The Tennessee Vols’ defense has been somewhat of an adventure in 2025.

Tennessee finished the regular season with the No. 92 scoring defense in the nation — a far cry from the No. 7 scoring defense the Vols had in 2024 — while also leading the SEC with six defensive touchdowns. It was essentially feast or famine for the Vols’ defense this fall.

In the Vols’ final regular season game, Tennessee’s defense gave up 45 points in a blowout loss at home to the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Former Vols defensive lineman details the defensive issues he saw for Tennessee against Vandy

Former Vols defensive lineman Marlon Walls joined The Sports Source on Sunday to discuss Tennessee’s loss to Vanderbilt.

Walls pointed out that it looked like some of Tennessee’s defensive players didn’t trust each other to be in the right spot against the Commodores. He specifically pointed to a play where two Vols defenders filled the same gap, which allowed Pavia a clear running lane (due to the unaccounted for gap).

“The better football team won,” said Walls of Tennessee’s loss to Vanderbilt. “Here’s the reason [I say that]. There was one play where Diego Pavia decides he’s going to run up the middle. You’ve got a safety that’s filling the hole. You’ve got [Vols linebacker Arion] Carter that’s coming on the blitz. So one is supposed to take the A gap, and one is supposed to take the B gap. Well, while [Pavia’s] stuck his foot in the ground, the safety jumps into the A gap. Carter’s already in the A gap. Now [Pavia] takes off through the B (gap) and gets probably about 20 yards.

“And the reason why I say the better football team won is because that showed me those two guys didn’t trust each other. If I’ve got A gap on this blitz, then I’ve got A gap. If I’ve got B gap on this blitz, then I’ve got B gap. I gotta trust that you’re gonna do your job and then we don’t run into this situation. But because they were playing against Pavia, they were so afraid of what he could do. This guy now jumps into his gap saying, ‘I’m gonna make the tackle, I’m gonna recover for you.’ And what you’re supposed to do is trust your guy to be where he’s supposed to be. And that happened all night long. [Tennessee] missed tackles and misread gaps the entire night.”

Those comments from Walls line up almost perfectly with the insight that ESPN’s Greg McElroy offered last week about Vols defensive coordinator Tim Banks’ play-calling style.

McElroy suggested that Tennessee has too many defensive looks to be elite at any single defense, which leads to missed assignments and unaccounted for gaps.

“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,” said McElroy of Tennessee’s defensive looks. “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’m certainly not a defensive X’s and O’s savant, but it definitely sounds like Tennessee needs to simplify some things defensively — especially considering how many young players they were forced to play this season.

But I’m sure Tennessee’s coaching staff understands that. And I would expect that to be something that’s addressed during the offseason.

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