Defensive coordinator Bob Shoop signals instruction during Tennessee's practice at Haslam Field on Aug. 1, 2016.KNOXVILLE -- Nearly seven months after he was hired away from Penn State to be Tennessee's new defensive coordinator, Bob Shoop finally is getting to see the defensive line he's inheriting at full strength.
With more than half of the position sitting out spring practices for various reasons, Shoop often wondered aloud about how the position group would look when everybody returned to health.
So far, so good.
"It looks different out there," Shoop said Wednesday afternoon.
Now, however, he sees the problem at hand.
"At the end position, it's three-deep, which is pretty legit," Shoop said before rattling off the talent that will be at his disposal this season.
"That's seven D-ends right there," he concluded, "that I've got to find reps for at some particular point."
The Volunteers are talented and deep at nearly every position. It's why they were picked to win the SEC East this season. It's what you need to compete for championships in college football's toughest league.
Tennessee might be its deepest at defensive end.
"Derek Barnett is as advertised after two days," Shoop said. "He's the heart and soul of the group on defense. He says jump, they say how high. He says run, they say how fast. He's that type of leader. He's kind of my muscle, if you will, my enforcer.
"Seeing Corey Vereen out there -- and I've said this -- I think by the end of the year people are going to be talking about him nationwide. He had a touchdown yesterday in practice on a fumble recovery return. He's done well.
"LaTroy Lewis, here's a guy who's a veteran, and I think he and Danny O'Brien and (linebacker) Kenny Bynum are the fifth-year guys who have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of the SEC. I have tremendous amount of respect for him.
"Jonathan Kongbo, he's learning how to be a Division I football player, but he's got the size and skill set to be a really good player. I haven't even mentioned the fact that Kyle Phillips has two sacks in two days coming off his injury, and Darrell Taylor and Dimarya Mixon are guys who have practiced really well the first two days as well."
Shoop and the Vols might need a couple of those players to help out at a thinner position.
With Shy Tuttle's health in question and Alexis Johnson indefinitely suspended, Tennessee potentially could be down to four scholarship defensive tackles (O'Brien, Kendal Vickers, Kahlil McKenzie and Quay Picou) for the start of the season.
Shoop called those four players "warriors" for handling the workload they did in the spring and through two practices this season.
Tennessee's Corey Vereen, tackling Bowling Green's Fred Coppet in the season opener, is a big reason why the Volunteers' pass rush has been more effective during the past two games against Alabama and Kentucky."Shy's doing what he's capable of doing," he said. "Kahlil, the type of weight he's lost, we challenged him to do that and he's done that. Obviously it's hard to tell when you're in no pads with a lineman, but he's been as we expected. Danny O'Brien is a leader and a kind of a lunch pail-type guy and done a really good job.
"Kendal's a guy who's in that same boat. He's kind of getting it back after missing the spring, but he's solidified the whole thing and done really well."
Shoop indicated a couple of ends will slide inside in certain packages or to handle reps in practice. Barnett volunteered to do it. Kongbo and Mixon are the other two options.
"I'm going to find it hard getting even reps for seven guys on the perimeter," he explained, "so we have packages and thoughts to work (ends) inside."
He compared Kongbo to former Penn State star Anthony Zettel, a rotational defensive end who slid inside to tackle and became the Big Ten defensive lineman of the year in 2014.
"You transition a guy to a big three-technique who's explosive and dynamic and all those things," Shoop said, "and he might have a bright future."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.