The buzz around Tennessee football the last 24 hours has centered around sophomore inside linebacker Jeremy Banks after the footage from his August arrest was made public. On Wednesday, as the Vols continued to prepare for No. 3 Georgia, Banks was in attendance for practice.
Along with the rest of the inside linebackers, Banks went through rip-through drills, as well as drills that worked on tackling technique.
Elsewhere on the defensive side of the ball, both outside linebackers coach Chris Rumph and defensive line coach Tracy Rocker worked the defensive linemen and outside linebackers through pass-rushing drills. The two units worked on individual pass-rush before combining to work on stunts and different blitz packages.
Freshman Warren Burrell worked on the bike. Alontae Taylor’s reps increased after working in shorts and being limited earlier this week.
Jeremy Pruitt and Derrick Ansley worked the defensive backs through high-pointing drills during the open portion of practice today.
On the offensive side of the ball, there was a tweak to the second-team offensive line. The first team offensive line was the same as Tuesday’s, which consisted of Wanya Morris at left tackle, Trey Smith at left guard, Brandon Kennedy at center, Riley Locklear at right guard, and Darnell Wright at right tackle. But the second team saw a change.
Wednesday’s second-team offensive line consisted of Marcus Tatum at left tackle, Jerome Carvin at left guard, Ryan Johnson at center, Chris Akporoghene at right guard, and K’Rojhn Calbert at right tackle. During Tuesday’s practice, Carvin worked at center while Johnson was at left guard. Today, they were flipped.
Jarrett Guarantano continued to take most of the first-team reps during routes vs. air, though Jim Chaney spent a lot of time with Brian Maurer who went second. JT Shrout went third. The group worked on red zone throws as well as end zone throws. Guarantano’s throws were crisp, as was Maurer. Shrout were more up-and-down, though both freshmen looked fairly good considering they were throwing against air.
Wednesday’s practice marked the last open practice of the week the media will get to see. Tennessee will hold a closed practice on Thursday before facing the Bulldogs on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET in Neyland Stadium. The game will be televised on ESPN.
