Tennessee’s new defense has drawn plenty of buzz this offseason, but veteran linebacker Arion Carter isn’t interested in the idea that Jim Knowles’ system is too much for the Vols to handle early on.
That was the big takeaway from Carter’s appearance at SEC Media Days earlier this week, where Brooks Austin asked whether any of Tennessee’s defenders were still “swimming” or if anything was “over their head” as the staff installed the new scheme. Carter didn’t leave much room for that line of thinking.
“It’s over their head? Nah.
Nuh-uh,” Carter said. “Like, (Knowles) always says, on game days it’s his job to make sure you’re ready and you know what’s going on.
Because if you bust a coverage or you have a missed assignment, that’s on him. That’s on the coaches around - as he says, it’s because they didn’t teach it good enough.
And if he’s putting in certain packages that are too complex, per se, to keep it simple and let us be reactive and not be apprehensive about whatever’s going on that’s in front of us to hesitate, he’s not going to put it in. So everything that we’ve done to this point, we’ve been able to grasp it, and we’ve been able to build and master on top of that.”
That answer cuts directly against the common offseason storyline around Knowles, who arrived at Tennessee with a reputation as one of the sport’s sharpest defensive minds and a former national champion. The outside chatter suggested it might take a full year before the results really started to show. Carter’s view is different: the Vols have enough experience, and Knowles has enough feel for his personnel, to get moving faster than that.
Tennessee’s defense is going to look different in a lot of places, with new starters and rotating pieces expected across all three levels. But Carter pointed to a roster that already has plenty of mileage on it, along with a few familiar faces for Knowles from Penn State.
Defensive lineman Xavier Gilliam, linebacker Amare Campbell and safety Dejuan Lane all played under him there. Carter, Edwin Spillman and Jeremiah Telander bring veteran experience of their own.
Auburn transfer cornerback Kayin enters his senior season after 36 games and 25 starts, all in SEC football. Safety Edrees Farooq started all 13 games for Tennessee last season.
For Carter, that kind of background matters.
“Especially me being an older guy, and we have an older guy at every position,” Carter said. “So we’ve all played a good amount of football, at least two to three years, at least.
You know what I’m saying? So when you have that, with a genius mind like (Knowles), you know, you can run exotic blitz packages.
You can show different types of shells and coverages that you may not be able to do with an incoming freshman or sophomore who’s never really played a lot of football.”
That’s the crux of Tennessee’s situation. Knowles’ defenses have traditionally gotten better as his tenure has gone on, which fits the usual logic of a system settling in over time.
But Carter’s point is that Tennessee may not need to wait around for that slow build. Between the veterans on the roster and the players who already know Knowles’ language, he believes the Vols can absorb what’s being installed and layer on top of it quickly.
He also made clear that Knowles isn’t forcing the issue with every package under the sun. Carter said the coordinator knows what to keep in and what to leave out based on the players in front of him. That flexibility, Carter suggested, is part of what makes the scheme workable now instead of later.
Tennessee’s defense has been one of the biggest offseason talking points around the program, and the optimism has come with a dose of caution. Carter’s comments won’t settle everything, but they do push back hard against the idea that the Vols are in for a long learning curve.
The proof still has to come on the field.
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