Butch Jones had some pretty high praise for rising sophomore Jauan Jennings during a recent interview with Southern Sports Today’s Chuck Oliver on Yahoo! Sports Radio. After being asked about the quarterback-turned-receiver, Jones gave out several compliments regarding Jennings’ work ethic and athleticism.
“He’s one of the most competitive individuals we have in our football program,” said Jones. “He just loves to play football. And he wants to be on the football field.”
Although just a freshman last season, Jennings earned a reputation as an aggressive athlete who could make plays all over the field and isn’t afraid to trash talk and even get a little scrappy with opponents.
And with Jennings’ versatile play-making ability, Jones believes the Tennessee football team has something special in him.
“If you look at just his special teams value last year, especially on our kickoff team. And then going from quarterback, and he played quarterback all spring and then made that change going into fall camp. And we thought he continued to grow and get better and better as a receiver. He’s just an athlete.”
Jennings only had 14 catches for 149 yards last season, but there were several plays he made that weren’t recorded in the stat books that make him an extremely valuable piece of Tennessee’s future. And Butch Jones knows it.
“He’s a natural at what he does, but his competitive drive, I think his instincts really take over and we’re expecting him to have a great year for us.”
