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Tennessee football 2020 preview by position: DL

By Caleb Calhoun

AUBURN, AL - OCTOBER 13: Matthew Butler #94 of the Tennessee Volunteers in action during the game against the Auburn Tigers at Jordan Hare Stadium on October 13, 2018 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
AUBURN, AL - OCTOBER 13: Matthew Butler #94 of the Tennessee Volunteers in action during the game against the Auburn Tigers at Jordan Hare Stadium on October 13, 2018 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images /

Here is a look at the Tennessee football Volunteers defensive line for 2020.

One of the biggest reasons Tennessee football struggled early last year was the defensive line. It made sense. The Vols had to replace all three starters from the previous year in Kyle Phillips, Alexis Johnson and Shy Tuttle.

Meanwhile, Emmit Gooden, the one other main contributor to the 2018, suffered a season-ending injury. Michigan Wolverines transfer Aubrey Solomon, who was set to start, didn’t receive his eligibility waiver until the week of the opener.

Such confusion and lack of preparation is why Tennessee football could not stop the Georgia State Panthers’ offense. Shawn Elliott, to be fair, did an amazing job calling that game. Over time, though, the unit got better, and by the end of the season, Jeremy Pruitt and Derrick Ansley had a solid rotation up front.

This year, everybody was supposed to be back plus Gooden, but Gooden was dismissed from the team back in March. Meanwhile, the Vols had to replace defensive line coach Tracy Rocker with an up and comer in Jimmy Brumbaugh this offseason.

So what does this all mean? Well, in this post, we’re going to break all that down as we preview the Vols’ 2020 season at defensive line. We’ll separate the slides by projected starters, projected rotational players, projected backup defensive tackles and projected backup defensive ends.

Although Pruitt often times uses four linemen in his nickel defense, we’re going to go with the standard three players among our projected starters. The general formation for UT’s 3-4 is two defensive tackles, including one nose guard, and a defensive end.

That’s how we’ll analyze the situation here. As usual, our final two slides will include the biggest questions and a final take. So let’s continue with our preview for the Vols heading into 2020 by beginning to look at the defensive side of the ball. This is our analysis of the Tennessee football defensive linemen for the season.

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