Minutes after Tennessee’s first football season under Josh Heupel ended Dec. 30 with a 48-45 overtime loss to Purdue in the Music City Bowl, the coach was flanked in a news conference by quarterback Hendon Hooker, receiver Cedric Tillman and safety Theo Jackson.
It didn’t take a course in Symbolism 101 to recognize that Hooker and Tillman would be viewed as the faces of the program moving into 2022 and that Jackson’s departure would create a defensive leadership void along with the exits of two additional seniors – defensive tackle Matthew Butler and cornerback Alontae Taylor.
With Tennessee’s second spring under Heupel set to conclude Monday, senior safeties Trevon Flowers and Jaylen “Tank” McCollough have assumed a sizable share of that responsibility.
“Those are two guys who have completely thrust themselves forward,” Heupel said in a news conference that followed Thursday’s third and final spring scrimmage. “They recognize that it’s needed – the leadership inside that room and on the defensive side of the football – and they recognize and accept that they have a role to play in that. They’ve embraced it and they’ve grown.
“You can sense and feel their energy out on the practice field every day. They have grown into becoming really strong leaders for us.”
Flowers and McCollough are former Atlanta-area signees, with Flowers a fifth-year senior from Tucker High School and McCollough four years removed from Hillgrove High in the suburb of Austell. Flowers flirted with leaving early for the NFL before quickly revealing that he would return, which secondary coach Willie Martinez considers the mature and intelligent decision.
Tennessee Athletics photo / Tennessee safety Jaylen McCullough, shown as a freshman collecting a 10-yard sack of former Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, is now a senior and one of the defensive leaders for the Volunteers.The Volunteers worked this spring without cornerbacks Warren Burrell, Kamal Hadden and De’Shawn Rucker due to injuries, but sophomore Christian Charles moving up from safety to corner and the growth of Flowers and McCollough helped prevent any kind of lost cause for that position area.
“When I first got here, Theo and Alontae were two of the guys I leaned on,” McCollough said. “Seeing them put in the work day in and day out on and off the field and seeing them achieve their dreams (as NFL draft hopefuls) is something we’ll talk about forever. I’m proud of those guys, and I know they’ll do great.”
Said Flowers of the leadership role: “It’s huge with young guys coming in and trying to bring them along. Leading on and off the field is going to be huge when it comes to that sixth or seventh game of the season and we’re all tired and banged up.”
Whether Tennessee can improve defensively from a year ago will be an obvious factor in determining if the Vols will build on their 7-6 season that included a third-place finish in the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division. They tied for eighth nationally with 7.85 tackles for loss per game, but they ranked 90th in scoring defense (allowing 29.1 points per game), 99th in total defense (yielding 421.7 yards) and 101st in third-down conversions (allowing a 42.13% success rate).
Junior defensive tackle Omari Thomas insisted this spring that he is ready to assume more responsibilities as well.
“When you have players like Matt Butler, who led me as a young player, I was able to learn things under his wing that has allowed me to step up and be a more vocal leader,” Thomas said.
As for linebacker, who knows?
Leading tackler Jeremy Banks has battled being so aggressive that it leads to unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, while defensive coordinator Tim Banks admitted earlier this spring that it took Texas transfer Juwan Mitchell some time to become a good teammate. Perhaps productive edge rusher Byron Young could be an answer given that he is more than a year removed from his stint at Georgia Military College.
More defensive leaders certainly would be welcomed, but at least the Vols have Flowers and McCollough as starting points.
“They’ve taken their level of leadership to another step, and we’ve been really excited about that,” Martinez said. “They’ve taken a lot more ownership in every detail that we do.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.