Tennessee coordinators Tim Banks, Joey Halzle see room to grow after Week 1

Tennessee is gearing up for its home opener on Saturday against visiting Austin Peay, but here we’re still spending some time looking back at the Vols 49-13 win over Virginia.

On Tuesday Tennessee coordinators Tim Banks and Joey Halzle met with the media and shared some thoughts on what they saw from their respective units in the first live action of the season.

Tennessee put up 49 points and right at 500 yards of total offense, just another ‘ho-hum’ day at the office for the Vols. The bigger story may have been a Tennessee defense that completely suffocated Virginia’s offense.

The Cavaliers barely cracked 200 yards of total offense (201), picked up just 95 yards rushing, made just three trips into the red zone (with one TD) and finished the day with just 12 first downs.

Many around the program had expressed some quiet confidence that Tennessee’s defense was going to be improved this fall. In their first opportunity to showcase themselves Tim Banks’ group certainly made a strong impression.

The Vols’ defensive coordinator liked what he saw from an attitude an effort standpoint first and foremost.

“I thought, number one, the guys were excited to play, which obviously we had good camp but it was obviously a long camp. Had been building this thing for a while. So just the overall excitement. I thought the overall intensity that is required to play great defense was there,” Banks said of his biggest takeaways from week one.

“I thought the guys were really intent on doing their job and straining. And then third, it was great to be able to get multiple guys opportunities on the field. And every rep was so valuable. Those reps some of those younger guys got, we believe will pay great dividends for them later.”

Since his arrival three seasons ago Banks has made a habit of rotating players at linebacker in order to develop depth, even when it seemed ambitious for him to try and play four guys. That’s a theme that he’s sticking with this fall and on Saturday there were some positive early returns from getting young players on the field.

Banks now has enough depth to where filling out a quality two deep is no longer a problem. In fact, it was second teamer Elijah Herring who led Tennessee with five tackles in the opener against Virginia. Freshman Arion Carter got the first action of his college career on Saturday and finished with four tackles.

“I thought it was good,” Banks said of what he saw from Carter and Herring as back-up linebackers. “Like I said, number one, just getting good healthy reps. For AC (Carter), his first collegiate game opportunity, just like any freshman there’s some things that we know he’ll continue to grow in and get better at.

“But just having an opportunity to see him fly around was great. As far as Elijah goes, he’s obviously played some football for us last year, but just to see his growth and his maturity on display, we’re really pleased with what they did Saturday.”

THERE’S THE PASS RUSH

One topic that Banks and other members of the defensive staff have consistently been asked about since the start of camp is Tennessee’s pass rush. With leading sack artist Byron Young (7.0 sacks in ’22) gone to the NFL, who will pick up the slack and be a guy off the edge that opposing offenses have to worry about disrupting the passing game.

Two candidates emerged on Saturday against Virginia. Tennessee collected four sacks, two each for senior Tyler Baron and sophomore James Pearce.

Baron is a veteran who has had a solid career, but probably hasn’t made the impact he has hoped to this point. He made an impact on Saturday and Banks is looking for more.

“I think it’s just, I can tell (with) anyone, it’s just being healthy. Tyler’s healthy,” Banks observed.. He’s always had the potential to be one of the elite players in this conference.

“And having a chance to keep him healthy is job number one for us and for him as well. And I think as long as he stays healthy and stays with the mindset and the intent that he has, we expect him to have a tremendous season for us moving forward.”

Pearce is one of the players on the roster that caught the interest of fans from pretty much the day he arrived on campus. A physical specimen at 6-foot-5, 242 pounds, Pearce is an athletic specimen who definitely looks the part of an SEC pass rusher.

There were some rumblings coming out of the program this summer and during camp that Pearce was making some strides towards putting it all together and turning his potential into production.

If Saturday was any indication, the Vols may have found an answer to their pass rush question.

“Obviously we’re very confident in James. His growth has been great for us. We saw it last year, him starting to make some strides and he made some even better strides during the spring. So we’re not surprised with the display that he put on this weekend,” Banks said of Pearce.

“But just like I told him, I’ll tell you the same, nobody caress after the first game. You gotta continue to put it on tape, week in and week out. And it’s not just him, but everybody on the defense. But we’re excited about him. That’s why we recruited him. He’s a great kid who’s only gonna get better. And I think he’ll be the first one to tell you that.”

THE MILTON REVIEW

Joe Milton took the field under a microscope on Saturday as he officially ascended to the starting role, replacing the record-setting Hendon Hooker.

Everyone around the program from coaches to teammates sang Milton’s praises during August not just for the work he’d done during camp, but for the way he had attacked the offseason starting back in January.

Milton was solid on Saturday against Virginia, completing 21-of-30 passes for 201 yards and a two touchdowns. It wasn’t a bad day by any means, and Milton continues to display outstanding ball security with no interceptions.

But it wasn’t an electric day in the passing game by this offense’s standards. There was one obvious drop from Ramel Keyton that would have made the stats look better, but for the most part Tennessee and Milton didn’t really push the ball down the field.

Halzle gave Milton credit for not trying to force the issue.

“They were playing really soft. I mean, we threw about five balls over the top, didn’t hit all of them, hit some of them. (Milton) played really well and took what they gave him,” Halzle said. “He wasn’t just naturally trying to just say, all right, I’m throwing this deep. He didn’t have any of those type of plays.

“When they were soft, he dropped it down, got outside, got to his second, third reads. First touchdown he threw was to his fourth read right there. So it was really great to see him operate like that.”

Tennessee’s offense hit a bit of a lull in the first half after an opening touchdown drive, but even when things were sputtering Milton kept the ball out of harm’s way and didn’t give Virginia anything cheap.

Halzle liked the way that Milton operated the Vols’ up-tempo attack and gave him high marks for going where he needed to with the football.

“His eyes were in a great spot the entire time. Brought a bunch of different looks and he never wavered and where his eye discipline was, which is why you saw him complete over 70 percent of his passes in the first game,” Halzle said of Milton.

“He looked really good. He looked confident, he looked comfortable in the pocket. He had a couple really good scrambles for us, up, up and out. A couple pulling off a run game. So his handling of the offense and his efficiency within the pocket was at a really high level.”

THE THORNTON REPORT

After he generated as much buzz as any newcomer on the team fans were anxious to see Oregon transfer Dont’e Thornton make his debut this weekend for Tennessee.

The fireworks fans were hoping to see didn’t materialize against Virginia. Thornton had 12 yards on two receptions and was targeted four times.

Halzle expressed zero concerns over Thornton, noting that he’s simply getting adjusted to a totally new system.

“I think whenever someone’s making their first start or first real true game experience in this kind of offense, no matter how many scrimmages, anything you do, it’s just different,” Halzle said.

“So getting him settled in and going and saw him get the ball, like some quick touches in his hand right now to just get him going in that first game was what we were expecting to do. He took the top off of a couple plays. He could have gotten a couple, we weren’t to his side for whatever reason. Sometimes games just go that way.”