Cortez McDowell
The former four-star recruit came to Knoxville as an oversized safety, but moved to outside linebacker a few weeks ago and has moved up the depth chart since. With Dillon Bates (labrum) out for the season, the defensive coaching staff is looking for players who can take some of the burden off of A.J. Johnson and Jalen Reeves-Maybin. McDowell, who has appeared in all five games on special teams, is one of the names most often brought up in that conversation. Throw the names Elliott Berry, Justin King and Kenny Bynum in there as other guys who could see extra work at LB, but McDowell seems to be the name with a lot of buzz surrounding it at this point.
