Keenan Pili won't play against Florida on Saturday night, but he'll be there.
The Tennessee linebacker suffered an upper body injury in the season opener against Virginia nearly two weeks ago, which will sideline him for at least a couple of weeks. It hasn't kept him from having a presence on the Vols' defense, though.
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"(Pili) was gone for a day and then right back in the building," head coach Josh Heupel said. "He's approached it like he's playing. He's been really good with his teammates, really kind of approaching it like a coach would. He's had a great impact on our football team."
Pili's experience paid dividends to the Vols' linebacking corps when he arrived on campus as a transfer last spring. A two-time captain at BYU, he looked the part in his Tennessee debut, totaling four tackles at the MIKE linebacker position and earning a game ball from the coaching staff.
A week after his injury, Pili was engaged on the sideline during the Vols' 30-13 win over Austin Peay and will have a similar role vs. Florida where Tennessee will feature sophomore Elijah Herring in his place with two freshmen in Arion Carter and Jeremiah Telander playing behind Herring.
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"One of the things that (Pili) always brought to the table was that leadership aspect," linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary said. "Once he was cleared to come back, he's been in every meeting. Obviously, he traveled with us, he's going to travel with us down to Gainesville. He's an integral part of what we do. It wasn't just the physical ability, it was the mental capacity to help everybody in the room because of his experience and that's just carrying over and probably holds a little bit more weight in the room now because he's seeing it from the sidelines. Most of those guys, when they're in the room, gravitate to him.
"And even now, during practice he's on the sideline. The guys that are not in, they're down there talking to him and (Kwauze) Pakk Garland. Those guys are like second coaches on the field now."
Herring played in 13 games last season as a freshman, mainly as a reserve linebacker. He made his first start in the Austin Peay game, playing a game-high 51 snaps while Carter played 31 snaps and Telander played 20.
A week after seeing the most significant playing time in his young career, Herring will make his second start at a hostile road environment at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium vs. a Florida team Tennessee hasn't beaten in Gainesville since 2003.
"We hit (Pili's injury) with the next-man-up mentality," Herring said. "We just have to be prepared for anything that could happen because it's a long season and anything could happen, so everyone needs to be prepared and ready to be the next man up."
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Herring's transition from backup to starter has been helped along on the field by Aaron Beasley, who currently leads the team with 12 tackles and six tackles for loss through two games. Off the field, Pili provides another perspective.
Both will be paramount in Herring's growth.
"It's going to be reading his keys, putting his eyes in the right place," Jean-Mary said. "The big thing with (Florida's) run game is they have a lot of movement on their offense and that can lead, especially an inexperienced linebacker, to put his eyes in the wrong spot. We got to make sure he's obviously in tune to what we're doing on defense and make sure we keep our run gap integrity with all the things that they do and if he does that, I know he'll be fine."
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