Want to make Butch Jones happy? Just say one name.
The name: Jalen Reeves-Maybin.
Jones has spoken to the media after practice twice so far in the spring. On both occasions, the third-year coach has lauded the Clarksville, Tennessee, native.
“I love Jalen Reeves-Maybin,” Jones said after Saturday’s practice. “He is invested in Tennessee football.”
Reeves-Maybin is an intelligent player, Jones said, as the linebacker always tries to improve in the weight room and is a hard worker in general. He is simply a competitive person.
His competitiveness shows on the football field. Whether it is on special teams or defense, the rising junior has been a key cog in the Tennessee football machine in his first two years.
Yet Jones loves Reeves-Maybin for one specific quality, a quality that is difficult to coach.
The middle linebacker may be considered as the quarterback of the defense, but outside linebacker Reeves-Maybin is the leader of the Tennessee defense for at least the spring.
“Jalen Reeves-Maybin has done a great job in trying to help lead the team,” defensive lineman Kendal Vickers said. “Just making sure everybody is on the same page. You got to hold yourself accountable, make sure you are doing the right thing so you can hold the guys around you accountable.
“He (Reeves-Maybin) does a great job.”
The Vols need a strong leader on defense this spring. Longtime leader Curt Maggitt is out with an injury and two players (Dillon Bates and Cortez McDowell) are in the process of switching positions.
Reeves-Maybin has filled the leadership vacancy Maggitt left and has helped the two players with the transition of playing a new position.
“All over we help each other out,” Reeves-Maybin said of the defense. “No one shies away from it, we help each other out and hold each other accountable.”
Being a leader is not an unfamiliar role for Reeves-Maybin. When four-year starter A.J. Johnson was suspended from team activities for an alleged sexual assault, Reeves-Maybin knew he had to embrace a larger leadership role.
He knew he had to be more vocal on the field.
“When A.J. was out there, he was the loudest person out there,” Reeves-Maybin said. “That was his job, to be the MIKE, to be the quarterback of the defense. I just had to start making sure everyone was good, talking to my teammates a lot more. I usually just say my assignment, now I speak to everybody on the field.”
To hold his fellow teammates accountable, the linebacker has memorized all the positions on defense. Also, if the defense suffers any setbacks due to injuries, Reeves-Maybin will be there to fill the position — just in the same way he filled the leadership position last November.
Strong leaders have ambitious goals for their teams, and Reeves-Maybin is no exception.
“We want to be the best defense in the country,” Reeves-Maybin said.
Another of Reeves-Maybin’s goals is to make friends and family proud of him when they see him play on the football field. He says he plays for those people when he puts on the Tennessee helmet.
The one person he has made happy might arguably be the most important person: his head coach.
“What I like about Jalen right now is he is providing stability and he is providing leadership,” Jones said. “He is one of those individuals I go to a lot, sometimes I will raz him through a via of other players. But love everything about him.”
