After putting together possibly the best defense in the country a year ago, Tennessee football has taken a step back in 2025. With three games left on the schedule, Vols defensive coordinator Tim Banks met with the media to give his thoughts.
He was asked about breakout players, battling injuries, struggles and more.
Here’s what he said.
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On how he would asses Tennessee’s defense through nine games
“Yeah, this obviously been a tale of some highs and some lows. Some things we’ve done really well, and obviously some things you want to do better. But we got three games left. As I tell guys all the time, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. I think we made some strides. I think some of the younger guys have grown up. And I’m looking forward to getting this next one on Saturday.”
On if Tennessee tackled better against Oklahoma, what the Vols did differently and how they can build on it
“Yeah, again, I like to think we’ve emphasized it since I’ve gotten here. We haven’t gotten the fruits of our labor, obviously, in a lot of games. So you should continue to coach it, continue to coach the details, continue to put them in some situations where they can learn from it. But, yeah, I’m extremely proud of the way those guys tackled Saturday night. And like I said, at the end of the day, hopefully we can build on it. We have to build on it, to be what we want to be as the season comes down the back stretch.”
On the biggest challenge of managing the defense this year
“Yeah, I don’t know that it’s one thing. I think when you’re dealing with some inexperience every week’s a new week. Every opportunity is an opportunity for those guys to learn. Communication, I think those guys have worked really hard about, particularly talking about the safety spot and even your nickel, those guys being able to communicate at a high level is extremely important. We referenced tackling earlier, not being able to tackle it to the clip you want to tackle at. But the thing that I’ll always dig my feet in the ground, these guys are working at it. As long as they continue to work, fight, scratch, and I’m ten toes down with these guys and that’s what they’ve done. Those guys are coming to work every day, trying to get better, working and trying to give us what we asked for. And like I said, if they keep doing that, I think we’ll like the results sooner or later.”
On the recurring negative themes on defense
“Again, I think continuing to tackle better is extremely important. Obviously, you want to be better in the red zone, keep guys from scoring points, but I don’t know that there’s one thing that I can say definitively. We live and die one game at a time. When you either play good enough to win or you didn’t. So we obviously didn’t play good enough this last week to win. We got to play a lot better this week and come back with a victory. So, yeah, we’ll deep dive it and figure it out and see where we need to go, how we can improve, how we can coach better, how we can play better, but right now, this is a one-game season for us. We’re doing everything we can to get ready to finish.”
On Jadon Perlotte’s progression with Arion Carter banged up
“We force-fed Perlotte a ton. You guys have seen the flashes. He can run, he’s long. Obviously, AC is a guy that’s been battle-tested, played a lot of football around here. So I think him seeing the way AC works, that’s invaluable. But I think a lot different from some of the other guys I’ve talked about, man, when you look at this kid a year from now, sheesh, you get the weight on, continue to get stronger, another year in the system, I think this kid will be as good as some of the backers we’ve had here in a long time. But there’s a learning curve. But I do think having (Jeremiah) Telander around, (Edwin) Spillman, obviously, AC, you know, Perlotte, Harmon, all those guys being able to see how those guys work, how they go about their business, just gonna pay dividends in the future.”
On the pass rush this season
“I think Josh Josephs has done some good things. When you look at Jordan (Ross) or even Caleb (Herring), those guys have kind of been in the force in our past rush. I think Dom Bailey has done some good things. We had some chances on the edge, but, obviously, we compare a lot of it to what we did last year and when we rushed, a lot of those guys were part of that. So, we’ll continue to coach it, continue to get better at it, but obviously we want to continue to go there.”
