Tennessee football: 10 biggest winners from spring practice 2021

6’1″ 220 pounds; Hometown: Conyers, Ga.

Yes, we’re sticking with linebackers, and in this case, we have another inside linebacker. However, Kwauze Garland is a surprise success story for Tennessee football during spring ball. Given all the roster turmoil there, everybody got a look, even long snapper Will Albright, but Garland, a former walk-on, was the one who began to turn a lot of heads.

Brian Jean-Mary touted the walk-on out of Heritage High School in Georgia’s Rockdale County specifically when mentioning the players who improved dramatically throughout the practices. Although his brother, Kurrott Garland, gets a lot more attention for what he’s able to do at nose tackle, the spring was his time.

Josh Heupel also named Garland specifically as a standout linebacker a couple of weeks before the spring game in an interview with The Swain Event. That combined with Jean-Mary’s touting of his play means he definitely did enough to improve his stock.

In the Orange and White game itself, Garland assisted on three tackles, including a tackle for a loss. That’s not much, but every linebacker struggled in that game, and in fact the whole defense struggled. There’s going to be more competition in fall camp, but it’s clear Garland did himself a lot of favors this past spring.