Vols Offseason Checklist: DL, LB

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker (from Fort Rucker Studio) and Patrick Brown (from his house at an undisclosed location in Knox County) convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss a Tennessee front seven that lost a couple of leading men after last season but returns plenty of potential and plenty of experience.The first segment of this episode focuses on the defensive line — an area of depth and strength for Tennessee heading into the 2020 season. Every contributor from last season’s team is back, and senior Emmit Gooden — arguably the team’s best returning player at that point heading into 2019 — will be back after missing all of last season while recovering from a torn ACL. How did the Vols turn a potentially huge deficiency into a solid unit last season? How much can that group improve going forward? Will this unit continue to be a strength-in-numbers group, or could some individual players emerge as stars? Will any newcomers or 2019 reserves force their way into the mix? Those are some of the main questions discussed in the first segment.Linebackers take their turn on the docket in the second segment of this episode. There’s no question that Tennessee will be challenged to replace the experience, talent and productivity of inside linebacker Daniel Bituli and outside linebacker/edge rusher Darrell Taylor, who were among the SEC’s best players at their positions. The Vols do have some solid pieces, though, and they have an excellent foundation piece in sophomore inside linebacker Henry To’o To’o. They also have some intriguing options who played smaller roles on last season’s team, and they signed several intriguing talents to add to the mix. Tennessee’s linebackers are probably the team’s most difficult position group to project in 2020, because there’s a lot of interesting talent and undeniable upside in that group but also a lot of questions and a lot of experience and production to replace. That group will provide plenty of interesting discussion for the next several months, so why not start now?The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Friday, unless major breaking news occurs before that point.