KNOXVILLE - Tennessee outside linebackers coach Chris Rumph has plenty of reasons to feel good about one of his likely starters.
He still has a long way to go to figure out who the second one is going to be.
On one side, he has senior Darrell Taylor, the Southeastern Conference's top returning sack man with eight quarterback takedowns last season. On the other, he has a bunch of question marks as several players vie to be an edge rusher opposite the 6-foot-4, 255-pounder on the Bednarik Award preseason watch list.
Junior DeAndre Johnson is one option, probably the leader at the moment. But competing with him are redshirt junior Jordan Allen, redshirt sophomore Kivon Bennett and true freshmen Quavaris Crouch and Roman Harrison, each of whom will be in line to produce.
And considering all the attention expected to be paid to Taylor this season, someone will have to produce.
Tennessee co-defensive coordinator/outside linebackers coach Chris Rumph signals during warmups before the Orange and White spring football game at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, April 13, 2019, in Knoxville, Tenn."Right now if you're playing us, everyone is going to slide the protection towards Darrell, so you have to have some type of threat from the other side," Rumph said recently. "I told the other guys that I would love to play on a team with Darrell Taylor, so I can get the one-on-one matchups and have some success.
"It's going to take a group effort on the other side, and Darrell is going to have to be patient and play within the defense, and those guys know they have an opportunity to be really good."
As for Taylor, both head coach Jeremy Pruitt and defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley noted that he has "worked hard" in the offseason to get better. With uncertainty as to who is going to line up at the other outside linebacker position, the group needs someone to lead and be a voice in the room. That person is Taylor.
"I think Darrell's a guy that has really good pass-rush ability," Pruitt said recently. "He's worked hard since we've been here to learn what to do and how we want it done. It showed last year that he's got ability to be a playmaker on defense. He's searching for consistency, and with experience, knowledge and understanding, we'll see that."
Consistency has been an issue in a lot of ways since Taylor arrived in 2015. He started his Volunteers career on the defensive line, where he was coached by Steve Stripling for two seasons and by Brady Hoke in 2017. The change from Butch Jones as head coach to Pruitt meant a change to a 3-4 defense, which moved him to outside linebacker. Having Rumph means having a certain level of consistency in coaching, which should help lead to more consistency in production. Taylor did have eight sacks in 2018, but four of those came against Kentucky and three were against Georgia.
"It feels good to have the same position coach back," Taylor said this week. "All the older guys feel comfortable with him; we're comfortable knowing what the coaches want, with the vision that they have, how they want us to execute. Being comfortable like that is helping us make great strides to be the best that we can be."
"Everything is a lot faster, a lot smoother this year. We might still make little mistakes here and there, but we know everything we need to know as far as the ins and outs of the defense. That helps us be able to teach the young guys whenever they need help."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.