Tennessee sophomore James Pearce Jr. capped off a captivating regular season with a game-changing performance in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day. Pearce’s forced fumble, sack, and 52-yard pick-six helped propel the Vols to a 35-0 shutout win over Iowa.
“James (Pearce) did an unbelievable job the entire day,” head coach Josh Heupel said after the game. “Obviously, everybody saw the pick. He was in the backfield all day, after the quarterback all day long.”
Pearce’s performance during the 2023 season and postseason cements his status as one of the most intriguing players in the conference heading into the 2024 season, even with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma’s rosters into the SEC.
The 6-foot-5 EDGE rusher finished the season with 28 total tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, two passes deflected, two forced fumbles, and one interception for a touchdown. Pearce led Tennessee in tackles for loss, sacks, and quarterback hurries (16).
The Charlotte, North Carolina, native’s 2023 season earned him a First Team All-SEC selection.
According to Pro Football Focus’ statistics, Pearce was graded out as the second-highest EDGE defender in the country among power five teams. Pearce was also graded out as the top EDGE defender in the Southeastern Conference.
Highest graded Edge Rushers from the 2023 season pic.twitter.com/hWmzG18yjw
— PFF College (@PFF_College) January 14, 2024
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“James has got a great football future in front of him,” Heupel said after the conclusion of the Vols’ season. “He’s a great player right now, but he’s got a chance to be extremely special. And for him, just continuing to grow in his understanding of football IQ as we continue to move him around and put him in positions to win is gonna be extremely important as we go through this offseason. He’s dynamic, he’s got multiple moves to affect the quarterback. But there’s still growth in some of those fundamentals and continue to grow in how he defends the run. He’s going that well, but there’s still some growth there. I say all of that, he’s a dynamic playmaker for us. He’s really rare, got a really bright future in front of him.”
James Pearce Jr. isn’t the only Vol that PFF was high on coming out of the 2023 season. Pro Football Focus rated Jaylen Wright as the fifth highest-graded running back and the top running back from the SEC in their year-end rankings earlier in the week.
Full list (PFF):
- UCLA Laiatu Latu – 96.3
- Tennessee James Pearce Jr. – 91.3
- Penn State Chop Robinson – 90.8
- Ohio State Jack Sawyer – 89.9
- UCLA Gabriel Murphy – 87.6
- Louisville Ashton Gillotte – 86.6
- Washington Bralen Trice – 86.2
- Utah Jonah Elliss – 84.9
- Michigan Josaiah Stewart – 84.0
- Darius Robinson – 83.9
