If you paid any attention at all to Tennessee’s spring practice period, you know that linebacker was a huge issue for first year defensive coordinator Tim Banks. It was a simple lack of numbers, with Henry To’o To’o and Quavaris Crouch entering the transfer portal after Jeremy Pruitt was fired.
Jeremy Banks was hurt, and then Martavius French, Aaron Willis and Aaron Beasley were suspended. That left about three scholarship linebackers for Tennessee to operate with, and the status of some of those suspended players remains up in the air.
The need for another body (or two) is obvious, and a connection with transferring Texas linebacker Juwan Mitchell was an easy one to make.