A key member of the Vols’ coaching staff returned to Tennessee spring practice on Tuesday morning. As seen by RTI during Tuesday morning’s workout, Tennessee veteran defensive line coach Rodney Garner is back on the field with his group.
Knox News’ Adam Sparks reported on March 17 that Rodney had a “planned medical procedure” that kept him sidelined for the first nine spring camp practices. Sparks’ report did state that Garner has been able to participate in some meetings with his players, but Tuesday was the first time that he was back on the field.
“Well, you know Rod. You know, he’s not laying low,” Tennessee LEOs coach AJ Jackson said last Monday. “But he’s been on Zoom, so sometimes it sounds like the voice of God’s above us when he starts yelling in the air on the Zoom. So he’s been involved plenty. So just, you know, thank God through COVID, through Zoom technology, everybody’s gotten real efficient at that. So it’s been pretty smooth and easy to keep him involved as much as we can, even though he’s not here in the physical.”
Rodney Garner has been the Vols’ D-Line coach since Josh Heupel’s inaugural season in 2021. He’s been a tremendous player developer, a key recruiter, and a veteran presence on the staff. Despite Tennessee’s defensive coaching changes over the offseason, Garner was retained by new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and got a multi-year extension on Jan. 2.
“Yeah, I think they’ve handled it well,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said about the Vols’ D-Line room in Garner’s absence last Thursday. “They still got Rodney’s voice loud and clear in the meeting room for sure. Excited to get Rodney back here, hopefully pretty quickly here as he comes off the backside of this.”
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Garner’s return to the field is a welcome sight for Tennessee’s program, but his absence did have its silver linings. One of the big instances of that was new LEOs coach AJ Jackson expanding his role and working with the entire defensive line, getting to know his new players.
“First off, starting with teaching the schemes and getting to know everybody, so it’s actually been an opportunity for me to spread out to just beyond the LEO room, meet some of the D-linemen, and get to some of how Rodney does things, but from the player’s perspective,” Jackson said during spring camp. “So it’s been good. It’s been a little bit hectic, but we hit the ground running. It’s nothing I’ve ever done before, but it’s been a fast pace for sure.”
Jackson is excited for his opportunity to coach alongside Garner with the “Yin and Yang” dynamic that they have.
“He’s definitely got a different intensity than I do,” Jackson said about Garner. “I’m a little more of a zen master than he is. So we’re on different ends of the spectrum. But, I think it’ll be a good Yin and Yang, good cop, bad cop type of deal when he gets back for sure.”
Tennessee’s re-tooled defensive line features a transfer portal name that Vol fans will become very familiar with this season. Tennessee acquired defensive lineman Xavier Gilliam from the transfer portal this offseason, who transferred over from Penn State as he followed Knowles and Jackson from the Nittany Lions’ program.
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