Joe Milton shares Tennessee defensive players standing out

Joe Milton is the heir apparent to Hendon Hooker at Tennessee this season and looks ready to take over as starting quarterback. That also means he goes against the Vols defense in practice, and he pointed to a few of the players standing out this offseason at SEC Media Days.

Milton said the defense as a whole has taken strides since 2022, a season in which Tennessee ranked 11th in the SEC in total defense. Some key playmakers are back, including Warren Burrell, who was one of the many Milton singled out.

“Tyler Baron, Wesley Walker, Kamal Hadden, ‘Tank’ [Jaylen McCollough],” Milton said of the defenders standing out in practice. “Warren Burrell [is] back fully healthy. Warren caught my eye again. Christian Charles … [is] a dog. Aaron Beasley, obviously, everybody knows Aaron Beasley. I mean, pretty much the whole defense at a communication level improved. I’m impressed with the whole defense.”

Beasley is the biggest returner coming back after leading the Volunteers with 76 tackles in 2022. He also had 3.0 sacks, but with Byron Young off to the NFL, he had the most sacks of the returning players this year.

The Vols’ defense had a rough go last season as they allowed 405.3 yards per game and ranked 12th in the SEC in passing defense with 289.5 yards per game allowed in the air. However, Tennessee ranked sixth in the SEC in scoring defense with 22.8 points allowed per contest.

Still, that unit has to be better this year, according to On3’s J.D. PicKell. Although it doesn’t have to be one of the all-time great defenses, it just needs to take some strides in 2023 to keep Tennessee in the national picture.

“The second hinge point for me, Tennessee’s defense has got to get just a little bit better,” PicKell said on The Hard Count. And I’ve said this a couple of times. I don’t need the ’85 Bears from Tennessee, I don’t need them to hold teams to like 24 points a game. I don’t need that. But I do need this Tennessee secondary to not be the Achilles heel.

“I just need a little bit more from that secondary because last year, almost 300 passing yards a game allowed, that’s not gonna cut it. Especially not in the SEC when you’re playing against all these quarterbacks. So, I need Tennessee to be improved in the secondary.”

On3’s Jesse Simonton contributed to this report.