Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner is way too “old school” to bestow midseason greatness on his position group.
Garner is not, however, devoid of appreciation.
“The depth of the room and the way we’ve played in the room is healthy competition,” Garner said this week in a news conference. “It creates guys who know that they have to play hard and play physical, or they’re going to be out and sitting over with me. They have a choice, and every man gets to make that choice.
“Based on those choices and how they perform, that determines how much they play. The guys have been very good, and they’ve been very responsive.”
The No. 7 Volunteers, who are 6-1 overall and 3-1 in Southeastern Conference play, continued preparations Wednesday for Saturday night’s game (7:45 on the SEC Network) against Kentucky at Neyland Stadium. The Wildcats have lost three straight games to slip to 3-5 and just 1-5 within the league.
Tennessee’s defensive front was expected to be a team strength with multiyear seniors Dominic Bailey, Bryson Eason, Omarr Norman-Lott, Elijah Simmons and Omari Thomas, and with the edge-rushing talents of James Pearce Jr. and Joshua Josephs. That contingent has delivered so far this season, as have the promising likes of Daevin Hobbs, Jayson Jenkins and Tyre West.
The Vols are ranked second nationally in run defense, allowing just 79.0 ground yards per game. They are third in both total defense (259.0 yards per game) and scoring defense (11.6 points per game).
“I think it comes from them being connected in the meeting room,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said. “Those guys are playing at a high level, and they understand how playing multiple guys makes us better later in the football game and throughout the course of the season. At the end of the day, it has made our defensive line and our defensive unit stronger.”
Said Garner: “I like the camaraderie in the room. I don’t feel like there is any jealousy in the room. I think the guys really enjoy playing for one another. I think they have fun playing together, and they seem to do a really good job of encouraging, critiquing, coaching and pushing each other where it’s not always 100% coach-led. We are making some progress in that area.”
Tennessee’s lone offseason transfer to the defensive front was Jaxson Moi from Stanford, and the 6-foot-2, 307-pound junior has blended right in. Moi has 11 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss, including one sack.
“From day one when you get here, Coach Garner lets us know we are going to compete,” Moi said, “but at the end of the day, we are a family. A lot of people think that you want to be the only guy, but when you have others who are just as talented and capable as you, it opens up how many plays you can make yourself. They can’t just team up or game plan for one player when you have a whole D-line of great athletes.”
Garner, who played at Auburn from 1984-88 and has been on an SEC coaching staff since 1990, has worked with plenty of great athletes over the years but never had a Samoan player until now.
“Having a chance to coach Jaxson has been a joy, and it’s everything that I dreamt that it would be,” Garner said. “What he stands for and his character and his work ethic have been really good for that room. He has fit in great with that room. I’m really excited about continuing to see his growth, because I do think that he has true, natural leadership ability.
“In this generation, that stuff is getting harder and harder to find. When you have it and you find it, you have to cherish it.”
Perhaps Garner will eventually label this defensive line as a great one. The adage “You’re only as good as your last game” certainly supports Tennessee’s defensive front, as the Vols held Alabama to just 75 rushing yards and limited elusive Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe to 14 carries for 11 yards, with Milroe’s total affected by three sacks.
There is also the matter of ranking among the top three nationally in multiple defensive categories — the Vols are No. 1 in third-down conversion defense with a stingy 23.7% success rate — which seemed unfathomable given where this program was not that long ago.
“We’ve spent four years trying to change the culture and trying to instill in these young men how blessed they are to have an opportunity to play somewhere like the University of Tennessee and what an honor it is to have a ‘T’ on the side of your helmet,” Garner said. “We are always playing for something bigger than us individually, be it the ‘T’ on the side of our helmet or the name on the back of our jersey. Those are the things we represent.
“I still like to blend in a little old school with it and instill a brotherhood.”
Staying home
The Vols are in the midst of five consecutive weeks, including this past Saturday’s open date, without having to play on the road.
Of course, this follows a stretch in which only two of Tennessee’s first five games were inside Neyland Stadium.
“The schedule when it came out a year ago — it’s just really unique,” Heupel said Wednesday on the SEC’s weekly Zoom call. “We were on the road early for all of our Power Four conference games, and then we ended up with a longer stretch at home than usual. It’s been a unique schedule on both sides of it, and taking things one day at a time and one week at a time has been really important.”
Another late one
Kentucky is playing in the latest SEC television window for a fourth consecutive game.
It’s not a stat lost on Wildcats coach Mark Stoops.
“This is our fourth straight 8 o’clock Eastern game,” Stoops said Wednesday. “Thank you for that. That’s a lot of fun.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.