Tennessee football: Four Vols whose return to health could help in 2020

Last year, Emmit Gooden suffered a suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, ending his season, during fall camp. That was disastrous, as Tennessee football had to replace all three starting defensive linemen from the previous year, and Michigan Wolverines transfer Aubrey Solomon wasn’t cleared to play until the week of the season-opener.

As a result, the Vols took a big hit by losing Gooden, the one regular contributor from their 2018 team. His loss was evident in the opener, as UT could not get any push to shut down the Georgia State Panthers rushing offense, which was the biggest reason they lost. Lack of consistent pressure was a recurring theme early on.

However, he’s down to No. 3 on this list because of how much the line developed. Solomon, Greg Emerson and Darel Middleton became stars. Savion Williams can still play. And Gooden is returning to a loaded unit, meaning he is just an exclamation point to make the defensive line elite with no issues when it comes to depth.

This is not a knock on Gooden. In fact, him being down at No. 3 shows how exciting it is for the Vols to be able to have such a loaded rotation of defensive tackles this year. Gooden will likely return and be the key player in that rotation, but he’s coming back to a much better unit.