Tennessee cornerback Brent Vinson doesn't ask as many questions of Eric Berry these days.

Berry, UT's sophomore strong safety, might be wise beyond his football years, but Vinson's waning requests are undoubtedly a good thing for the Vols' secondary.

Comfortable and healthy for the first time since setting foot on campus last fall as a true freshman, Vinson is ready to carve out a place in Tennessee's deep and talented secondary.

And those lack of questions have a lot to do with it.

"I'm a lot more comfortable," Vinson says. "I know a lot more of the plays."

At times last season, Vinson said he was lost in the secondary.

After starting his UT career at wide receiver, a rash of injuries forced Vinson to take a defensive role. Learning on the fly, Vinson started 10 games last season at cornerback.

But it wasn't without its struggles.

"If you've got an athlete that's really good (but) he doesn't have knowledge of the game or know what he's supposed to do at that position, he's not going to be of any use," Vinson said. "That's what happened to me out there. I don't think I was effective as I could have been because of my knowledge of the game.

"I didn't know exactly what to do. I would be questioning myself during some of the plays, asking Eric, 'What I got here?' Then the ball's snapped. It was hard."

Despite the swift change of position, Vinson finished with 37 tackles, one interception and eight passes defended.

That last total ranks behind only Berry's nine.

What's most impressive, though, is that Vinson played the entire season with a shoulder that could hardly stay in its socket.

The injury, which he dealt with since high school, became downright laughable in spite of the intense pain.

"My shoulder's came out so much, I've actually gotten immune to it after a while," Vinson said. "It would come out, and I'm in my helmet just laughing. I just got used to it after a while."

And Berry, Vinson's roommate, got used to the drill, too.

By the end of the season, Vinson's shoulder would come out of joint simply by rolling over in bed. More than once, Berry helped Vinson put the joint back in place and go back to sleep.

The way Vinson handled the injury left an impression on Berry.

"I don't know, just, I don't know," Berry said. "I wouldn't be able to do it, I don't think. I mean he'd wake up, just the slightest thing like him rolling over would pop his shoulder out. For him to go and play a full game, it just says a lot about his character."

And his ability.

Vinson might have been banged up, but he was good enough to start UT's final 10 games, including the Outback Bowl.

"As long as I had my legs and it wasn't an injury, I could play," Vinson said. "I wasn't going to complain. I couldn't use my arms; I couldn't do hitting drills. Sometimes when a running back came, I had to throw my body out there. I couldn't tackle, I couldn't wrap up. I had to just dive at his feet and get my body up. It all worked out."

It's looking up, too.

After offseason surgery, Vinson said he finally feels healthy. Those 10 starts went a long way toward making him comfortable within UT's defense.

Berry, for one, sees big things ahead for Vinson.

"He's one of those guys that could be great, with Champ Bailey numbers as far as athletic ability," Berry said. "His speed, his vertical leap, all that stuff. He's a freak of an athlete."

He's also one among many at cornerback, which features four players who started games in 2007.

But even stiff competition can't keep Vinson down after the trials of his freshman season.

"I'm more happy than somebody would be mad," Vinson says. "That's why I like the players on this team. We don't even think about stuff like that. We just think about getting better. We could easily be a team like last year, where we didn't have any depth.

"This year, we have more firepower. I believe it's going help us out in the run-up for the SEC championship and move on and help us do better than last year.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.