quote:
Not really. The game tape will tell you: Garrett faced a ridiculous amount of double and triple teams this year. Like every single snap he played (also missed a reasonable amount of time due to injury).

You honestly have not watched much of Barnett this past season then because he was hit with the same type of double & triple teams as Garrett. Secondly, Tennessee was a second half team. They came back from halftime deficits for a majority of their wins. Many of those second half comebacks were sparked by Barnett with a TFL, sack or sack fumble. Pull up the Florida & Georgia games on Youtube respectively & you will see Derek Barnett be a monster in the second half of those games when it mattered most.

When the game was on the line is when Barnett played his best. That's the type of defender who is a game changer. If you watched Khalil Mack play this past season, you saw a player who came alive & was basically unblockable in the 4th quarter when it mattered the most. Barnett plays with that same type of mentality.

There's also leadership intangibles to be considered in comparing as well. Barnett is a born leader who holds teammates accountable for their actions. The Tennessee staff has made it clear that Tennessee players who goofed off or who weren't giving their all at practices would be confronted by Barnett. Dude is a straight alpha in the lockeroom & good players who can get their teammates to raise the level of their preparation & on field play are priceless. Nothing against Myles Garrett, who is a very gifted player but I have yet to hear or read anywhere that he possesses this same trait.

quote:
The defensive end recorded one of the best performances of his career against Florida by taking over the game in the second half to inspire a valiant effort by the Volunteers' shorthanded defense.

quote:
"I get a sense for it, and some young guys tell me they look up to me and stuff," Barnett said. "I continue and try to do things correctly. I feel like everybody's a leader, and everybody's a leader in different ways. I'm not the only leader on the team. We have many great leaders on our team."

quote:
"We lost a few guys, but it's next man up and it just goes to say that we have a lot of young guys in this program who's very talented," Barnett said. "They've all stepped up and played really well. I don't think I've changed myself being a leader. I've just been myself and just continued doing the things we've been doing."

Defensive coordinator Bob Shoop after the game told Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports that Barnett called out several of his teammates for not responding to coaching during a practice last week.

"That's what the alpha male is supposed to do," Shoop told Feldman. "What he did for the team this week I'll never forget. It was pretty impressive."

The most impressive part came in the second half, when Barnett had two sacks and a tackle for loss in a four-play span to end two Florida possessions.

"It was just Derek saying, 'Climb on my back, I got this,'" Shoop told Fox Sports. "I'm not sure I've ever had a player take over a game quite like he did for us."

LINK

quote:
The sacks: The first sack, by Corey Vereen, technically came against right tackle Greg Pyke, but Pyke forced Vereen out, but the pocket swarmed in on Eason, who ducked and Vereen took him down. The second sack was Tyler Catalina getting straight up beat by Derek Barnett. The third sack, which was the fumble and touchdown for Tennessee, was again Barnett, but he was against Jeb Blazevich that time.

LINK

This post was edited on 1/13/17 at 3:27 pm