Can Tennessee football excel without injured Edrees Farooq? Defense confident

Tennessee football secondary coach Anthony Poindexter said losing starting safety Edrees Farooq to a season-ending knee injury was “devastating” because he was “starting to separate” from the pack.

That’s discouraging.

A couple of minutes later, Poindexter acknowledged that UT had “great depth (at safety) before (Farooq) went down.” But he said the remaining players should be “good enough to play good football.”

That’s less discouraging.

And then after praising the talent of Farooq’s replacements like Dejuan Lane, Qua Moss and Dylan Lewis, Poindexter sounded more upbeat: “These dudes are in good spots. They should be ready to play winning football.”

That’s encouraging.

During a seven-minute media availability on Aug. 18, Poindexter seemed to go through several stages of grief over Farooq’s injury — from sadness to optimism. His players followed suit by lamenting the loss of Farooq and then making their case that everything will be OK in UT’s secondary.

“That definitely hit home for me because he’s a brother of mine,” said Lane, the Penn State transfer likely replacing Farooq at starting safety. “But that’s the sport we play, and we’ve got to get guys ready to take that next step.”

How Tennessee prepared for Edrees Farooq injury through portal

No team wants to lose an impact player like Farooq. But Tennessee at least prepared for such a situation with strategic offseason moves.

UT added eight defensive backs from the transfer portal. Four of them will likely start: Lane (Penn State) and TJ Metcalf (Michigan) at safety; Moss (Kansas State) at nickelback; Kayin Lee (Auburn) at cornerback.

UT also kept young defensive backs out of the portal. All-SEC performer Ty Redmond returned as starting cornerback. Lewis and cornerbacks Tre Poteat and Tim Merritt returned for their sophomore season despite the Vols firing their assistant coaches and dipping deep into the portal for their potential replacements.

Coaches say they’ve developed this offseason in new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ scheme and should factor into the rotation.

For Lewis, it could be a validating. After all, he played only 21 defensive snaps as a freshman while struggling to find a position in the secondary. He could play that much at safety in UT’s first game against Furman on Sept. 5 (3:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+/ESPN+) at Neyland Stadium.

“I’m real big on competing,” Lewis said. “It was new coaches, new everything. So I learned to keep going and keep pushing for these coaches to see that this is a new me and this is going to be a different year.”

Will Jim Knowles simplify his scheme with Farooq out?

Losing Farooq robs the secondary of a talented playmaker. But there’s a separate issue of whether Knowles must water down his scheme, which relies on the safeties as a focal position.

Coaches and players believe they’ll weather that storm.

Coach Josh Heupel said losing Farooq impacts depth at safety but not creativity in the defense. And Poindexter said he’s very pleased with how well the defensive backs have grasped the scheme.

It’s been a gradual process.

Lane said his second year in this scheme is already much easier than his first, when he played under Knowles and Poindexter at Penn State. Lewis said he’s gained advanced understanding of the defense in preseason practice.

And other defensive backs have described eureka moments when they finally grasped what Knowles is trying to do.

"(Farooq) might gone, but it's time for me to step up and be a new leader and control the defense," Lewis said. "The safeties are like the quarterbacks of this defense, so I've to be able to lead."

But now the Vols must put that knowledge practice without Farooq. It'll take more than encouraging words to get past that hurdle.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing atknoxnews.com/subscribe.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Can Tennessee football excel without injured Edrees Farooq? Defense confident