Can Jeremy Pruitt restore Tennessee Vols' reputation for outstanding linebackers?

The two extremes of Tennessee’s February signing day featured linebackers.

UT’s highest-rated signee Feb. 7 was JJ Peterson, a four-star outside linebacker from Moultrie, Ga. Quay Walker, another four-star outside linebacker from Georgia, provided UT’s biggest disappointment.

After donning a Tennessee baseball cap, Walker announced he was signing with Georgia, assuring himself of eternal hatred in Big Orange Country. But at least, the Vols can be grateful for adding Peterson to the depth chart of a defense that needs help almost everywhere.

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Once UT takes the field for spring practice in March, new coach Jeremy Pruitt and his staff will have to address offensive needs as well. However, you can see why bolstering the defense would be his first priority.

He has been a defensive coordinator at Florida State, Georgia and Alabama. He knows the value of defense in an offensive era.

Based on their hiring, so do college athletic directors in the SEC East..

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Florida’s Dan Mullen is the only SEC East coach who first made a name for himself in college as an offensive coordinator. The division's other six head coaches are former defensive coordinators.

At a time when offenses clearly have the upper hand, defensive expertise is required to at least slow them down. Tennessee fans can appreciate that.

In four of its eight SEC losses last season, UT gave up 41 or more points. Opponents averaged 542.5 yards in those four games.

The 2016 season didn’t go much differently for Tennessee’s defense. In five games that season, UT gave up 592 or more yards and 36 or more points.

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Pruitt isn’t accustomed to those numbers. He’s also accustomed to having defenses that, despite all the offense, can impact a game. And linebackers can play a huge role in that.

When Pruitt was Georgia's defensive coordinator in 2014 and 2015, he helped develop a linebacking corps that became one of the nation’s best last season. No other player was more responsible for Georgia’s SEC championship than linebacker Roquan Smith, a surefire high NFL draft pick this spring.

Alabama rarely has been lacking in any defensive area since it began cranking out national championships under Nick Saban. But some of its biggest defensive stars have been at linebacker.

Rolando McClain was the first. He started eight games as a freshman 2007, Saban’s first season at Alabama and was the No. 1 linebacker in the country by the time he headed off to the NFL. Saban’s honor roll of Alabama linebackers also includes Dont’a Hightower, C.J. Mosley, Courtney Upshaw and Reggie Ragland.

Outstanding linebackers are a big part of Tennessee’s football tradition. You just have to go back a ways to find many of them.

The 1998 national championship team started linebackers Al Wilson, Raynoch Thompson and Eric Westmoreland — all of whom played in the NFL.

UT’s linebacking corps was even better in 1969. The three starters — Steve Kiner, Jackie Walker and Jack Reynolds — made All-American at some point during their college career.

Maybe, in Pruitt’s system, Tennessee can restore its tradition for great linebackers.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.