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Tennessee Vols assistant coach explains why junior college addition didnt play much in 2024.

When the Tennessee Vols signed three-star junior college defensive lineman Jamal Wallace during the 2024 recruiting cycle, the feeling outside of the program was that the Missouri native would see a decent amount of playing time during his first season on Rocky Top.

Instead, Wallace played just 30 snaps for the Volunteers during the 2024 season.

On Friday, Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner was asked why Wallace didn’t see more action last season.

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Garner pointed out that Wallace didn’t actually play with his “hand in the first” during his time at Sierra College, so there was a big learning curve for the 6-foot-3 defensive lineman.

“People don’t realize this, Jamal — and I think our guys laugh when he says this — Jamal didn’t play with his hand in the dirt in junior college,” explained Garner. “Believe it or not, he probably did play some safety. He loves telling everybody, he plays safety.

And [he] played outside linebacker and all that. So, it’s been a learning process for him to just learn the intricacies of D-line play. He’s having to not go from being an off-the-ball guy to playing defensive end, he went from being an off-the-ball guy to playing D-tackle, which that’s a different temperature of grease.”So it’s been a learning curve for him.

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But same thing, they’re good young men. And that’s the thing, I think they’re eager, they want to learn. But it’s just a process that we got to go through and we’ve got to grow every day. They’ve gotta grow as players. I’ve gotta grow as a coach and then that way we can move the needle the right way.”

Wallace totaled three tackles for Tennessee in 2024.

The Vols lost several key defensive linemen from last season, so there should be an opportunity for Wallace to make an impact for Tennessee in 2025.

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