McKenzie is ‘making plays,’ but Vols looking for more from defensive line

KNOXVILLE – Tennessee entered the 2015 football season hopeful it would have one of the most talented and disruptive defensive lines in the SEC.

It’s not gone according to that plan for the Volunteers, though.

The loss of Curt Maggitt, perhaps Tennessee’s best defensive playmaker, six quarters into the season obviously has been a big blow the Vols haven’t been able to overcome, and a less-than-100-percent Derek Barnett hasn’t been able to make the same impact as a sophomore he made as a freshman.

The bright spot for defensive line coach Steve Stripling’s unit was the progress of freshman tackles Shy Tuttle and Kahlil McKenzie, but Tuttle was lost for the season when he suffered a broken leg and torn ankle ligaments against Georgia two weeks ago.

“Shy was crushed,” Stripling said this week. “He has that personality and, I’ve always said, that racehorse mentality (that) on game day he gets really excited. He was crushed.

“What you tell a young man like that is stay part of the team. He’s in every meeting, so we’re keeping him involved. He’s still got a long, bright future ahead of him.

“It’s just going to be a lengthy recovery, and he’s just going to have to focus on that like he was focusing on this football.”

Tuttle’s loss means Tennessee will enter the second half of the season, which starts Saturday at eighth-ranked Alabama, with four healthy defensive tackles.

McKenzie, the former five-star recruit, may be playing the best of the quartet.

The 6-foot-3, 344-pounder made nine tackles in his last two games, both against run-first teams in Arkansas and Georgia. McKenzie started the second half of the win against the Bulldogs and made his biggest impact to date. Georgia managed just 27 yards on 13 running plays when the freshman was in the game.

“Kahlil’s making plays,” Stripling said. “It’s a funny thing about D-linemen. Sometimes they’ll get a lot of snaps and make no plays, and sometimes a guy will go in there for 30 snaps and get five tackles. That’s what I like about him. He ends up being around the football.

“It was the same thing with Shy. From day one, Shy was that way. It’s just the ability to go in and make some plays and be around the football.”

McKenzie may not get his first start Saturday, but he figures to play plenty as the Vols try to slow Derrick Henry and Alabama’s ground game, which produced a season-best 258 yards at Texas A&M last week.

“Kahlil’s made great strides,” defensive coordinator John Jancek said. “He’s playing better with his hands, his pad level and all his fundamentals. He’s getting better in pass rush. He’s certainly not where we want him to be just yet, but as a true freshman I see improvement there. We’ve just got to keep working.”

Tennessee’s struggles in the pass rush certainly go beyond McKenzie.

The Vols recorded just nine sacks – defensive linemen are responsible for only four – in the season’s first six games, and only Arkansas has fewer in the SEC. The Vols also have just 29 tackles for loss after racking up 91 last season, and they have surrendered six runs of 30 or more yards.

In 2014, Tennessee was tied for third in the SEC with 35 sacks, the program’s highest single-season total since 2001.

Jancek acknowledged last week Tennessee’s inconsistency in generating pressure with four rushers, and Stripling said he studied the team’s “line games,” another term for twists and stunts on the defensive line, in the first half of the season as he looks for ways to improve the Vols’ ability to disrupt opposing quarterbacks.

Freshman defensive end Kyle Phillips carved out a role in Tennessee’s third-down pass-rushing package, and even though he’s been slowed by a shoulder injury suffered against Arkansas, Stripling said his role should increase.

Maggitt’s absence – he led the Vols with 11 sacks last season – has been the biggest detriment there, as replacements Corey Vereen and LaTroy Lewis have combined for seven quarterback hurries and 2.5 tackles for loss this season.

“Those two guys are usually always in the right spot,” Stripling said. “They know what to do. You’d like to see bigger play capability out of them, and that’s what we talked to them about, is making more plays. What they bring to the table is experience and soundness.”

The defensive line will need to play its best game of the season for the Vols to have a chance at the upset Saturday.

“Guys are going to have to do a really good job of leveraging and playing with their hands and getting off blocks,” Jancek said. “Everybody’s got to do their job on every single play.”

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com