Tennessee defensive back Christian Charles had five solo tackles, including one for a loss, before the Florida game on Saturday. He matched those totals in extensive playing time against the Gators.

The junior from Gainesville, Ga., now has 10 tackles and two for a loss. It’s been a long time coming as Charles suffered an Achilles tear in September last year and was forced to miss the rest of the season.

“I feel 100-percent because I’m able to go and perform to 100-percent of my abilities,” Charles said. “The ability to bounce back from injury comes from the initial ability to have mental toughness and then a component of the physical toughness too. 

“I don’t know if it’s (the injury) allowed me to become tougher or anything like that, but I think my initial mindset and the just the way I carry myself and the way I approach things allowed me to not focus on being banged up or anything like that, just allowing myself to continue to move forward and keep my mind on our team goals.”

Those team goals are all about beating Alabama this week when the Crimson Tide takes the field at 3:30 EST to play the Vols.

“Playing Alabama every year is very exciting,” Charles said. “It’s an opportunity…to show what you’re made of. Their offense, obviously we’ve seen it all season. You know explosive plays whether it’s running or passing. 

“They have a very talented wide receiver, talented running back room and talented quarterback, so I think we can’t take any aspect of their game for granted, got to approach it with a mindset of communicating at a high level and allowing ourselves to believe what we see.”

That communication that Charles mentioned could be more challenging this week after Tennessee coach Josh Heupel announced that middle linebacker Keenan Pili was out for the season with a knee injury. However, Charles didn’t seem concerned based on how the Vols played in a 23-17 overtime win against Florida on Saturday without Pili in the lineup.

“That’s kind of the beauty of the way we play defense,” Charles said. “We get a lot of guys in there, so we have the opportunity to communicate with every level of the defense, everyone that comes in. 

“When we lost Keenan, we didn’t know the severity or the extent of the injury or what happened, but we all have that kind of next man up mentality. We take communication and executing at a very high level. It’s very imperative on our mind. 

“If anything, I guess with him going down, him being a leader on our defense, we already have that that heightened sense of communication, on the field. With him being out, it’s just time to ramp it up a little bit more for sure.”

Safety Will Brooks seemed a bit more dismayed by the Pili injury.

“Keenan, obviously, was a big piece of our defense and it really sucks to see him go down,” the senior said. “But we’ve got guys stepping up. I’m not positive about that communication standpoint, but I know we’ve got a lot of guys stepping up and they’re ready for their opportunities.”

Charles isn’t the only new Vol asserting himself in Tennessee’s secondary. UT freshman Boo Carter was named SEC Co-Freshman of the Week after his play against Florida, which included seven tackles, a sack for a loss of 10 yards, 1 1/2-tackles for a loss and another quarterback hurry.

“I thought he was just playing super fast,” Brooks said. “He’s just learning, continuing to learn every single week, continually getting better throughout the week. And his preparation, I saw it through the week in practice and it translated to the game and he had a great game.”

The same could be said for Charles as the Vols’ defense continues to grow and adapt.