Tennessee center Cooper Mays knows what an elite defensive lineman looks like. He’s probably faced them more times than he’d like to admit. Perhaps even in practice.
“They’re up there,” Mays said when asked how the Vols compare to other defensive lines he’s played, which includes legendary defensive lines at Georgia and Alabama. “They’re most definitely up there. I would hate to play our defense in a game.”
Just ask the Vols’ All-SEC offensive lineman when he knew Tennessee had a special group of defensive linemen and he’ll give you a pretty simple answer.
“As soon as we started fall camp,” Mays said on The Vol Report. “I’ve seen a lot of defensive lines and played a lot of folks, so I kind of know how it feels when you’re playing a team like that. When you’re playing a group like that, it’s not very often that they come around and that you can play with that many bodies at such a high level.
“Usually, you’ve got a couple of dogs up front, and then after that there’s a drop off. But with our guys you’ve got three strings of guys that can come in there and wreak havoc a little bit.”
Tennessee may not have a truly elite defensive lineman, other than EDGE rusher James Pearce, Jr., but they have more quality Volunteers than The Peace Corp when it comes to their front four. That sheer quantity of players coming in fresh, like waves, is daunting. Why? Because you can’t substitute offensive linemen when the game is in question.
“When you’re six or seven plays deep (into a drive) and you’re about to die out there and you see two guys coming there fresh, just ready to go, been sitting there for a good 15 minutes, just chilling, catching their breath, drinking water, it’s terrible,” Mays said. “I mean you’re just like, ‘Dude, I’d rather us just like take a timeout or something, you know what I’m saying? Do something to help me.’”
The Vols don’t often have that happen during drives. They don’t substitute so, according to NCAA rules, defenses can’t substitute either unless there’s a clock stoppage, which could be prompted by an injury or fake cramp.
Mays also pointed out that opposing teams have to prepare for each individual player, which will have their own individual strengths. One Vol could excel with a spin move. Another could be a bull-rush specialist.
“All of our guys play different,” Mays said. “Usually you kind of recruit one style of guys that you like. Usually teams have two big dudes that clog up the middle that they like to just kind of have blockage up front.”
That’s certainly not the case with the Vols. While teams like Kent State would love to have two players to block the middle of the line of scrimmage, Tennessee has about six that have excelled in the interior of the defensive line.
For the record, the Golden Flashes have been worse than fool’s gold when it comes to protecting the passer. Kent State has given up six sacks this season, which is tied for 113th in the nation. For context, there are only 134 Division-I teams.
