It’s tough picking Tennessee’s most valuable player on defense. Defensive lineman Bryson Eason surely deserves a vote. He’s one of many.

Eason was a big part of why the Vols beat the Gators 23-17 in overtime. The senior was in the perfect place as Florida was trying to upset the Vols in Neyland Stadium on Saturday as the Gators tried to complete a screen pass in overtime. That didn’t work.

Eason sniffed it out, which resulted in a five-yard loss and a third-and-20 that might as well have been third-and-a mile considering how well the Vols were playing defensively. The Gators managed six yards on the following play, but missed a 47-yard field goal in overtime that put Tennessee in the driver’s seat, only needing a score to win the game.

“I was going to try to pick it, but I was like, if I missed it, everything goes bad,” said Eason, who had three tackles, including two for a loss, against Florida. “I saw it and just reacted.”

The Vols defense gave up 361 yards to the Gators, but Tennessee was better than that. They continually came up with clutch plays when the Vols needed to get Florida’s offense off of the field. 

The defensive play was even more impressive considering Tennessee’s offense was struggling to hold onto the ball and middle linebacker Keenan Pili was sidelined in the first quarter with a knee injury. The senior transfer from BYU will undergo tests on Sunday after walking off the field under his own power.

“Obviously, having a brother down like that, a great leader on our team who plays a great role on our team, having him go down, you know, next-man-up mentality as coach always says,” linebacker Arion Carter said. “We just have to go out there and play for him.

“I wanted to go out there and, as a unit and as a defense, we had to go out there and play for Keenan Pili because that’s our brother and we got to go fight. Having a great leader and a great teammate like that go down, I’m praying he’s healthy and he comes back stronger than ever and for the next game because we have a task at hand.”

Carter said backup Jeremiah Telander was “solid” in place of Pili. However, there is no question that the Vols will miss Pili if he’s not able to play against Alabama this week or moving forward. 

“We’ll know more tomorrow,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after the game when asked about Pili’s injury. “I’m not sure there’s a better representative of what a Volunteer is than Keenan Pili. You talk about a selfless guy that cares about the people around him way more than he cares about himself. That’s an elite competitor, great leader, tough as nails, athletic, explosive (and) everything that you want. Special dude.”

If Pili is out for the season, then his college career would be over. He applied for, and received, a special exemption from the NCAA to play this season, his seventh year of college football, after suffering a season-ending triceps injury in the Vols’ season opener last season. He has also missed almost an entire season in 2021 after suffering an ACL injury at BYU.

The Vols struggled last season when Pili went down. That wasn’t the case on Saturday. The Vols were still dominant when they needed to be despite Pili’s absence. Clearly, the Vols’ confidence is sky high after another dominant performance.

“I feel like, as a defense, we’ve got to be able to give the offense something to stand on at the end of the day,” said Carter, who also deserves most valuable player consideration after four tackles and an interception that set up a game-tying field goal for the Vols. “At the end of the day, if they don’t score a single point, it should be zero-zero at the end of the game…We are going to hold them to three and out. 

“We’re going to be able to get the ball back to the offense. So just having the confidence that we’re going to be out there and we’re going to play relentless, on fire, fly to the football and get takeaways and create takeaways on how fierce and physical we play…As long as the defense plays great and we play complementary football to the offense and give them the ball.”

Tennessee EDGE rusher James Pearce Jr., certainly deserves a nomination for MVP of the Vols’ defense and, perhaps, the entire game on Saturday. His strip of Florida quarterback Graham Mertz near the goal line in the first half changed the entire flow of the game.

“It was just scraping the ball out,” Eason said. “Just constantly working, showing that effort and showing that he cared, you know what I’m saying? So just man, I expect it, you know what I’m saying? So that’s what I saw. I saw James Pierce being James Pearce.”

After a win against Florida, there are plenty of kudos to go around. With Alabama up next, the Vols can’t enjoy the victory for long.