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Tennessee football roster: Projecting Vols’ 2019 2-deep depth chart

By Caleb Calhoun

LEXINGTON, KY - OCTOBER 28: Daniel Bituli #35 and Nigel Warrior #18 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrate a recovered fumble against the Kentucky Wildcats at Commonwealth Stadium on October 28, 2017 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEXINGTON, KY - OCTOBER 28: Daniel Bituli #35 and Nigel Warrior #18 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrate a recovered fumble against the Kentucky Wildcats at Commonwealth Stadium on October 28, 2017 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Inside Linebacker

1. Daniel Bituli

Senior, 6’3″ 243 pounds

Similar to Darrell Taylor, Daniel Bituli is the most obvious starter at inside linebacker for Tennessee football. He’s been a valuable player for the Vols in two different systems over the past two years, and he’s now the anchor for the Vols on the inside. Now, with Darrin Kirkland Jr. retiring, Bituli’s role is even more critical.

Jeremy Pruitt said he prefers linebackers who can play all four spots. Well, Bituli can do just that. He was recruited as an edge rusher and moved to the inside under Pruitt, so expect him to be used even more this year. Entering his senior season, he has a chance similar to Taylor to be the main star of the defense.

2. Shanon Reid

Junior, 6’0″ 230 pounds

Shanon Reid was the breakout star at inside linebacker in the spring, and he also stood out in the spring game. As a result, with a much deeper collection of inside linebackers, we have Reid as the other starter. Of course, he’ll only be in there when the Vols use their base 3-4 set and not their nickel set, but that’s still seeing a lot of action.

In the spring game, Reid led the first-team defense in tackles, and he continued to receive specific shoutouts from the coaches throughout the practices. So if nothing changes, he’s the clear favorite for this No. 2 spot. He’ll have to offset the big loss of Kirkland as well, and that is a tall task.

3. Solon Page III

Redshirt Sophomore, 6’2″ 220 pounds

Solon Page III was able to join the first-team defense in the spring game alongside Reid and Bituli. That’s enough for us to put him as the No. 3 guy on the list. Sure, we should have four guys with two inside linebackers as starters. But as we mentioned, the second guy is only in on base defenses and not nickel situations.

So there are one and a half starters on the inside, meaning there should be three guys in the rotation. Page will have to fight off the continued development of Quavaris Crouch and JJ Peterson along with the arrival of Henry To’oto’o, but his spring performance keeps him here.

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