When the Tennessee Volunteers opened their 2025 football season with a victory over Syracuse in Atlanta, they had a starting secondary of Rickey Gibson III, Colton Hood, Andre Turrentine, Jalen McMurray and Edrees Farooq, with Boo Carter quickly coming off the bench.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility later this year that the Vols could start Kayin Lee, TJ Metcalf, Dejuan Lane, Ty Redmond and Qua Moss in their defensive backfield, with Farooq next in line.
New quarterbacks are naturally getting most of the attention this spring in Knoxville, but there are a slew of unknowns in the last line of defense for new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, new co-coordinator and secondary coach Anthony Poindexter and new cornerbacks coach Derek Jones.
“I feel really good about that group — the guys who we brought in from the portal, the young guys we signed, and the guys who were here on campus but were young a year ago,” Vols head coach Josh Heupel said following Thursday’s second spring scrimmage inside Neyland Stadium. “Some of those guys played a lot on special teams.
“A coach’s best friend is competition, and we certainly have that on the back end at every spot.”