Forget moving to the secondary.

Forget intramural basketball, for now.

Tennessee junior linebacker Omar Gaither is focused only on football, only on playing strongside linebacker for Tennessee.

Gaither led the Vols with nine tackles in last Saturday's victory against Georgia.

He has settled into his role as a main man on the Vols' defense.

"I think I'm playing good," Gaither said. "I have a lot of mistakes I still need to correct. ... And I think we can play better as a defense as a whole."

Only a few weeks ago, Gaither considered moving to strong safety to bolster the secondary. Not any more. He had practiced some at strong safety last spring and this preseason.

"I was just ready to go," Gaither said. "It was up to coach. I was just waiting for the decision. I think our DBs are doing great and there's no need for me to think about going to the secondary."

Gaither moved into the starting job at strong-side linebacker when middle linebacker Kevin Simon suffered a season-ending knee injury Sept. 18 against Florida.

Jason Mitchell, who started the first two games at strong side, started the last three in the middle.

Gaither, the starter for the last three games, has gone from waiting on the sideline to making big plays.

"Coach (John Chavis) always tells us to be prepared," Gaither said. "You're one play away from playing and that's exactly what happened. Kevin went down and you don't want to step into a starting position that way.

"You'd like to earn it, but you have to be ready to play."

Gaither had his best game against Georgia. He had 2.5 tackles for loss. He had a quarterback hurry. He got his first career sack.

When the game was over, he said he got kudos from teammates, even a couple from the Georgia side.

"When your peers tell you that you're doing good, that's an accomplishment," he said.

Gaither says he wasn't surprised about the defense holding Georgia to 265 yards total offense.

Others may have been surprised, though. After all, the Vols gave up 400 yards the previous week against Auburn.

"Most of their yards came on the last two drives," Gaither said. "We knew we could get it done. We made a lot of mistakes against Auburn. All we needed to do was correct those mistakes and eliminate big plays."

For the time being, Gaither has put his jump shot and dribble drives on the shelf.

A former basketball and football standout at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, N.C., Gaither still takes a serious approach to intramural hoops.

He likes to think he is the best basketball player on the Vols' football team, but says Cory Anderson and James Banks have game too.

"It's football 365, but sometimes you have to do other things, you know, keep your mind fresh," Gaither said.

It's all football right now.