Heading into the season, Tennessee had more depth at linebacker than it ever has under Josh Heupel.
However, with two regular season games remaining, the Vols have lost a pair of linebackers from the group.
After just one game, transfer Keenan Pili suffered an injury that will likely hold him out for the rest of the year. The BYU transfer came in as a starter due to his prior experience.
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This injury forced sophomore Elijah Herring to step up into the starting role of middle linebacker next to Aaron Beasley. Behind the pair, true freshmen Arion Carter and Jeremiah Telander played the majority of reserve snaps.
Tennessee got even thinner with the loss of Carter for the remainder of the year due to an injury suffered in the win over Kentucky, though.
Now, sophomore Kalib Perry is set to play an even bigger role as a backup. Behind Perry and Telander are Jalen Smith and Ben Bolton who both have rarely seen the field.
In the team's loss to Missouri, the lack of depth at linebacker was apparent. The entire room didn't have a good night against the Tigers but Herring had the roughest game of the bunch.
“The other day, I thought he got his eyes just caught in the wrong place on a couple of his reads," said Heupel on Herring's performance. "Missed a couple open field tackles but he did some good things as well. He’s a young player that’s got to continue to grow. Need him to play extremely well on Saturday afternoon.”
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Linebacker coach Brian Jean-Mary also wasn't impressed with Herring's play. However, he made sure to note that nobody in the unit did well.
"He was part of the problem," said Jean-Mary. "He wasn't the only problem, I would say that. We always start with what we can do better and I'm always going to start with what I can do better. That's why I keep mentioning the pre-snap communication. When you have young, inexperienced guys at certain positions, you have to be able to help them. Our veteran guys have to be able to recognize the formations, alert them, help them with checks and those things. And that's not letting them off the hook at all, but we didn't do that as a whole team. I think that was part of the struggle with us on defense.
"Obviously, Elijah did not tackle well, especially in space. We always re-evaluate everything that we're doing, starting with us as coaches. How can we make it easier for them? What can we do better to put them in a better position to be successful? But he understood some of the mistakes that he made and some of the miscues that really led to big plays and I expect him to come back and bounce back in a big way this week."
Against Georgia, Tennessee will need positive play from its linebacking corp for it to stand a chance. With a strong duo of running backs in Kendall Milton and Daijun Edwards and the nation's best tight end in Brock Bowers, the play from this group will be essential.
This isn't just the starters, either. Telander and Perry must also play at a high level off the bench when called upon.
“Every experience you get, in practice and during the course of a ball game throughout the season, makes you who you’re going to become," said Heupel. "(Telander and Perry) need to play well in this one. They’ve had a good week of preparation. They’ve grown over the course of the season. They need to step up and play well.”
A showing similar to the one in Columbia will get the Vols in trouble early this Saturday. Sometimes, it was just an issue of making plays, while other times, they were in bad positions.
No matter the issue, this needs to be corrected before the Bulldogs arrive in Knoxville.
"When we got out there, we did not make the plays," said Jean-Mary. "We missed way too many tackles out on the perimeter when we got there. Whether we were in bad position or not, our job is to get the guy on the ground. We did a poor job as second-level defenders getting those guys on the ground before they got to first downs. Whether it had been second-and-long or third down, we did a poor job there. It comes back to the pre-snap communication. It comes back to being in the right position. At the end of the day, we have to tackle better when we get out there."
Kickoff against Georgia is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS. It will be the final time the Vols are featured at this CBS slot with the change of network deals in the SEC beginning next year.
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