Keenan Pili praises play of young Tennessee linebackers

As the Volunteers football team progresses through spring practice, coaches and players alike are witnessing a handful of young Tennessee linebackers begin to emerge.

The Volunteers will need them after losing a couple veterans off the 2022 squad.

To that end, Tennessee brought in some veteran linebacker help in the form of BYU transfer Keenan Pili, who has been a steadying presence for the group alongside returning leading tackler Aaron Beasley. Pili likes what he’s seeing from the young Tennessee linebackers so far.

“Man, these young guys are great,” Pili said. “I think guys like Arion (Carter) stick out and you’ve got Jalen (Smith), Jeremiah (Telander). Great athletes. Ben Bolton. Will (Albright). They’re young but they’re really athletic and they’re going to make some noise here in the future, for sure.”

Given the makeup of the depth chart, Tennessee will likely need at least a couple of them to contribute meaningfully this fall.

Head coach Josh Heupel has even been personally monitoring the group at times to see how they are progressing as spring football practice carries on.

“I like how the young guys have kind of grown and fit into the culture,” Heupel said. “Got to have them continue to grow here as we go through spring ball, but excited about that group.”

Josh Heupel outlines expectations for players

Spring football practice is all about competing and pushing for meaningful playing time by proving to the coaches you can handle business on and off the field and then make plays when it’s time to lace them up.

Heupel is strict on what he expects from an effort standpoint. He won’t budge on it.

“At the end of the day, everybody that steps foot on his campus, Day 1, you better have the mentality and the approach that I’m competing to be the starter right now, here today,” he said. “If you do anything less than that, you’re cheating yourself, you’re cheating the program, you’re not going to be ready when your opportunity comes.

“At the same time, for the 125 guys that sit in our team room, it’s their responsibility, it’s their job, to prove that they’re gonna play at a championship level. When you do that, then it’s our job as coaches to find a role that’s going to allow you to play at a really high level and help us win football games.”

As far as the young Tennessee linebacker corps goes, he needs to see continued progress.

But he likes the leadership guys like Pili are providing.

“They’re relentless, they play with energy and passion,” Heupel said. “We’ve done a good job of tackling in some of the small space, but also in the open field. That group’s got a lot of leadership traits.”