Tennessee football: Ranking Vols position groups by spring practice play

9. Defensive Line

Position coach: Tracy Rocker

Notable players: Emmit Gooden, Matthew Butler

Throughout spring practice, Jeremy Pruitt’s comments suggested that this was clearly Tennessee football’s worst unit. And to be quite honest, that was not surprising. While most positions return a ton of talent, this one lost everything.

The defensive line was one key strength for the Vols last year with Alexis Johnson, Kyle Phillips and Shy Tuttle. But with all of them gone and Emmit Gooden the only one with any real experience coming back, the Vols clearly had some work to do.

They were unable to identify the talent they fully needed, and that’s why this unit is next to last. It would have been last place if not for the spring game. However, in that game specifically, Gooden played well and Matthew Butler, a guy the coaches had been touting, stood out. As a result, it was able to move ahead of the offensive line.

More good news for this unit is the fact that three new guys are arriving this summer. That includes two junior college transfers, one of whom is a four-star, and another four-star freshman. So Jeremy Pruitt, Derrick Ansley and Tracy Rocker will have time to build depth here at that point.

When it comes specifically to play in spring practice, however, there was no way to avoid the fact that this was an underperforming unit. Even with the spring game, you couldn’t ignore all the quotes about the group. So it’s No. 9 on our list.