Off The Hook Sports continues its 2022 Tennessee football preseason preview on the top 25 impact players for the Vols this upcoming season.
Coming in at No. 4 is junior defensive end Tyler Baron.
Past Performance
Knoxville Catholic product Tyler Baron’s numbers wouldn’t exactly jump out to you after reading them for the first time. Baron appeared in all 13 games last season, but tallied only 30 tackles with seven TFL’s and four sacks in five starts. He also added two QB hurries and two PBU’s.
That’s good. That’s not No. 4 most important good. That is, until you read his total snap count, which evened out at 433.
Baron started only five games last season, mostly due to nagging injury problems. Make no mistake – when healthy, Tyler Baron is one of Tennessee’s most talented players on the defensive line. He’s a guy that desperately needs to stay healthy.
And he’s almost a guy that got away. Baron retains three years of eligibility, but entered his name into the transfer portal just after the season in January. He withdrew his name shortly thereafter.
Tennessee will return all 6-foot-5, 260 pounds of Baron on Sept. 1 against Ball State.
Opportunities
Baron has had quite some time to rehab that shoulder issue of his.
He didn’t miss any games in 2021, but his presences was not on the field as much as head coach Josh Heupel and defensive line coach Rodney Garner would have liked to see. Baron alongside pass rusher Byron Young was an incredible duo that just did not get much run when all was said and done. This year, that could be different.
Young and baron are both posed for breakout seasons. While Young is the larger physical threat of the two, Baron is the old-fashioned, hand-in-the-dirt defender that can prove valuable in any instance. When he was healthy last season he was a force, especially in the early and late parts of the season against Pitt and Purdue.
It’s likely not too much to expect Baron to double his career tackle count this season. He currently sits at 51 total tackles across his two seasons on Rocky Top, but upping his snap count into the 700’s or 800’s and his skill level should do the trick.
And with Matthew Butler departed for the NFL, the Vols defense not only needs to see him on the field more for his production, but for his upperclassman voice as well.
Hear It From…
It’s been said time and time again that Tennessee’s secondary will be the unit to keep an eye on.
Young and Baron, alongside Jeremy Banks and Aaron Beasley will have to provide support in the pass rush. Tennessee faced a lot of talented quarterbacks last season – Kenny Pickett, Bryce Young, Matt Corral – but that excuse doesn’t work in the SEC. that’s always going to be the case.
Tennessee cannot allow the QB as much time In the pocket as they had last season. Any secondary will be picked apart by an SEC-caliber QB if given enough time to do so.
Baron has stated that’s going to change this year.
“Personally, I think that I am getting better at rushing the quarterback,” Baron said in March. “Just effecting and getting the quarterback off his spot. As a unit, you can see we are becoming more of a close-knit unit. And we are just allowing each other to take care of our own responsibilities and not trying to overcompensate for anybody.”
Ultimately, this Tennessee team will be judged by how their defense reacts to last year, which I think we are allowed to say did not do what needed to be done to be mentioned in the same breath as the top tiers of the SEC.
