Linebackers
Daniel: A.J. Johnson continues to play like a monster. He turned in another 10-tackle performance that included 2.5 TFLs and 1.5 sacks. If the Vols had 11 guys playing with his fire on both sides of the ball, they wouldn’t lose many games. He’s answered the question of if he can make impact plays in a big way this year. Jalen Reeves-Maybin didn’t have any huge impact plays, but still recorded nine tackles. Curt Maggitt recorded four stops from his hybrid-OLB/DE spot. The Rebels finished with 180 yards on the ground, but a lot of those came late with the game basically out of reach. This unit also did enough to keep the Vols competitive. Grade: B
Houston: A.J. Johnson eclipsed 400 career tackles during the game and really made life hard on Bo Wallace for most of the game. He and Jalen Reeves-Maybin combined for 19 tackles and consistently met Rebel ball-carriers at or near the line of scrimmage, but did start to get beat to the edge in the second half after Ole Miss adjusted their attack. It really is tough to fault this group for anything considering how many times the defense as a whole was able to get Tennessee’s offense the ball back. Johnson and Curt Maggitt each tried their best to get inside the head of Bo Wallace early in this one and it resulted in a poor performance from Wallace for the most part. This group is playing their best football right now, but, unfortunately, it looks as if forcing three-and-outs may not be good enough for the Vols to win right now . Grade: B
Average Grade: B
