Tennessee defensive backs Cameron Sutton, left, and defensive end Derek Barnett celebrate stopping Utah State on 3rd down in this file photo.KNOXVILLE - Derek Barnett made one play that went a long way to sealing Tennessee's overtime win at South Carolina last week.
Moments earlier, the freshman defensive end came perilously close to denying himself the opportunity to make it.
With the Volunteers needing a third-down stop late in regulation to give their offense a chance to tie the game, Barnett chased down Dylan Thompson and slung the Gamecocks quarterback around by the shoulder for another couple of yards after Thompson appeared to go to the ground to give himself up.
It assuredly created a heart-in-throat moment for Steve Stripling and Tennessee's coaching staff.
"Absolutely," said Stripling, the Vols' veteran defensive line coach, when asked this week if he feared Barnett's sling would lead to a disastrous personal-foul penalty.
"He's got a mentality, and he's very, very competitive. That was an intense time in the game. I think we have to learn to play with an edge, but yet be smart.
"Derek, he just says, 'I got it.' That's about all he ever vocalizes. 'I got it, Coach.'"
On South Carolina's second play of overtime, Barnett's sack turned a very long field-goal attempt into an impossible one, but as the the 6-foot-3, 267-pound former four-star recruit recalled his near-penalty earlier this week, he chuckled about it with a sense of innocence and a tone of relief in his voice.
"My adrenaline was just running at the time," he said. "I was just playing ball. I didn't even know I gave him a little extra push until I saw it on film, but I saw what I did wrong and I'm going to fix that.
"(The coaches) just said you can't give him an extra shove, but honestly I didn't know it was a little extra. I was just excited in the moment and playing ball. Like I said, I saw it on film. I need to fix that so I won't cost the team a penalty."
It would have been the first blemish in what has been an outstanding season for Barnett, who became the first Tennessee true freshman to start a season opener before developing into a playmaker.
Barnett is the SEC's top tackler among true freshmen with 49 stops. He's second in the conference behind Missouri's Shane Ray with 14 tackles for loss, the most by a true freshman in Tennessee history. His seven sacks trail only Ray and Texas A&M freshman Myles Garrett in the league.
He admitted he's aware of his lofty standing in those disruptive categories.
"I just go out and play ball," Barnett said. "My teammates told me about it, and I saw some stuff on Twitter, but I really haven't paid attention to that. I just like playing football and helping my team win any way possible."
Garrett notched eight sacks in games against Louisiana-Monroe, Rice and Lamar and has just 3.5 tackles for loss in SEC games, while Barnett made 12.5 stops for loss and all of his sacks, including three-sack games against Ole Miss and South Carolina, in league play.
Barnett is doing all of this after arriving on campus about three months before his first game. During the spring, he simply followed the weightlifting plan the Vols gave him and trained with the track team at Brentwood Academy. He knew the Vols needed him to contribute right away.
"I came in with a good mindset of any way I could help the team out I would," he said.
While some first-year players would hit the so-called "freshman wall" at this point of the season, Barnett appears to be ratcheting up his game, evidenced by his 21 tackles, 8.5 for loss and six sacks in the last three games.
"They usually hit it a lot earlier, and he's kind of pushed through it," Stripling said before correcting himself to say Barnett never actually hit any walls.
"I think the thing with Derek," he added, "is he's fit right in with the older crew, if that makes sense. Whether it's A.J. (Johnson) or Curt (Maggitt) or Jordan Williams -- he's like one of them."
If Tennessee clinches a bowl game with two wins in its final three games -- after today's open date -- against Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt, Barnett could reach some very lofty company.
At his current pace, the freshman would finish with 20 tackles for loss, which would give him the fifth-most TFLs in a single season in program history. The current top five are Leonard Little (25 TFLs in 1995), Reggie White (24 in 1983), John Henderson (21 in 2000), Todd Kelly (21 in 1992) and Shaun Ellis (19.5 in 1999).
With one more sack, Barnett will equal the total Jadeveon Clowney, the No. 1 overall pick in May's NFL draft, had as a freshman for South Carolina in 2011.
He's heard that, too.
It's not his concern.
"I just want the wins," Barnett said. "I don't care about my numbers, really. That's all I want."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com