The season-ending knee injury to Tennessee seventh-year linebacker Keenan Pili against Florida last month didn’t just up the responsibilities for the current starting tandem of Arion Carter and Jeremiah Telander.
It opened a world of opportunity for Jalen Smith as well.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound redshirt freshman from the Atlanta suburb of Grayson racked up nine tackles for the No. 7 Volunteers during last Saturday night’s 28-18 downing of Kentucky in Neyland Stadium. That shattered his previous high of four, which he set in the opener against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and matched against Florida.
“I think it was just the film study and making sure that my eyes were correct everywhere and locking in on my keys,” Smith said this week in a news conference of his most recent performance. “Just being prepared really helped and contributed, as well as the D-line playing vertical. They kept me clean all night, so I was able to go make plays.”
Tennessee improved to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in Southeastern Conference play, and the Vols will try to sweep the home portion of their league schedule this Saturday night (7 on ESPN) when they host Mississippi State. The Bulldogs under first-year coach Jeff Lebby are just 2-7 and have lost all five of their SEC contests.
Smith was a four-star prospect who committed to the Vols in July 2022 after taking official visits the previous month to Virginia, Tennessee, Texas and Pittsburgh. He enrolled that December and got in five games last season, including the Citrus Bowl spanking of Iowa, which protected his redshirt year.
His freshman season contained just four tackles, never amassing more than one in any game, so defining this year for Smith as significantly improved would be accurate.
“The one thing we’ve really liked about Jalen is that he’s been consistent,” Vols linebackers coach William Inge said Tuesday. “He’s been someone who’s been very eager to learn, and he’s understood the system. He’s been able to grasp both positions, and we’ve been very pleased with him. From my perspective, he needs to be more vocal, because he’s a very humble and quiet person by nature.
“As a linebacker, you’ve got to know that the show doesn’t start until you arrive, and everyone has to know that you’re there.”
Smith was getting a better feel for the game even when Pili was healthy, logging 17 snaps during the rout of North Carolina State and 14 in the loss at Arkansas. Yet a nine-tackle performance could certainly have him hungry for more, which is fine by the Vols.
“We all love Keenan, and we all look up to him and respect him, of course, but now that he’s out, we just have to focus on the next man up, and everybody needs to be ready,” Smith said. “Every time I get in, I try to make the most of it. Opportunities don’t always come.
“When they do, you’ve got to make the most of them for sure. You never know what can happen.”
‘Freaking special’
Last Saturday night’s 6-yard pass from Nico Iamaleava to tight end Miles Kitselman in the back of the end zone was much more than a touchdown that put the Vols up 21-10 in the final minute of the third quarter.
At least in the eyes of Tennessee tight ends coach Alec Abeln.
“The tight zone totally played out different than what we expected and what was on tape from really three years of going against that defense,” Abeln said Tuesday. “Honestly, it was a dead play that those two guys made right. It was pretty freaking special up in the box, and we were losing our minds when that one happened.”
Familiar faces
Although Saturday’s game isn’t providing nearly the history lesson as Tennessee’s trip in September to Oklahoma, where Vols head coach Josh Heupel served as the quarterback and later as offensive coordinator, there is plenty of background familiarity between Vols and Bulldogs coaches.
Lebby was Heupel’s quarterbacks coach at UCF in 2018 and his offensive coordinator in 2019, and four of Lebby’s assistants — running backs coach Anthony Tucker, cornerbacks coach Corey Bell, tight ends coach Jon Cooper and special teams coordinator Cliff Odom — also coached under Heupel in Orlando.
“I’ve known Jeff for a long time, dating all the way back to Oklahoma when he was still a student there,” Heupel said. “I have great respect for him and his staff. I know a bunch of their guys, and they’re good people and good coaches who are doing a good job down there.
“It will be unique in that I have sat in the staff room with those guys before.”
Tucker, Bell and Cooper work in the exact same roles under Lebby that they had under Heupel, while Odom was a special teams quality control coach at UCF.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.