The Tennessee Volunteers' defense may have upgraded with Jim Knowles at the helm. That's the prevailing sentiment coming out of UT's Orange and White game on Saturday at Neyland Stadium, anyway. Sports Illustrated's Patrick Andres admitted that a lot of the issue was how bad the Vols' offense looked without an obvious QB replacement for Joey Aguilar, but gave Knowles' defense its props.
Per Andres, "The eternal question when one side of the ball dominates a spring game is whether that side of the ball is good or the other is bad. With Tennessee, the reductive answer may be a bit of both. The bad news first: only one quarterback threw a touchdown in the abbreviated game. Colorado transfer Ryan Staub found wide receiver Carson Whitehead for a 72-yard score, which made up more than half of Staub’s passing yardage total. Neither of the other two candidates to replace departed 2025 SEC yardage leader Joey Aguilar—Faizon Brandon nor George MacIntyre—produced a true highlight play."
"However, the Volunteers’ defense seemed to brim with confidence after its stingy performance, with linebacker Edwin Spillman saying via Alex Sarkis of the Daily Beacon that the unit had “a whole different mindset and a whole different attention to detail” after finishing 92nd in the country in scoring defense. Tennessee hired Knowles as defensive coordinator on Dec. 11, after his ballyhooed '25 move from Ohio State to Penn State went sideways following the Nittany Lions’ dismissal of coach James Franklin. Both Knowles and the defense will have something to prove in 2026, and with a navigable schedule by SEC standards, the opportunity for a defensive rebound is there if the Volunteers want it," Andres added.
Multiple Tennessee QBs spoke glowingly of Knowles' schemes after the intrasquad scrimmage. Second-year George MacIntyre was complimentary of Knowles' schematic ruses.
“Coach Knowles has really mastered disguise. I would also say, with the new defense there is very [minimal] complete busts throughout spring ball,” MacIntyre said to reporters after Saturday’s scrimmage. "You might expect guys running wide open a lot when you’re doing installs, but I feel like our DBs are really locked in with what they are doing and disguising stuff.
“I feel like the second half of spring ball, they really got good at disguising pressures, and we had to really understand our protections and know where we’re hot and stuff like that.”
True freshman 5-star QB Faizon Brandon sounded assured that the defense will make the QB room better.
“I would definitely say all the different coverages and stuff will definitely make us better,” Brandon said. “It made us have to be on top of our game, as George said, with the checks and just knowing where to put our eyes in certain looks that we get.”
Jim Knowles might not make a difference for Tennessee
Tennessee looks like it'll either be throwing Brandon into the fire early or MacIntyre will have to be a game manager. Colorado Buffaloes QB transfer Ryan Staub worked with the third team, though he may ultimately end up with snaps, since he looked like the best of the bunch.
Unless Staub is magically great, which, to be fair, he did well at Colorado despite having minimal protection beyond Jordan Seaton, the offense looks like it'll hold Knowles' defense back from making much of an impact in 2026.
Knowles' defense has proven capable of winning in the past, but it took a dynamite offense led by an NFL veteran head coach, Chip Kelly, two second-round draft pick running backs, two first-round pick offensive linemen, and at least three first-round draft pick receivers.
Replacing Tim Banks solves some problems on Rocky Top, but a bunch more popped up this offseason. Mainly at the QB position. Knowles will benefit in the short-term after a disastrous year with the Penn State Nittany Lions dulled his reputation's shine, but ultimately, he's downgraded again, from a championship Big Ten school to a B1G team just below the top tier, to an SEC program that's more often than not in the middle of the pack.
We'll see where his career goes from here. The Orange and White game was a good start in Knoxville, but only for Knowles' side of the ball.