Tennessee Football’s linebacker room is one of the most stacked units on the Volunteers’ roster this season. Tennessee originally went into the offseason with the impression that star linebacker Arion Carter was going to declare for the draft, so Josh Heupel and his staff went out and got former Penn State linebacker Amare Campbell from the transfer portal. Carter didn’t end up staying in the draft pool, though, and eventually made his way back to Tennessee.
Carter and Campbell now lead a linebackers room that also includes Edwin Spillman, Jeremiah Telander, Jadon Perlotte, Jaedon Harmon, and incoming four-star freshmen TJ White and Brayden Rouse.
“When you have some good players, you can see some intensity through repetition of guys doing exactly what they’re supposed to do on a continual basis,” Tennessee linebackers coach William Inge said of his group. “So from our perspective, we’re just really trying to be the best at what we do when it comes to us doing our job.”
Campbell is one of the most interesting players on the defense as a whole. Considering his time spent at Penn State under Jim Knowles’ defense last season, Campbell entered the spring with a prior understanding of what that defense would look like at Tennessee. While he still had the task of getting used to a new team and environment, he has the luxury of already knowing the defensive scheme he was playing in.
Earlier in the spring, Knowles referred to Campbell as the “quarterback” of Penn State’s defense.
“Amare was the quarterback of the defense for us last year, so he knows the system inside and out,” Knowles said. “He has things he has to get better at, his tackling in open space. We’ve been able to study those things to start to give him an advantage to get better. That’s already a strong room, right? The linebacker room is really strong.”
While speaking to the media on Thursday morning, Campbell described what being the quarterback of the defense looks like and how he fits into that role.
“Yeah, pretty much, I’m a quarterback of the defense,” Campbell said of Knowles’ comments. “I’m in charge of the checks. I’m really in charge of everyone on the field, all other 10 players. Where they line up, what they do. Given the formation, given whatever play call it is, I have to echo the call. I have to pretty much make sure everything is running.”
More From RTI: Everything Tennessee Football TE Coach Alec Abeln Said Said During Spring Camp
One of the big questions that Tennessee will have is how they’re going to distribute the snaps among the talent that they have in the room. Spillman, Telander, and Carter combined for 237 tackles last season. Perlotte and Harmon are talented young players, as are the two incoming freshmen. Campbell is the new guy in the room, but he racked up 103 total tackles for the Nittany Lions’ defense last year as the “quarterback” of the unit. There’s a ton of production, but only so many snaps to go around.
“The one thing we’re always trying to do is we’re trying to find what we call ‘healthy solutions,’” Inge said about figuring out his options to play. “So, we have to, as a staff and obviously myself as the leader of the group, make sure we find the best tight-knit unit… So yes, it’s a very good problem, but that’s our challenge in coaching and for everyone in the room. Our responsibility is to get Tennessee football to where we can be in position to play for and win a championship and I’m just one of the pawns doing our job.”
While Campbell knows that there are limited snaps to go around, he’s not holding back on helping his teammates learn the position and the new defensive scheme for the betterment of the team overall.
“It’s just the selflessness, you know what I’m saying?” Campbell said. “When I was in that position, my older teammates, my older big brothers in that room, helped me learn. So, you know, I’m just trying to do everything for the team. The more everybody knows, the better it’ll be for the team.”
