Key takeaways from Tennessee's third practice of fall camp

Tennessee is nearly a week into fall camp.

The Vols held practice No. 3 at Haslam Field early Friday morning with the first two periods open to the media.

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Linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary and a number of players discussed practice, progression over the last three days and more afterwards.

Here are the key takeaways.

Aaron Beasley's success last season led to him leading the team in tackles. It's why his decision to return for another season at linebacker provided optimism that the Tennessee defense could improve.

But with the numbers comes more responsibility for Beasley, who headlines a relatively young position group as one of its leaders and the coaching staff is looking for him to take the next step there.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Notes and observations from fall camp practice No. 3

"It's a work in progress," Jean-Mary said. "Aaron is a soft-spoken guy. He's one of those guys that always feels like he has to earn respect from everybody before he's going to step out and lead. We are asking him to come out of his shell a little bit. He's done that in his own way. He's never going to be the loudest guy in the room or be very boisterous, but you can see that especially the younger guys gravitate to him and really take heed to what he's saying when he speaks."

Beasley totaled 76 tackles and had a team-high in total snaps played as combo player between the Mike and Will linebacker positions and has the ability to split time between both if needed.

"I think it fits both," Jean-Mary said. "Early on last season, I thought he was playing at a high level at the Mike linebacker position before Juwan (Mitchell) came back last year and then we slid him to where he could play either or. I think skillset and experience wise, it would be easy for him to go back and play Mike tomorrow if we asked him to."

Arion Carter was one of Tennessee’s biggest hauls in the 2023 signing class. Now he’s adjusting to the SEC.

The 6-foot-1, 227-pound Carter arrived to campus early and went through spring camp, earning valuable reps that have already paid off early in fall camp where the coaching staff isn't holding back.

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Tennessee football LB coach Brian Jean-Mary speaks with media

"It depends on the day," Jean-Mary said. "There's never going to be perfection. Youth always equals mistakes and we just want to limit the amount. The thing with Arion is that he plays so hard, fast and is a great athlete so he's able to overcome some of those mistakes that maybe some other people can't.

"We are not going to spoon-feed him. We are going to keep force-feeding him and putting him in difficult situations so he learns from them and does right, he can explain what he did right."

It helps when there is camaraderie in the linebackers room, especially for a freshman.

Carter shared familiarity with sophomore linebacker Elijah Herring and fellow freshman defensive lineman Caleb Herring from their days of playing high school football in middle Tennessee.

Their friendship has helped in the transition.

"Going through fall camp each and every day, really starting off in spring and then summer workouts as we build a relationship," Carter said. "We all hang together. Being able to get tom know and a feel for everybody as I came in. It's just helpful, because when you're down, a brother is able to pick you up.

"You're able to lean on a brother some days and they are able to lean on you just because of the trust. That's been great."

Tennessee's defense made strides last season, despite struggles with depth.

The Vols were among the top in the SEC in run defense and improved on third down but the unit is hoping to create more turnovers in 2023.

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Tennessee defenders speak to media after fall camp practice

Defensive coordinator Tim Banks has put an emphasis on turnovers in fall camp and Jean-Mary hopes the linebackers corps can help with that.

"It was the lead bulletin point for coach Banks," Jean-Mary said. "I think everybody in our individual rooms, we talked about it. For us to take the next step, we have to go and take the ball from people. Our offense does a good job of not giving it to the opponent, we have to match them as far as the rate that we take it from people.

"With coach (Josh) Heupel...that was one of the main bullet points that he had in his first team meeting, was we have to do a better job. Whether it be intercepting the ball, caused fumbles, strip sacks on quarterbacks, fourth-down stops, whatever we can do to get the possessions back to our offense."

Tennessee accounted for 11 interceptions and 11 fumble recoveries in 12 games last season.

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