Dominic Bailey says Tennessee is deep on defensive line

Tennessee Volunteers defensive lineman Dominic Bailey is entering his fourth season in the program. It’s an exciting time for both him and the program as expectations are high in Knoxville. That includes having massive expectations for the Volunteers’ defensive line.

As Bailey explained, this is an incredibly deep unit going into the 2023 season.

“We’re pretty deep on the defensive line,” Dominic Bailey said. “I think this year we can probably roll out three groups of d-linemen that can actually go out there and play and make things happen.”

As Bailey explained, this depth has actually created a lot of competition on the defensive line for playing time. It’s that competition that’s driving a lot of them to be better.

“So, it’s a great competition, but you thrive from competition. That’s what makes you better. So, it’s nothing that you, like, shy away from.”

On many defenses, the defensive line is the most important unit. It’s those linemen who set the tone physically and pressure an opposing offense’s backfield. They open up holes for linebackers to fill in the running game and force quicker and off-balance throws in the passing game.

Dominic Bailey has proven to be an important piece on that Tennessee defensive line over the years. Last season, as a redshirt sophomore, Bailey played in all 13 games as a reserve and put up his career best numbers. He had 10 tackles on the season, one of which was for a loss.

This depth that Dominic Bailey is talking about is incredibly important. Defensive line is an exhausting position to play and teams like to rotate out players to keep fresh legs on the field. However, that’s only possible if you have players that you can trust in games.

Paul Finebaum believes Tennessee can sustain success under Josh Heupel

The 2022 season was incredible for Tennessee. Now, the goal is to maintain that success, which Paul Finebaum thinks the Volunteers are capable of doing in Knoxville under Josh Heupel.

“Tennessee has it going. All of a sudden, it just clicked at Tennessee. I think Heupel is a genius when it comes to offensive plays. They’ve got a lot of good compliments on that program,” Finebaum said.

“They need to follow it up, though. You don’t need to go from a record-breaking year and a huge bowl win and slip back to 8-4. I don’t think they will. We forget that Tennessee has always been a major power in college football. But they’ve fallen so far off the stage. It’s not as difficult for Tennessee to suddenly get everything clicking because they have the infrastructure there.”