Tennessee football’s top five performers in 63-6 win vs. Akron
Scouting Report. Linebacker. Jeremy Banks. player. Pick Analysis. r-Senior. 3. 839
5 solo tackles; 1 TFL; 1 FF
The first two weeks of the season saw Aaron Beasley emerge for Tennessee football at linebacker, and with Juwan Mitchell back in this game, there was a genuine reason to believe that Jeremy Banks may see his role decrease. He certainly didn’t have the best stat line of any linebacker for the Vols in the game.
That title lies with Elijah Herring, who came away with two sacks. Banks also had help from the defensive line, as Byron Young brought pressure twice. Meanwhile, Tyre West had two tackles for a loss, Joshua Josephs had one, and Bryson Eason and James Pearce Jr. each had a sack. However, Josephs, West, Herring, Eason and Pearce all did their work in mop-up duty.
Banks did his work when it was still a bit of a game. His solo tackle count was higher than anybody else’s total tackle count in this matchup. That speaks for itself. However, what really put him on here was that forced fumble. Akron was in the red zone and driving for a score, and Banks and Flowers forced a Daniel George fumble together.
LaTrell Bumphus then recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchback. Flowers deserves a shoutout for that play as well, but when you combine Banks’ whole stat line with that, he’s the one who deserves the helmet sticker here. Solon Page III deserves a shoutout too, though, with three solo tackles in the game.