Tennessee football: Morven Joseph in portal, Walter Nolen committing elsewhere huge concerns

It’s understandable for a couple of personnel losses affecting the future for Tennessee football on defense to be clouded by such a huge win at the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday. But given what was on display in that Vols’ victory, these issues are connected.

Everybody saw how, despite UT’s win, they struggled to tackle. The Vols couldn’t stop the run because linebackers couldn’t get off blocks. Although Josh Heupel got a top 20 win on the road and effectively guaranteed a winning season on Rocky Top his first year, those issues were glaring.

To solve these issues, he’s got to get better talent to Knoxville, and cashing in on such a strong win to make a strong statement his first season should do that. The opposite is now happening for Tennessee football, though.

Just before the game Saturday night, the Vols lost out on their top target on the recruiting trail. Five-star defensive lineman Walter Nolen, who moved to Knox County, Tenn. earlier this year and joined Powell High School, committed to the Texas A&M Aggies over the Vols.

Standing between 6’4″ and 6’5″ while weighing between 300 and 325 pounds, Nolen is the No. 2 ranked overall player in the nation on Rivals and 247Sports and the No. 1 ranked overall player on ESPN. He could immediately step in and start at defensive tackle anywhere he goes, and at least verbally, he has picked A&M. The announcement came on Twitter.

Two days after Nolen’s commitment to A&M, the Vols took another hit with their front seven. Linebacker Morven Joseph, who was a four-star edge rusher across the board in UT’s 2020 class, announced on Twitter he is entering the transfer portal.

On the surface, Joseph doesn’t seem like a big loss. Despite playing 10 games as a reserve in 2020 and showing promise, the 6’2″ 215-pound sophomore saw action as a reserve early this season but then remained on the bench once Byron Young started to get a larger role. For the year, he only has one tackle, a sack against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles.

However, when you combine Nolen’s commitment elsewhere with Joseph’s decision to enter the transfer, Tennessee football has a problem. The fact is they aren’t deep enough as it is in the front seven, and they already have problems there.

Next year, with Matthew Butler, LaTrell Bumphus, Aubrey Solomon and Ja’Quain Blakely all set to graduate, the’ll be even thinner. Sure, Juwan Mitchell will be back, so they’ll be deeper at linebacker, but they need all the bodies they can get there.

Joseph appears to be a quality player who just needed time to develop in this new system. Although he may not have been ready to go this year, things could have been much better in 2022 and beyond, even with guys like Kalib Perry, Elijah Herring and Venson Sneed committing.

There is now a major depth issue for the Vols going forward. Losing Nolen is a bigger deal because of what the Vols are about to lose on the line, but Joseph transferring doesn’t help matters. Everybody can see this team needs help in its front seven.

Now, Nolen could still back out and commit to Tennessee football. Joseph could return to the Vols after entering the portal. Nothing is set in stone yet. However, amidst a thrilling win that seems like it will do wonders for the future of the program, these two things happening to the defense bring more concerns about what will happen under Josh Heupel.