KNOXVILLE – Tennessee’s Bob Shoop and Darrin Kirkland Jr. may be one of the most interesting defensive coordinator-middle linebacker combinations in college football.
The former has an economics degree from Yale, while the latter’s skill set includes a photographic memory.
Two days after Shoop praised Kirkland for his “unique personality” and challenged him on defensive schemes, the sophomore had some peculiar remarks about his first-year coordinator.
“He’s a laid-back kind of guy, but he’s kind of fiery as well,” Kirkland said following Tennessee’s scrimmage Saturday at Neyland Stadium. “He’s very smart (with) a beautiful mind. I take his message well.
“Me and him, we’re both very mental guys, so it really helps a lot.”
From all accounts, the Vols’ adjustment to Shoop this spring is going well, even if it is a relatively simple one. The transition is more of an assimilation than an overhaul for Shoop – who led successfully stingy defenses at Vanderbilt and Penn State before being hired by Tennessee in the offseason – as he tries to do his part to get the Vols over the hump.
“We’ve maintained our same terminology, so the learning curve has been lessened because of that,” head coach Butch Jones said. “Bob’s done a great job. Our players have really, really bought into everything (and) they understand what we’re trying to do. Every night in the Anderson Training Center, his office is filled with players coming in and wanting to be around him and talk football.”
Kirkland is one of the more frequent visitors. He and Shoop have watched film of the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos, two of the NFL’s top defenses last season, while trying to relate what those units do to what the Vols want to do.
“We have conversation when it comes to football,” Kirkland said. “We’re breaking things down, and we might see things differently. You could always play things differently. We have great talks about different things, so it’s really good.”
Kirkland said he has been watching film of NFL linebackers like Carolina’s Luke Kuechly and San Francisco’s Navarro Bowman, trying to learn from them so he can build off his All-Southeastern Conference freshman season. Last season Kirkland was fourth on his team and second among SEC freshmen with 66 tackles, but he’s one of a handful of sophomores the Vols need to take the next step in 2016.
“I’m really just trying to grow as a better football player and overall just trying to learn so when it comes fall time, there’s no missteps, no mishaps and I lead the defense to the best of my ability,” he said. “I feel like if I do that, I know we’ll be really successful when the time comes.”
With so many key players out this spring, Shoop is trying to strike a balance between installing new schemes and keeping it simple to help him more effectively evaluate each player he’s inheriting. He’s leaning on defensive assistants Steve Stripling, Tommy Thigpen and Willie Martinez to identify what the Vols did well last season while enhancing those strengths and implementing what he had success doing at Penn State and Vanderbilt.
“We’ve kind of installed piece by piece. One day it was a certain type of coverage, then the next day a certain type of coverage, the next day a certain type of coverage. Then this week we started to install some blitzes,” Shoop said earlier this spring.
“It is installing a package, but really for me, personally, and for us, it’s kind of looking at the hand that we’ve been dealt and evaluating personnel as independent pieces. Ultimately, the second half of spring as we evolve into (preseason) camp, it’ll be putting the right guys in the right position so we can have a good unit.”
In many cases having a new coordinator equals sweeping changes, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Shoop and the Vols.
“Every individual’s different, and when you hire a coordinator, you’re hiring their brand,” Jones said. “You’re hiring their style of play and their philosophy. When he came on the interview, his philosophy matched our program’s philosophy from A to Z, and it is a tribute to him. There is no ego.
“He’s done a great job of really adapting and adjusting, but you can also see the imprint of his personality starting to happen as well.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.