Anyone paying even the slightest attention the to the Tennessee Volunteers last season can tell you that their defense was one of the worst in the country. This became obvious from the start when the Vols allowed Georgia Tech to run all over them for a historically bad 535 yards.
So out went Butch Jones and in came Jeremy Pruitt. After earning his stripes at Florida State, Georgia, and Alabama — it’s clear that Pruitt’s bread and butter is defense.
Tennessee’s defensive struggles — as with most teams — started up front. The Vols had no push at all and couldn’t generate a consistent pass rush with four defensive linemen enough to hide all the deficiencies within the unit.