On the eve of Tennessee football fall camp, head coach Josh Heupel, defensive coordinator Tim Banks, offensive coordinator Joey Halzle and select players met with the media on Monday.

The Vols are coming off an 11-2 season and are tasked with replacing several key contributors over the next month before the season kickoff against Virginia at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

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Here are three takeaways.

Tennessee enters fall camp without a hint of controversy as far as the quarterbacks room is concerned.

Joe Milton III is the undisputed leader heading into his third season in the program and showed as much in two starts to end the 2023 season vs. Vanderbilt and Clemson.

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel previews fall camp

Behind him though, Tennessee only has one other scholarship player and two walk ons. Nico Iamaleava was the jewel of the Vols' 2023 signing class as a five star prospect and one of the top signal callers in the country.

First-year offensive coordinator Joey Halzle gave Iamaleava a resounding vote of confidence should a situation where he is needed to step in comes up.

"Huge confidence in him," Halzle said. "That guy is mature beyond his years. He didn't come in like a true freshman. He came in wanting to learn and not thinking like, 'I'm a highly rated recruit, I've got it figured out.' He came in understanding, 'I want to learn. I need to know.' And the way that guy just has this calmness on the field, his demeanor, I think the guys believe in his as well.

"If he's called upon to do a job, that dude will step in and compete at a high level and perform at a high level."

"I think from a young age, I've always been like," Iamaleava added. "Just going out there and taking one play a time. Really, staying calm under pressure. You don't look at it as pressure once you get out there. I think it always stuck with me as a kid."

Though Tennessee's offense quickly took off upon Heupel's arrival nearly three years ago, the defense has undergone a slow rebuild.

Issues with depth have often plagued the unit, despite some improvement and it was evident last season, particularly in the second level where injuries led to inconsistency at times.

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks previews fall camp

At linebacker, defensive coordinator Tim Banks enters his third fall camp with optimism as the Vols return their leading tackler from a year ago in Aaron Beasley along with a number of underclassmen that saw the field last season.

"I think, honestly, (Beasley) has always been confident," Banks said. "I think as the spotlight started to shift towards him a little bit, I thought he got more comfortable in that setting. He's been great. He's had a tremendous offseason. From a leadership perspective, I think he feels like he has a voice. People obviously will listen when they see the production that he put up consistently."

The coaching staff went to the transfer portal for more depth and pulled former BYU linebacker Kennan Pili.

Pili arrived in the spring and has already been with the team for the last six months but is looking to develop as a vocal leader alongside Beasley.

"I kind of felt new (in the spring) and I'm starting to not feel new anymore," Pili said. "Being able to grow in the system, to grow in the culture...My big thing was, you want to work from the bottom as one of the new guys and get that respect. I wanted to focus on that and be there for the team."

Whatever Tennessee's struggles were in pass defense, the Vols' front four were elite in stopping the run last season.

The unit was among the best in college football and trailed only Georgia in the SEC in run defense.

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Tennessee football QBs Joe Milton and Nico Iamaleava meet with the media

On the interior, Tennessee returns tackle Omari Thomas and added Omarr Norman-Lott from the transfer portal to bring more experience and depth up front as the group tries to build on its success in taking the run out of the game of opposing offenses.

"I think there was a lot of pride (in stopping the run)," Thomas said. "We take a lot of pride in it. We don't want people to be able to say, 'oh, it was easy to get through.' As a defensive line, we take a lot of pride in that. Of course, everything starts up front in the trenches.

"We just continue to grow and we want to have that same growth this year and take the next step in pass rush game and put them together."

Off the edge, Tennessee has to replace Byron Young, who is now in the NFL following a strong 2022 season but Roman Harrison is expected to make a big leap in his place and a healthy Tyler Baron could improve the Vols' pass rush.

"Tyler has always had the talent, a god-given talent," Banks said. "He's been one of the better players on our defense up front. He's long, he's athletic. I think the biggest thing for him is just kind of one of those things where he's been banged up a ton. He was fortunate enough to make it all the way through spring.

"I think we saw a lot of great consistency with his play. We were fired up to see it carry over into camp."

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