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KNOXVILLE – Offense sells tickets but defense wins games. That’s a mantra the Tennessee Volunteers hope to build on during the 2023 college football season.

Tennessee’s offense is in the limelight most of the time as Josh Heupel has energized the Tennessee program with a face-paced, high-scoring brand of football. The offense is so fast that if fans blink, they may miss something. For as flashy as the Vols’ offense is, the defense is just as important in the success of the program under the third-year head coach. The defense showed flashes of brilliance last season in wins over #25 LSU, #17 Kentucky unranked Vanderbilt and #7 Clemson. The Vols’ defense held the Tigers to only 55 yards on the ground, overwhelmed the Wildcats to the tune of only 205 total yards given up, pitched a shutout against Vandy and held a potent Clemson offense to only one touchdown and 14 total points.

“You can’t win 11 games without playing great defense,” defensive coordinator Tim Banks said at this week’s media day. “We felt like we handled our business on that side of the ball, but our ultimate goal is to play for championships. For us to do that, we have to continue to grow in our role. Who gets the credit? We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about that. We worry more about getting a win at the end of the day. That’s been our message since day one. I think if you asked our kids, they would say the same. We don’t care about all of that. We know what we bring to the table. We’re very confident in our approach and our system. We’re super excited about the opportunity to go out there and compete for Tennessee.”

Banks said the improvement in the defense has been a work in progress since he arrived in Knoxville three years ago. “I think everything is a process, so to speak. We thought we were getting better. We showed dividends in some stats, but I think we got better in a lot of areas quite frankly. That’s why you work. Every year is a new year. You try to identify some things that you think you need to improve on that can help us win and win at a higher clip. We obviously identified some things last year, and we worked to correct it. Like I say every day, it always starts with the players. I thought our players bought in to what we are trying to get accomplished, and they played at a high level.”

One of the leaders on the Tennessee defense this season will be senior linebacker Aaron Beasley. “I think with Aaron, it’s about confidence,” Banks said. “Honestly, he’s always been confident, but as the spotlight started to shift toward him a little bit, I thought he got more comfortable in that setting. He’s been great. I think he’s had a tremendous offseason. From a leadership perspective, I think he feels like he has a voice and people will obviously listen when they see the production that he’s put together consistently.”

Beasley has continued to grow each season he has been in Knoxville and Banks likes the consistency the Franklin, Georgia native has built going into his last season for the Big Orange. “He’s really a quiet guy by nature, but I think he has a quiet confidence about him. He was always sneaky athletic. He didn’t say a bunch, but we got here with some things that he needed to get cleaned up. He missed a little bit of time, but when he got back and got his legs under him, we knew right away that he could be a guy we could count on. Nothing’s been given to him. Everything has been earned. That just makes it that much sweeter to me. He’s definitely one of those guys. He didn’t come in here as a highly thought of linebacker. Obviously, he was a defensive back, but he’s really worked his tail off every year to put himself in a position to not only be a consistent linebacker, but be a high-impact linebacker in this league.”

Beasley has seen time at both Will and Mike linebacker and said he is willing to be used wherever needed but he does have a preference. “I know both of them well but I will say at the Will position, it’s a lot more outside of the box and a little more free. When you are in Mike, you are in the box more and in the middle of the field. Me personally, I like Will more because I feel more free.” Beasley said he wants to see the defense mirror the offense in terms of intensity. “We want to attack and play in the backfield a lot, we want to attack.”

Banks said there will be a great deal of competition at cornerback this season, something he embraces. “Having all of those guys back with game time experience only helps us because at the end of the day, to think that we can go into the season with just two corners is not what we think. We know we’ll need at least three or four and in a perfect world, five guys that we feel like we can plug and play and it won’t be a huge drop off. Having all of those guys healthy and ready to compete only will help that room get better. If they’re better, we’re obviously better.”