Tennessee football’s top five options to replace Matthew Butler

A major part of Jeremy Pruitt’s system, Kurott Garland brings lots of experience to Tennessee football, which should be a huge help.

Somewhat of a hybrid between Matthew Butler and Omari Thomas, Kurott Garland is one of the most experienced players in Tennessee football’s system. He seemed to be pushed down the depth chart in Tim Banks’ new system, but then late in the year, he managed to become a key player for the Vols again.

That included two tackles for a loss, a sack and a safety as part of three overall tackles against the South Alabama Jaguars and then two tackles against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Garland started against the South Carolina Gamecocks as well, and he had four tackles against the Alabama Crimson Tide, so he was still a solid contributor.

Now, with three defensive tackles gone, there is clearly an opening for him to get into the rotation, and it’s likely Rodney Garner switches up his priorities this year, going more for size, given his personnel. That’s conducive to a guy like Garland and gives him a great chance, as one of the smaller guys over 300 pounds up front, to replace Butler.

For the year, Garland still had 16 tackles, nine of which were solo, to go along with those two tackles for a loss. There is every reason in the world to believe he could take on a larger role this year. Remember, his emergence in 2019 after initially withdrawing from the transfer portal was shocking. He could emerge again now.