Tennessee football: Ranking Vols position groups by spring practice play

7. Defensive Back

Position coach: Derrick Ansley

Notable players: Nigel Warrior, Baylen Buchanan Jaylen McCullough

Tennessee football has a mix of veterans and standout weapons who became noticed at defensive back at some point in spring practice. They also went from two coaches last year leading safeties and cornerbacks separately to one coach this year leading them all in Derrick Ansley, who is also the defensive coordinator.

The Vols should be in good shape here overall with Bryce Thompson and Alontae Taylor locking up the cornerback positions and ready to explode, Nigel Warrior and Baylen Buchanan as the veterans in the group, and guys like Jaylen McCullough making a splash arrival. McCullough had two interceptions in the spring game.

But they still need to build more depth, and Trevon Flowers, Theo Jackson or somebody else needs to be able to stand out at that other safety spot. So there were certain questions that weren’t answered during spring ball, and it’s a reason Jeremy Pruitt focused as heavily on recruiting defensive backs as he did on offensive linemen with this past class.

In the spring game, the Vols’ first team defense had issues stopping the pass as time went on. Despite getting pressure up front and inconsistent play from Jarrett Guarantano, they got torched at times.

Yes, that’s a bit concerning going into Fall camp. But hey, again, it’s spring practice, and more depth is on the way. So we’re not going to read too much into it just yet, but the play did force us to move this unit down on our list.