Emmit Gooden in line to anchor Tennessee football defensive front

This is part of a series counting down the 10 most important Vols for the 2019 season.

No. 8

DL Emmit Gooden

2018 stats: 33 tackles, 7.0 tackles for loss, 1.0 sack

Why he matters

Shy Tuttle graduated. So did Kyle Phillips. So did Alexis Johnson.

That's a lot of weight and even more experience gone from Tennessee's defensive line, leaving a major question mark at the front of the defense.

Enter Gooden. The junior-college transfer – who was a focal point of the third season of Netflix's "Last Chance U" – got snaps behind Tuttle at the nose tackle position in Tennessee's 3-4 scheme.

“How to approach the day, how to be a ballplayer,” Gooden said of what he learned from Tuttle. “That was one of my biggest things in juco. We just practiced, and I probably was the best one on the team. Here, there’s 50 other players that’s better than me.”

The 6-foot-3, 302-pound Gooden was productive in reserve action and showed he can be disruptive in the middle. Pro Football Focus graded Gooden as the Vols’ fifth-best defensive performer.

The Vols need him to take a step forward as the anchor of the defensive line on a larger and consistent scale in his senior season.

To do that, Gooden needs to round out his game. He was effective in stopping the run as a junior but needs to improve his ability to push the pocket and pressure the quarterback this season – something the UT defensive front needs to do better as a whole.

“(The defensive linemen) worked hard in the offseason, but until you learn how to go out there and strain and do it over and over again and not make mental errors and learn how to play, how to practice and do it the right way, we have very few guys that have done much of that,” coach Jeremy Pruitt said.

Gooden has the most experience of the returners, well ahead of John Mincey, Matthew Butler and Kivon Bennett. 

The Brownsville, Tennessee, native originally committed to the Vols in high school. His commitment didn't last long as he flipped to Mississippi State.

Gooden never made it to Starkville, though,  instead heading to junior college at Independence Community College in Kansas. The school and football team were featured on the third and fourth seasons of "Last Chance U."

Gooden recommitted to Tennessee as one the nation's top junior-college prospects and joined the team last summer.