If you ask a group of Tennessee Vols fans for their thoughts on defensive coordinator Tim Banks, you’ll likely get a wide array of responses.

Banks, who has served as Tennessee’s defensive coordinator since 2021, was the architect behind the Vols’ elite defense in 2024, which was statistically UT’s best defense since 1999 (the Vols allowed 16.1 points per game last season — their best mark since allowing 14.8 points per game in 1999).

Tennessee’s defense, partially due to injuries to their top two cornerbacks (Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson), hasn’t been nearly as consistent this season, allowing 27.3 points per game (No. 85 in the nation) and 394 total yards per game (No. 77 in the nation).

The Vols, though, haven’t necessarily been terrible on defense this season. Tennessee, in fact, leads the SEC with six defensive touchdowns, and they’re third in the conference in tackles for loss with 78.

Tim banks described as an “emotional play-caller” by ESPN analyst

ESPN’s Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic shared some thoughts this week on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on Banks and the way he calls games.

McElroy, a former national championship-winning quarterback at Alabama, suggested that Banks is an emotional play-caller, while also pointing out that Tennessee doesn’t really have a defensive identity this season (which, as McElroy noted, isn’t always a bad thing).

“I don’t know if you (McElroy) said this on the show yesterday, or when you and I were talking, but I thought this was brilliantly said,” said Cubelic. “And I have not heard it put this way, and I have not heard a lot of coordinators described this way, but I do think it fits Tim Banks well — that he’s an emotional play caller. And I imagine it’s very difficult, first off, not to be [emotional] when you’re calling plays on either side of the ball. Maybe you give up a sack. What do you probably want to do next as an offensive coordinator? You want to get them back.

“When I look at Tim Banks, I think you’re right,” added McElroy. “You hit the nail on the head with there is some emotion when it comes to his play calling. For example, a team hits a 20-yard play, he wants to blitz you now because he’s mad that you just gained 20 yards. The team stops the run on — let’s just say they stopped the run on 1st-and-10, he automatically is thinking pass on second down. He calls a (defensive) pass play without acknowledging, sometimes, oh, their run game’s now going, they’re going to go back to the run on second down. And they gash him for eight yards.

“I think that right now, when I watch Tennessee’s defense, there is not a clear defensive identity — which is not necessarily a bad thing. I think when you are an offense, it’s easier to prepare for a team that has a clear identity — here’s what they want to be. So when all things are going sideways, when things are going haywire, here’s what they want to be. So when we get a bead on them, hey, they’re going to revert back to what they do best, and that’s quarters, or that’s man, or they want to blitz you, or they really want to roll coverage to your best receiver. Tennessee doesn’t really have that. When I watch them, it’s what I call a grab bag defense, which is not a bad thing. People will interpret that as negative. It’s not negative. It’s like he’s calling plays, as opposed to leaning into what their identity is defensively. It’s plays over identity.”

“And for example, one play, you’ll get man,” continued McElroy. “1st-and-10, you get man. 2nd-and-10, you get field fire zone. 3rd-and-10, you get cover two. They get a first down, now comes boundary fire zone. Then we’re going to go to the man. It’s like you’ll get 10 plays, and you’ll have 10 different defenses, which can be hard as an opposing offense trying to figure it out. But it also means that I don’t know if they’re really great at any one thing. They’re kind of solid at everything. And when you don’t live in one specific look defensively, you’re less comfortable executing a different scheme on every single play, which leads to mistakes, which leads to busted coverages, which leads to unaccounted-for gaps. And that’s where I think Tennessee’s gotten got this year — they are very much a defense that is kind of a jack of all trades. They can do everything, but they don’t do any one thing really, really well. I’m talking specifically as it relates to blitzes and scheme. They have everything in their playbook. So on any one given snap, you could see 25 different defenses, which is hard. But it also means that they’re probably not very good in any one specific defense.”

I’ve been critical of McElroy this season for the way he calls games involving Alabama, but there’s no doubt that he’s an insightful college football analyst. I gave him his flowers last winter for correctly predicting how the Tennessee vs Ohio State game would go. He also correctly predicted how the Vols’ games against Oklahoma and Alabama would go this season.

McElroy’s take on Banks certainly makes a lot of sense when you consider what we’ve seen from Tennessee’s defense this season.

While the Vols have played better defensively the last couple of weeks, Tennessee’s defense has been very feast or famine in 2025. It seems like it’s either getting gashed all the way down the field or creating a huge play that results in a defensive touchdown.

McElroy’s suggestion that Tennessee has too many defensive looks to be elite at any single approach seems spot on when you look at the results this season.

Maybe the Vols’ identity on defense is just chaos — both good and bad.

If that’s what they’re going for, they’ve definitely nailed it this season.

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