Tennessee football defense limited in Orange Bowl with Jeremy Banks opting out

He probably won’t be missed too much given the nature of what happened leading up to the second to last game of the season. However, that doesn’t mean Tennessee football has nothing to worry about entering the Orange Bowl to face the Clemson Tigers without Jeremy Banks.

That’s what they’ll have to do. Banks is entering the 2023 NFL Draft and will opt out of the bowl game. He joins wide receivers Jalin Hyatt and Cedric Tillman with that decision. Darnell Wright and Byron Young are also entering the draft but will play in the bowl game.

A fifth-year senior, Banks would have been out of eligibility anyway if not for the COVID eligibility ruling of 2020. He took part in the Senior Day festivities in Tennessee football’s win over the Missouri Tigers and announced his decision to opt out Christmas Eve.

Obviously, Banks’ opt-out leaves mixed feelings. There was clearly an altercation between him and Hendon Hooker, which is why he missed the Vols’ matchup against the South Carolina Gamecocks. That split appeared to play a role in the defensive woes as UT lost 63-38, costing itself a College Football Playoff spot.

At the same time, the game also showed just what the Vols are like on defense. Tim Banks has been using different stunts and blitz packages all year, with help from a solid pass rush, to cover for some of the glaring weaknesses in the secondary.

However, the pass rush had an off-night at South Carolina. Spencer Rattler found his rhythm at that moment. Then there was no Banks, and the linebackers were limited in the blitz packages they could bring, which is how you get the awful performance you got.

If no Banks can result in Tennessee football’s defense looking that bad against South Carolina, who’s to say it won’t look the same against Clemson? Of course, ironically, Clemson lost to South Carolina a week later, but the game was a lot closer.

Clemson is also starting Cade Klubnik against the Vols, which is a change from where they have been all year. Taking that into account, the Vols are likely to have an even more difficult time than they thought facing this unit.

Long-term, UT should be much better at linebacker. They added a key BYU Cougars transfer in Keenan Pili along with a collection of high-profile recruits. However, that doesn’t help them on their trip to Miami this week. Missing Banks will hurt.

Without him, Aaron Beasley and Juwan Mitchell will have to take their game to a new level. Most importantly, the ends, Young and Tyler Baron, have to be able to bring as much pressure as possible. If that happens, they could be in good shape, but it didn’t happen at South Carolina.

Once a four-star commitment in Tennessee football’s 2018 recruiting class, Banks was initially a running back. He switched to linebacker in 2019, was dismissed from the team three games in and was reinstated in 2020, staying at linebacker.