Tennessee football: Top 10 winners from Vols 2019 spring practice

While Tennessee football’s offensive line needs to improve largely with returning talent, the defensive line, which was the best part of the team last year, is focusing on replacing everybody this offseason. The losses of Alexis Johnson, Kyle Phillips and Shy Tuttle are killers, especially when the depth on the line was horrible last year.

Only Emmit Gooden was a proven defensive lineman, so he had a clear starting spot already. But with three newcomers on the line coming in the summer, two of whom are junior college guys, the other linemen needed to step up this spring to have a chance at being in the rotation.

Well, Matthew Butler was that guy. He was the one specific defensive lineman outside of Gooden the coaches touted this spring. At 6’4″ 285 pounds, he’s likely to always line up on the end, but he’s definitely a guy who can play on the line even in Jeremy Pruitt’s system.

Butler amplified this talk with his play in the spring game, as he had one and a half tackles, including a sack. Sure, Deandre Johnson and Nigel Warrior had sacks, but they’re somewhat locked into starting roles for now and didn’t get mentioned specifically in the spring. To be praised by the coaches and then step up in the spring game is a big deal for Butler. That’s why he’s on the list.