ESSENTIAL: Rodney Garner ESSENTIAL for Jim Knowles Defensive Staff – Transfer Portal Urgency for Vols

Locked On Vols - Daily Podcast On Tennessee Volunteers Football & Basketball

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4.8 • 797 Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tennessee Volunteers’ offseason heats up as Eric Cain breaks down Jim Knowles’ fast-tracked approach to assembling his defensive staff with the transfer portal window opening. Will keeping renowned defensive line coach Rodney Garner give the Vols an edge, and could potential newcomers Andrew Jackson or Anthony Poindexter reshape the future of Tennessee’s defense? Critical questions surround linebacker coaching decisions and potential staff shakeups, just as portal timing makes coaching hires more urgent than ever. Eric Cain recaps the Volunteers’ heartbreaking loss to Illinois in the Music City Bowl, spotlighting the game’s pivotal momentum swings, key turnovers, and why the Alabama matchup became a season-defining turning point. From Joey Aguilar’s impact under center to lingering frustrations with missed opportunities, the episode explores Tennessee Football’s biggest challenges and what fans should expect with the program’s roster and staff overhaul as 2026 approaches.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now we get to the stuff that matters.
0:02.0	How is Jim Knowles going to assemble his defensive staff with the transfer portal opening tomorrow?
0:08.0	You are Locked on Balls, your daily podcast on the Tennessee Volunteers.
0:18.0	Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.
0:22.4	Hey, good Thursday morning, everybody, and happy new year.
0:25.1	Welcome into Lockdown Falls, your number one spot for Tennessee Football News and Entertainment.
0:29.1	Weekday mornings when you wake up every dayers could not do this show without you.
0:32.7	I am your host, Eric Kane.
0:34.4	Appreciate you guys for being here, making us your first listen, your first watch,
0:37.8	each year every single morning, even if you are waking up, keeping your normal routine here on
0:41.1	this holiday. If you're catching this a day later heading to work, do appreciate you guys for
0:45.4	tuning in. Happy New Year. I hope 2026 is everything that you wanted to be. Wealth, health,
0:53.3	health and wealth and happy times, all that and more here in
0:56.9	26. And here's the hoping Tennessee athletics is a little bit better in 2026. So I should probably
1:01.5	do a show on that notion. Maybe I will tomorrow, but still kind of reeling from the Music
1:06.6	City Bowl, getting back in to Knoxville on Wednesday around midday and kind of getting the
1:13.3	bearings of what Jim Noel is going to do for his defensive staff. We're going to talk about that
1:16.6	here in Segment 1. What are some of the directions he should go in and position coaching
1:20.7	hires and all that? We'll go back and reflect a little bit more on the Music City Bowl and we'll
1:25.3	look at we'll look back at the Alabama game that in my opinion, the Alabama game, I'm going to probably write a story about this at some point in time, even though I don't think anybody's going to really care to read it, but I think the Alabama game changed everything for Tennessee football this year. I'll get into that here coming up in second number three. But as we do, portal season, coaching changing season, the condensed timeline from the
1:45.1	ball game to when the portal opens, I want to stress that if you're watching on YouTube
1:49.4	as well, you see my dog right over here in the corner right there. There he is, being a good boy.
	...

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