three players up front from last year, and they were the anchor of the whole defense. So a major drop-off in production was a fear, and it’s showing early signs of happening.