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.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
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.
No. 6 Tennessee now has back-to-back wins under its belt after a 74-56 win over No. 23 Georgia Wednesday night in Knoxville.
The Vols trailed the Bulldogs by one point heading into the halftime break but turned up the heat in the final 20 minutes. Tennessee erupted on a 20-4 run to start the second half of play and kept Georgia far away from striking distance through the final buzzer.
Jordan Gainey put up a sneaky 19 points on Wednesday to lead all scorers but Zakai Zeigler wasn’t far behind with 16 points of his own, much of which came in the second half. Special recognition goes to Tennessee guard Jahmai Mashack, who punished a Georgia defense that left him open with 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the floor.
After the game, RTI’s Ric Butler and Ryan Schumpert broke down their thoughts on Tennessee’s rivalry win in the RTI: Reaction show from the arena floor.
Check it out below:
RTI: Reaction
The Tennessee Volunteers and defensive coordinator Tim Banks have agreed to a contract extension, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
Banks led one of the country’s top defenses in 2024. The Vols held 11 of their 13 opponents under 20 points on defense and finished fifth nationally in yards per play allowed (4.56).
Banks received interest from multiple teams and coached this season on a contract that expires at the end of January. His new deal will pay him in the $2 million range annually, sources told ESPN, after he made $1.5 million this season.
A finalist for the Broyles Award as the top assistant coach in college football this season, Banks has been with Josh Heupel all four seasons at Tennessee after coaching under James Franklin at Penn State for five seasons.
Banks, 53, could be without one of his top players for part of next season. Cornerback Jermod McCoy, an ESPN second-team All-American, underwent surgery after tearing an ACL while training at his home in Texas, school officials said.
McCoy will miss spring practice, and his rehabilitation and recovery will determine whether he can get back in time for the start of the 2025 season.
The transfer from Oregon State was a key part of Tennessee’s defense as a sophomore and one of the top returning defensive backs in college football. He tied for the team lead with four interceptions, led the team with nine pass breakups and finished third with 44 total tackles. His 90.3 coverage grade by Pro Football Focus ranked fifth nationally among cornerbacks during the regular season.
Tennessee tied for seventh nationally with 11 touchdown passes allowed in 13 games.
Tennessee legislature: 3 key issues to watch
The 114th Tennessee General Assembly convenes on Jan. 14 for a new two-year term.
Tennessee Republicans are poised to pass new rules that would allow House Speaker Cameron Sexton to ban a spectator from the House gallery for the entirety of the legislative session, an escalation of public protest guardrails the GOP supermajority has implemented in the last two years.
The new two-strike rule allows the speaker to order anyone in the gallery removed for disorderly conduct. If a person is removed once, they will be blocked from returning to the gallery for that day and the next legislative day.
Once a person is deemed disorderly and removed a second time, though, they can be prohibited from the gallery “for any period up to the remainder” of the legislative session.
Sexton could also immediately ban someone for “especially egregious conduct.”
Republicans also gave initial passage Tuesday in the House Rules Committee to a new three-strikes provision that would block a disorderly member from the House chamber, as well.
How Sexton, R-Crossville, might define disorderly or “especially egregious” conduct is fully at his discretion, a point House Democrats have repeatedly criticized over what they argued was inequitable application of the rules. Democrats have argued that by holding supermajority the GOP has total power to define what is and is not considered out of order.
The new rules package come amid several sessions of heated public pushback, typically sharply critical of House Republicans, that first began as gun control protests in the wake of the 2023 Covenant School shooting.
Since then, House Republican leadership has implemented increasingly stringent speaking rules for members, instituted certain signage bans for members of the public and blocked off one-half of the public House gallery for ticketed entrance.
Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, was one of the three Democrats on Tuesday’s House committee that voted against the rules package.
“If the representative can’t be heard, if they can’t express themselves, and then the people are being put out, who are you listening to?” Hakeem asked Rep. Johnny Garret, R-Goodlettsville, who presented the GOP rules package.
Garrett, an attorney, likened the House chamber to a courtroom. Public access does not mean there aren’t rules to follow, he argued.
“Courts in the state of Tennessee are wide open, you and I can walk in and observe,” Garrett said. “But we do not have the constitutional right to scream bloody murder inside a courtroom. That judge would slap us with contempt and throw us in jail.”
Under the new three-strikes rule for House members, a representative who is “called to order” for breaking House rules, which the rules package also refers to as “unruly behavior,” will at first face a limit on their speaking time. For the second transgression, the member would be silenced for two legislative days.
A third transgression could trigger total removal from the House chamber for three legislative days.
Garrett said the House would set up a remote voting chamber in a committee room to allow the member to cast votes.
The remote voting rule appears targeted at Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, who frequently clashes with Sexton and other House Republicans on the chamber floor.
Jones demurred Tuesday when asked if he felt the remote voting punishment was aimed at him but described the rules package overall as “authoritarianism without guardrails.”
“It’s going to impact the right of the public to be here in this building, going to impact their rights and their ability to show up in the capital,” Jones said.
In other rule changes, House members’ bill allowance will drop over the next two years. Members previously could file 15 bills each but would be held to 12 bills in 2025. Next year, the bill allowance would drop to 10 per member. Committee chairs and other leadership would have a higher allowance.
Republicans voted down all rules changes proposed by Democrats, including one brought by Jones to curtail conflicts of interest between lawmakers married to lobbyists.
Republicans also blocked a ban on guns in committee rooms. Firearms are currently banned from the state Capitol but allowed in the adjoining office building.
The new rules package must be adopted by the full House before any changes go into effect, but Republicans easily have the votes to pass the package.
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