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Rodney Garner wants more growth from Tennessee's veteran defensive front

On3 imageby:Brent Hubbs•03/25/23•

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Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner has never been one to hold back on his thoughts about his defensive front. 

The veteran coach is returning plenty from a year ago on the interior. On the edge, the Vols are replacing edge rusher Byron Young who’s name continues to be a pretty hot one in the NFL mock drafts. 

Getting to the quarterback from the front four is a huge priority of growth this year for Tennessee’s defense. There’s hope around sophomores Tyree West, Joshua Josephs and James Pearce off the edge but said that hope has to become reality.

“We definitely have the body types are are looking for. We have to just get going,” Garner said. “We have to get the juices going and the confidence going where they can get loose, let their hair down, let some personality come through. Getting confidence that I can go out there and do it down in and down out.

“They have to make plays. It ain’t so much me. They have to go do it. There ain’t no false narrative. We can just give them participation trophies. They have to go out and make plays. When the game is on the line, they have to find a way to get the job done. They have done better, but it’s just been inconsistent. We have to get someone we can count on when it’s third down, that they are going to be able to pin their ears back and go make a play.”

Overall, the hard to please Garner has been satisfied with the first week of spring practice, but knows there’s more needed which is why his message on Saturday was clear. They have to finish better.

” Right now I think the guys are working hard. They are taking coaching. Their attention to detail is good, but at the end of today was a little disappointing,” Garner said.” Like I told them, I felt at the end they ran out of gas and they weren’t competing well enough. That’s when you have to find out who you are, when you are faced with that adversity. We have to find a way to strain and tough it out continuing to fight. That’s something we have to get better at.”

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