Vols Using 'By Committee' Approach to Build Depth, Evaluate Talent at Linebacker Position

Coming into the spring there was no doubt Tennessee's linebacker room was precariously thin from a depth standpoint. With Henry To'o To'o and Quavaris Crouch in the transfer portal, in addition to Jeremy Banks being limited due to some off-season injury clean-up, Tennessee's staff knew it would have to get creative with the position. To this point, the Vols have, as long snapper Will Albright, who also played linebacker in high school has worked with the position group early on in the spring. Following Tennessee's third practice, Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks discussed all of this.

Getting Banks back will prove pivotal for Tennessee, as he rotated most of the season last fall with Quavaris Crouch, and he possesses the most experience at the position.

"It's kind of hard to say," Tim Banks said on a timetable for a return. "I'll kind of leave that to Coach Heup and our medical staff to determine at what point we'll see him and when, but at this point, I know he's working extremely hard to make sure he's ready to go when that time comes."

Jeremy Banks's absence to this point leaves Tennessee needing to create depth, which is where Albright enters the picture.

I think we're trying to build depth at every position, so we're giving everyone an opportunity to try to showcase their skill set," the defensive coordinator said of Albright. "He's getting an opportunity to see if he can prove his worth as far as a linebacker goes, and obviously, as we continue to move through spring, we'll have better information, and we'll find out if that's able to come to fruition."

So what does this mean overall for the group this spring?

"As far as No. 2, our linebackers I think a lot of it is just work by committee right now. All of those guys are working extremely hard to try and separate themselves and like I said today is really the first day we put pads on. I think as we continue to move through it, we will have a chance to define some roles better. But right now, it is a little bit by committee and again a lot of times that ends up being a good thing because you are developing some depth."

Tennessee entered the spring with a standard depth chart, according to the defensive coordinator, which they are utilizing to build depth and evaluate each position heading into the fall.

"We have a standard depth chart that we have, and some of it is based on obviously what we saw last year with how it ended," he said. "Some of it was based on what we saw during our winter conditioning, but a lot of it right now is just alternating and switching guys in and out and trying to find the best combinations that we can have to make sure guys are in the right spots. But again, it's only been three practices, and we haven't had a lot of opportunities to switch it up as much as we will moving forward, but that's definitely the plan. A defensive end may be a right end instead of a left end. A linebacker may be to the field side and weak side the next day. So, I think it's in our best interest to make sure we move these guys around to get it on video, so once again, we have the knowledge we need to make sure we have these guys in the right spots."

"You know we are going to utilize every single day, every single minute, you know, and the 15 opportunities we get to make sure we are gathering as much information as we can possibly gather to make sure we are able to put these guys in the best possible positions. We are truly learning every day about our front and about our back seven, and that information is obviously super valuable for us to move forward to make sure we have these guys in the right spots."

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