National media outlet names Tennessee Vols' biggest reason for optimism in 2024

247Sports named the biggest reason for optimism for each top 25 college football team in 2024 and they went with a definite strength for the Tennessee Vols.

The front seven.

247Sports thinks Tennessee's defense could be elite in 2024 thanks in large part to the Vols' front seven.

From 247Sports : Everyone knows where Tennessee's bread is buttered on defense — starting and ending with James Pearce Jr., who might be college football's top returning defensive player. He accumulated 14.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage with 10 sacks last fall, one of the best individual seasons in program history. Now, if the Vols can get dependable production from Joshua Josephs behind him, this defense will be elite. Five-star freshman Jordan Ross is a summer enrollee and adds to the talent at the Leo position. Tennessee feels great about seniors Bryson Eason and Omari Thomas at defensive tackle and Dominic Bailey is expected to get first dibs at the other edge opposite of Pearce.

Everyone knows about quarterback Nico Iamaleava and his potential in Tennessee's high-powered offense. The narrative for most of the offseason has been that if Iamaleava performs as expected, then the Vols will be a problem in December.

But Tennessee's defense has a chance to be just as big of a story this fall/winter.

The Vols' defensive line is talented and deep. And Tennessee has the best group of linebackers that they've had in over a decade. If the new-look secondary can perform better than the secondary did last season, then it's certainly possible that Tennessee could have one of the best defenses in the SEC in 2024.

Related: Former Vols OC Alex Golesh gets candid about taking over a tough situation at Tennessee in 2021