KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee football held its sixth practice of the 2026 spring slate Wednesday, utilizing a walkthrough format as the Volunteers prepare for their first scrimmage of the spring Thursday inside Neyland Stadium. The scrimmage will be closed to the public.
Linebackers coach William Inge met with media following practice and highlighted the continued development and leadership within his unit as competition ramps up during the second week of spring practice.
Veteran presence remains a strength for the group, with experienced contributors setting the tone both on and off the field. Among them, transfer Amare Campbell has stood out early in his time with the program. Campbell spent the 2025 season under Vols defensive coordinator Jim Knowles at Penn State and has been invaluable in helping his unit implement a new scheme this offseason.
“One of the great things about Amare Campbell is that he is a veteran, so he’s played a lot of football,” Inge said. “The thing he does bring in for sure is that he has some scheme familiarity, so he was kind of one step in front of a lot of the other guys, more from a learning standpoint … I think the thing we have been challenging him with is now, as one of the main leaders of the team, it’s going to be your responsibility to make sure from a leadership with action standpoint, that’s going to be you all the time, every time.”
Inge also praised the depth and early impact of his linebacker group, including midyear enrollees who have quickly made their presence felt this spring.
“They’ve been very, very, very good,” Inge said of freshman newcomers TJ White and Brayden Rouse. “Especially TJ, let’s say, from a physical standpoint, to see how his body has evolved. He has been awesome. … Rouse is exactly what we expected as well, from a speed and quickness scenario, and him being able to play in space.”
With a mix of veteran leadership and emerging young talent, Tennessee’s linebacker corps continues to progress through the spring and work toward becoming a more cohesive unit. Thursday’s scrimmage will provide the first extended opportunity for the group to showcase its development in a game-like setting as the Vols build toward the annual Orange & White Game on Saturday, April 11.
Full comments from Inge’s Wednesday availability can be viewed below.
Tennessee Football Press Conference | March 25, 2026
Linebackers Coach William Inge
On Arion Carter’s role this spring while working his way back from injury…
“Well, the one thing about Arion is he does a great job with his level of preparation, so you may not see him quote-unquote ‘there,’ but he is there, whether he is on the sidelines or he is working with me individually prior to practice in the mornings or later in the evenings. He is definitely getting what we call intensity through repetition. The one great thing about Arion being a veteran player is that repetitions may not be some of the things he has to have all the time because he’s got a lot of what you call ‘sweat equity’ already built up from him playing as much as he has for the program. He’s been doing exactly what we want him to do thus far as we continue to progress in the spring. The young guys have grasped very well because I think that they know that he is one of the alpha dogs in the room, and he sets the example for the room. They all want to follow his lead and be just like him, so they’re following suit to be just like him.”
On his impressions of Amare Campbell so far…
“One of the great things about Amare Campbell is that he is a veteran, so he’s played a lot of football. He’s got a lot of ‘sweat equity’ under his belt. The thing he does bring in for sure is that he has some scheme familiarity, so he was kind of one step in front of a lot of the other guys, more from a learning standpoint. But to see him move, continue to grow and develop, it’s been great to have him here. I think the thing we have been challenging him with is now, as one of the main leaders of the team, it’s going to be your responsibility to make sure from a leadership with action standpoint, that’s going to be you all the time, every time.”
On how he continues to keep his group close with the competition in the room…
“One of our main philosophies, or I guess our vision in the room, would be to create a culture that fosters to and embodies academic, athletic, and personal excellence, so it’s my responsibility as a coach to continue to mentor and lead them, and push them to be better every day. The one thing I think we’ve had an opportunity to do is really get some good players in the meeting room, and when you have some good players, you can see some intensity through repetition and guys doing exactly what they’re supposed to do on a continual basis. So, from our perspective, we’re really just trying to be the best at what we do when it comes to us doing our job.”
On the problem of figuring out who is going to play this upcoming season…
“Well, the one thing we’re always trying to do is we’re trying to find what we call healthy solutions. So, we have to, as a staff, and obviously myself as the leader of the group, make sure we find the best tight-knit unit who can do what, from a practice standpoint, but also, what combinations of guys; who can play well together, how do they play together, and who can play what respective positions. So, yes, it’s a very good problem, but that’s our challenge in coaching. For everyone in the room, our responsibility is to get Tennessee Football to where we can be in position to play for and win a championship, and I’m just one of the pawns doing our job.”
On merging his and Coach Garner’s coaching philosophies with the new staff…
“Well, probably one of the best things about football is it’s going to be the same. From Coach Garner’s standpoint, in defensive line, attacking an A or B gap, or C gap, that’s going to be the same no matter what your call was, from a linebacker covering a number two or number three, or attacking an open gap. That’s going to be able to be the same. So, from some of those perspectives as leaders, as mentors, as coaches, we still do exactly the same thing that we’ve been doing. Now, when you blend all of the systems together, and that’s where we as leaders come into play, because I think everyone, to a man, you want to make sure that it’s not going to be your group that’s going to cost your unit, cost your team, cost your organization. So, that’s our motivation when our boots hit the ground every day, we’re like a Doberman Pinscher in a junkyard. As soon as we hear a sound, we’re ready to go get something, and that’s how our players are reacting to some of those same scenarios as well.”
On being retained for the 2026 season…
“Well, it’s always very humbling, but we all know what we signed up for. At the end of the day, you have to make sure that your position, your recruiting, your mentoring for the people that you’re around every day, that they do what they’re supposed to do to help your team accomplish its mission. Our mission, obviously, in this particular sport, is making sure that you can be able to win, so it was definitely very humbling to know you can stay on and continue to keep moving our program forward.”
On midyear enrollees TJ White and Brayden Rouse…
“They’ve been very, very, very good. Especially TJ, let’s say, from a physical standpoint, to see how his body has evolved. He has been awesome. We know for him, you have to say ‘whoa’ instead of ‘sic em.’ Because when he’s coming to hit somebody, he’s coming to hit. Rouse is exactly what we expected as well, from a speed and quickness scenario, and him being able to play in space. He’s been great. I think, in our room, he’s had the fastest mile an hour of all the practices, except for yesterday. He’s been awesome as well, so seeing those guys continue to grow in development, come in and get their studying in and see how the rest of the group is growing. It’s exactly what we want as a group, because just for us overall, we have a philosophy that kind of goes as we know who it isn’t going to be. So, we want to be the guys who are going to make the plays, who are going to get things done, who are going to drive the defense and propel us to being a championship caliber defense and one of the top defenses in the country. It’s going to be on all of us in our room.”
On next steps of development for Jadon Perlotte…
“Just him continuing to learn. As you get into, let’s say, year one, it’s always going to be knowledge and understanding, you learning everything. Well, now you go into year two. Now this is truly going to be about performance enhancement and understanding how to take care of your body and take care of your team. So that’s what it’s going to be for him. As we refine some of his skills and some of his abilities, now being able to go make some of the plays that he wasn’t in a position to be able to make a year ago and eliminate some of the errors that he had, that he created a year ago, and being able to be in position to be able to help our defense be even better this year.”
On maintaining retention in the room…
“Well, I think the biggest thing that is a recipe that we utilize is love. We let them know how much we appreciate them, how much we care for them. Every young man in the room is not just a player to myself. He’s like my son, he’s like my child, and I know I’m his mentor or his father figure, and some of them that really, truly is the case. So I think that they’ve seen how we roll, how we operate, but they’ve been able to buy into what we’re doing, and when they all weigh in, they all see that if you do what you’re supposed to do, you’re all going to have a chance to play, and then everyone eats.”
On Jeremiah Telander’s offseason so far…
“We’ve been very pleased with T’s spring thus far. It’s kind of what we thought, what we expected, because for him, the biggest thing I wanted him to be able to do was to make sure from a leadership standpoint, you can be the guy on our football team. When you look at a few guys, and we have them in our room, with him, Arion Carter and Amare Campbell, there’s probably very few other guys on our team or maybe any other team that has as much playing experience as them. So, we’ve really challenged Telander to be great when it comes to being able to lead our football team and hold guys accountable to the line and to the standard that we want here in this organization.”
On working with the new defensive coaches…
“One thing that you probably know about Coach Knowles, he’s probably one of the sharpest minds and brightest minds in coaching that we’ve experienced, or we’ve been around. But the thing that he knows, is he knows exactly what it’s supposed to look like. And for us as coaches, that’s exactly who you want to be able to learn from. And when you get to Coach DJ (Derek Jones), there is some familiarity that he has with Coach Knowles, having been with him at a number of stops and coaching for a number of years. The one thing that he’s great on is he’s great at being able to love the players and hold them to the line. When I look at Coach (Anthony Poindexter), we go back probably 16 years, and for us, it’s like looking in the mirror, literally looking at myself and how we approach our position groups. So we know that there is a very healthy blend of the individuals that we have in the meeting rooms, and a great level of trust in how we’re all going to develop our rooms and push each other to be able to be great every day.”
