UT finalizes sexual assualt policy >>See page 3
Sophomore Derek Barnett during the game against Arkansas State last Fall. Hayley Pennesi • The Daily Beacon
“Straight Outta Compton”: Ideal forum on police brutality debate >>See page 10
Here’s a breakdown of new Vols recruits >>See page 11
Volume 130 Issue 2
Barnett looks to build off All-SEC freshman season Taylor White Assistant Sports Editor
Trenton Duffer Staff Writer Derek Barnett roared onto the scene last year as a freshman Tennessee football starter, taking over the starting strong-side defensive end position in fall camp and quickly making a name for himself across the SEC. This season, defensive line coach Steve Stripling is confident that the sophomore sensation can pick up where he left off at the end of last season’s Second Team All-SEC performance. “Derek, to me, is just stoic and a rock,” Stripling said at UT’s media day on Friday. “He’s very quiet, very confident and very resilient. Nothing seems to bother him. He’s handled the success and the pressure that’s been put on him very well. … He doesn’t crave attention. He just
craves to be good.” Barnett is coming off an exceptional first year, where he recorded the third most tackles, 72, by a true freshman in the university’s storied history. The Nashville, Tennessee, native also set a record for the most tackles for a loss by a freshman at 20.5, which nearly tripled the original record of 7 set by Billy Ratliff in 1996. What really separated Barnett from his peers on the defensive line, however, were his performances against some of the top offensive lines in the SEC and the country. Barnett finished the year with 10 sacks, all of which came in conference play. The 6-foot-3, 257 pound lineman got to the opposing quarterback three times against Ole Miss, despite working against the Rebels’ AllAmerican left tackle Laremy Tunsil for much of the game. He then followed that up with another three sack performance in the Vols’ come-frombehind-win at South Carolina, with one coming late in the fourth quarter to give Tennessee the
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ball back, and another coming in overtime to help seal the game. Following last season, Barnett underwent shoulder surgery that held him out of spring practice and kept him limited throughout the summer. While he maintains that he is back to 100 percent for the upcoming season, head coach Butch Jones, however, isn’t taking any chances. “They’ll be managed day-to-day,” Jones said of his injured players before the start of fall camp. “We have to do a great job, which we will, of really managing their workload, really understanding where their bodies are. A lot of times with the excitement, you overdo it your first couple days of practice. “That’s why we’ve really structured and laid out the practices that we build up and we work to get that one percent better. They will be on a maintenance program. They’ll be very highly visible in terms of us managing it.” See BARNETT on Page 11
Thursday, August 20, 2015