The Vols were back in full pads on Tuesday afternoon after going back to just shells on Sunday. The open periods of practice were a little more limited today, but there was still plenty of quarterback work and defensive work to be seen, along with some kickoff coverage.
Here are our notes and observations from Tuesday’s practice.
Notes
- Nigel Warrior certainly looks the part. He did last year as a freshman too, but now as a sophomore and in full pads, he gives off an Eric Berry-like vibe with the way he’s built. I’m not saying he will be as good as Berry ever was, but Warrior is just built like him is all.
- Freshman running back Ty Chandler looks much bigger in pads than he does out of them. He still could use to add a little weight, but he looks much more like an SEC running back in full pads than he did earlier in the fall.
- Shy Tuttle is moving well in the portions of practice the media is allowed to see. How well his movement in limited drills will translate to actual game play is still to be seen, but right now he appears to be progressing well.
- Offensive lineman Brett Kendrick was back on the field and participated fully in offensive line drills.
Observations
I mentioned Nigel Warrior in the notes section, but I need to mention him here again. He impressed me with his physicality and grind today. We still haven’t really seen any game-like drills for the defense, but I liked what I saw from Warrior from a mindset perspective today.
Tyler Byrd flashed more in today’s practice than I’ve seen so far all of fall camp. Byrd hasn’t had a bad fall camp by any means, but he looked solid today and showed why he’s definitely a lead contender for one of the Vols’ three main receiver spots.
Freshman Theo Jackson could make some noise at safety this year. Jackson was third in line behind Todd Kelly Jr. and Nigel Warrior during safety drills today. That doesn’t necessarily reflect the depth chart currently, but he did look strong and athletic on the field during drills today.
