The story of 2026 for Tennessee football has been the play of the defense, which was coming off of a dreadful 2025 season. Josh Heupel knew it was time for a change, and ended up moving on from Tim Banks. His next hire? Well he knocked it out of the park.
Heupel turned to longtime defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who was available after James Franklin was let go at Penn State. Knowles had given Tennessee a firsthand look at his scheme just a season ago, shutting down the Tennessee offense in Columbus during the College Football Playoff.
Those that knew of Knowles warned of a learning period for his complex defense, but that's turned out to not be the case. He brought a handful of coaches with him from Penn State, while also bringing in familiar players. One of those additions has been safety Dejuan Lane, who has emerged as one of the best safeties in the country through the first half of the season.
Lane has been a massive piece of the puzzle for Knowles, snagging three interceptions and putting up five tackles for loss. Tennessee has forced 13 turnovers so far this season, good for tenth in FBS. The Volunteers lead the nation in sacks with 30, averaging over four per game.
It's a unit that can simply take over a game, just as we saw last week. To hear how Lane puts it, it's a unit with an offensive mentality.
"Teams have to stop us," Lane said. "A lot of times really, I don't really think we play defense, I think we play offense. By the way coach calls the game, how aggressively we play, you know, we tell teams where they're going to run the ball, where they're going to pass the ball, etc. So, yeah, that's how I feel about that."
Tennessee certainly dictated how Alabama played offensively last week. The Crimson Tide had season-low outputs across the board and were never able to find a rhythm, especially with Neyland Stadium rocking about as loud as we've ever heard it.
Jim Knowles' defense now hits the road again, set to face another capable quarterback in LaNorris Sellers. The Gamecocks are coming off of a blowout win on the road against Florida, followed by a bye week to prepare. It will easily be the most hostile environment Tennessee has seen so far this season, and it will be interesting to see how the unit performs in a very obvious letdown spot.
Kickoff is set for Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
