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

2. The focus is on the trenches. 

Building off our last point about the defensive line, Tennessee football clearly has a focus on the offensive and defensive lines this year. We knew that would be the case before the season began, and it’s coming true.

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The Rocky Top Insider staff noted as an observation from the Vols’ third spring practice that Jim Chaney was spending tons of time working with the offensive line. A former offensive lineman and offensive line coach himself, that makes sense.

However, it also makes sense that he would be there given how bad the unit was last year and all the opening spots this year. With two early enrollees at offensive line on campus available for spring, Chaney knows he has tons of work to do.

Meanwhile, that same post noted Jeremy Pruitt was spending a ton of time with Tracy Rocker and working on the defensive line. He has hinted in his press conferences the issue with winning the line of scrimmage as he has lamented how much better the offense is than the defense.

As a result, we can read between the lines. The defense has a ton of work to do up front, which we already mentioned in the last post was due to so many departures. With the search for three new linemen on, don’t expect this to change much throughout the spring.

The Vols have lots of newcomers on both sides set to arrive in the summer, and that’ll change things a lot. But the guys there now still need to do a lot of improving, and the coaches have to work with what they’ve got. They can’t afford to not develop the lines, and that’s why they’re such a focus for the team.