There was a lot of discussion and worrying about the Vols losing so many of the team's eligible players in the secondary, opting to transfer and not return to Tennessee for their remaining eligibility.

Some were pointing fingers at Willie Martinez and Tim Banks, saying "who wants to play for those guys?"

Fans worried that the Tennessee secondary was so young and worried if the Vols defense would be good enough to hold up and support the offense properly.

We are two games into the season and fresh off of a dominating performance against a top 25 foe who had a vey good offensive line and some very good receivers. In these two games, and especially in light of the Vols performance in the NC State game, it is clear to see and we heard Rece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit discuss that very same train of thought last night.

Tennessee replaced the core of their secondary from a season ago with younger, inexperienced, but faster, quicker, and more dynamic corners and safeties. The Vols threw out Christian Harrison, true freshman Boo Carter, transfers Jerod McCoy, transfer Jakobe Thomas, Rick Gibson, Jordan Matthews, Edress Farooq, and others who showed us that they are capable of plating and driving back through the ball, something our DBs in the past were incapable of due to not having that skill set.

I had been one of Tim Banks' biggest critics, due to the loose zone coverages that his schemes employed, that afforded out competition to pick and throw the ball down the field , as if their QBs were throwing dart. Well, Tim Bank's showed me last night that he has a much more sophisticated football mind that myself or anyone else gave him credit for. Same goes for Willie Martinez. Martinez isn't the person who is in charge of what techniques that the defensive backs will employ in a game, but rather, his job is to teach Tim Banks' schema to them. Great Job last night.

Our defensive front did a great job of dominating the NC State offensive line, which allowed our DBs to play tight and fast on the NS State receivers and running backs. In years past, we could count the fingers on one hand as to how many times we saw our DBs play tight man coverage and fly all over the field. Last night, Jerod McCoy and Jakob Thomas were playing like their hair was on fire. We came out playing very lose at the Line of scrimmage on the first drive. After that we came up and played some press man and mixed a lot of man coverage into our scheme.

We are going to see our defensive backs and

Josh Heupel provided some insight Monday why Tennessee stay aggressive after Nico Iamaleava's first interception against NC State on Saturday: https://tennessee.rivals.com/news/w...e-after-early-turnover-in-romping-of-nc-state

No looking ahead at Oklahoma...

It's unwatchable

No clue who they are tailoring their show towards but that was awful for the 5 minutes I tried twice to tune in since Direct TV has my SEC and ESPNs shut down

Big jump for the Vols this week.

Transcript:

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel and select players will meet with the media beginning at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Follow along here for updates and on X @TennesseeRivals, @RyanTSylvia and @ByNoahTaylor.

Play-by-play: Tom Hart

Analyst: Jordan Rodgers

Sideline reporter: Cole Cubelic

...

On SEC Network at 7:45 p.m. ET

Rundown:

Breakdown:

Tennessee has its biggest test of the season to date with a week two, top-25 matchup against NC State in Charlotte.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET and airs on ABC.

For live updates and discussion, follow this thread and on Twitter/X @RyanTSylvia, @ByNoahTaylor and @TennesseeRivals.

My thoughts on the 12 personnel:

Full grades, snaps:

On a memorable, elite performance from Tennessee's defense on Saturday night.

Transcript:

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel will meet with the media following the Vols' 51-10 victory over NC State on Saturday night in Charlotte.

For live updates, follow along here and on X @TennesseeRivals.

MORE:

Felt like a not great performance from Tennessee's offense overall and Vols still dominate.

I get a lot of recruiting is about NIL now....but even if it's 10% about winning now then UT is THE school (minus UGA) in VA, NC, SC (incl Clemson), GA and of course UT. You can't land them all but it's a massive advantage in your 300-500 mile radius from Knoxville when you are THE program that's winning. It even helps UT pick and choose in other states like FL when their two main northern FL state teams are a mess (Miami undetermined but seems to be trending up). This was the case in the 90s and hasn't been the case since

I've never met one.

I'll be in Charlotte this weekend. Are they a good bunch or should I let loose with the mostly respectful trash talk haha

Missed any stories this week or want to catch up on some reading before kickoff off in Charlotte tonight?

The Gameday Newsstand has you covered!

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