Tennessee defensive coordinator grades Week 1 performance

Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks graded the performance of his defense in Week One, citing room for improvement after a 38-6 win over Bowling Green. The six points allowed was the fewest by a Tennessee defense since a 45-0 win over Chattanooga in 2019.

“Appearances can be a deceitful thing,” Banks told reporters during his Tuesday press conference. “We try to grade them hard. I was pleased, obviously the way we played, in terms of our effort. That is the first thing we talk about, as cliché as it may sound, you see a lot of first games and the adrenaline is so high, guys don’t play as hard, they think they’re playing hard, but they’re not.”

He continued: “I thought our guys played extremely hard. I thought we minimized some mistakes but, trust me, we have things obviously we want to fix and make sure we execute at a higher level. Overall, I think we played a pretty clean game.”

One of the biggest bright spots from the win was the play of the defensive line. The veteran group up front provided an anchor for Tennessee, allowing just 32 rushing yards and making 11 tackles for loss.

“I thought our front four played hard,” said Banks. “For us to go where we need to go, they’ve got to play hard, that’s the expectation, and I thought they lived up to it. I thought our tackling was solid.”

Something left to prove

While Week One brought plenty of positives on defense, Banks and is staff are not yet satisfied. He sees room for improvement as Tennessee prepares for a long and difficult season.

“Again, it is hard to be pleased with every aspect,” said Banks. “I think there are still some plays we obviously left on the field and things we think we can do better. I will say it again, I was pleased with our effort and our competitive nature.”

One key to long-term success at Tennessee will be the defense’s ability to perform on the road, something they will not get a chance to prove until Week Four against Florida.

“These are the things we’ve got to take everywhere we go whether we are playing at Neyland or on the road,” said Banks. “We’ve got to play with great effort and great attention to detail, I thought those guys did that. There are things we need to do better, things we wished we had done better. Moving forward we are trying to get those things addressed and make sure we do a better job of it next game.”