Tennessee football: Five UAB Blazers to watch for against Vols

5. Tony Fair

Defensive Lineman; Junior

6’3″ 355 pounds

He doesn’t have the same level of stats that other players for the UAB Blazers have on defense. But Tony Fair is the guy who spurs everything for the defense in the front seven. He’s the non-glamorous nose tackle getting the push that allows for the other players to help Bill Clark’s team reach the top five nationally in tackles for a loss and sacks.

Fair is also a pretty impressive playmaker on his own as well, to be fair. After all, he has 19 tackles, 12 of which were solo, along with three tackles for a loss, as sack and two forced fumbles. So even as the guy who does all the legwork up front for everybody else, he is still finding ways to make splash plays in big moments.

Lining up in the middle, he’ll be facing off with two of Tennessee football’s best offensive linemen at times, Brandon Kennedy at center and Trey Smith at guard. The Vols have been improving dramatically in recent weeks up front, and they’ve got to continue to do that if they are going to win this game.

Part of that improvement means containing a guy like Fair, who’s got amazing size and is actually agile enough to make big plays. He would be good enough to play nose tackle in the SEC. Kennedy and Smith, however, are elite interior offensive linemen. It’s a great matchup, and Kennedy in particular, who was last week’s SEC offensive lineman of the week, needs to handle Fair.