Tennessee football: Top 10 position battles in Vols 2019 fall camp

5. No. 2 Outside linebacker

Candidates:

Deandre Johnson; Jordan Allen; Kivon Bennett

Just like inside linebacker, Tennessee football is completely set at outside linebacker. Daniel Bituli will be the best defensive player on the team alongside maybe Nigel Warrior, but Darrell Taylor should be the breakout start in terms of stats.

After Taylor, though, there is an opening. Jeremy Pruitt never fully found a consistent outside linebacker to replace Jonathan Kongbo after his season-ending injury against the Auburn Tigers last year.

Deandre Johnson is the favorite, and he did have 13 tackles, three tackles for a loss and two sacks while starting sporadically for just half the season. But there is certainly competition here with a couple of other guys.

Redshirt junior Jordan Allen was the four-star junior college transfer in 2018 who brought with him a ton of potential that he just hasn’t reached yet. He’ll be in the running to get that starting spot as well.

Then there’s redshirt sophomore Kivon Bennett. At 6’2″ 248 pounds, Bennett stood out in the spring as a very solid outside linebacker, and he could give Allen and Johnson a great push for that other spot. Roman Harrison, a four-star commitment at the position, is also on the roster, but he’s not a reason for it being open this year.

All three other players will be in contention to start, and although Johnson is the favorite, he is only a slight favorite. Johnson has the in-game production, Allen has the potential, and Bennett has the practice production. Among the three, though, you could see something change pretty quickly this fall camp.