Tennessee football was back at Haslam Practice Field Wednesday morning as the Vols prepare for their second spring scrimmage Thursday morning.
There were a number of Vols limited with minor injuries as Tennessee looks to remain healthy heading into the final stretch of spring practice.
Three period of Tennessee’s practice were open to the media Tuesday meaning we got to watch about the first 20 minutes which included some stretching at the start. So per usual, only so many conclusions one can draw.
Here’s our notes and observations from Tennessee’s ninth spring practice.
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Offense
There were an abundance of Vols limited at Wednesday’s practice, particularly at receiver. Ramel Keyton joined Bru McCoy with not being dressed out while Squirrel White was in a red non contact jersey. Freshman running back Cameron Seldon and freshman tight end Ethan Davis joined White in non contact jerseys. Cooper Mays, Trey Weary and Jabari Small also weren’t dressed out for practice.
Tennessee’s running backs started the day by working on route running and particularly motioning out wide before running curl routes. Seldon — who could still end up at receiver — was unsurprisingly really impressive in the work. A bigger surprise was how impressive freshman DeSean Bishop was. He looked solid running the routes and showed some strong hands on a couple catches.
With White, Keyton and McCoy limited out on the practice field it was a thin receiver room for routes on air. Transfer Dont’e Thornton and sophomores Kaleb Webb and Chas Nimrod led the way for the Vols receivers. Thornton continues to be really impressive. His size and speed is well documented but he looked quite crisp running routes. It’s hard to draw any real conclusions without seeing more competitive reps but it’s hard to imagine him not having a large role this fall.
Freshman Nathan Leacock was getting plenty of hands on coaching from receiver’s coach Kelsey Pope. Pope was emphasizing the details and playing some short press coverage against Leacock on his routes.
Speaking of coaching, Josh Heupel was watching the routes on air period keenly and was coaching up Joe Milton between reps. Milton had a really strong day and led a crisp routes on air portion. After a handful of strong open periods in a row, Nico Iamaleava had some accuracy issues Wednesday morning.
Defense
Warren Burrell remained in a red non contact jersey as he has all spring while Kwauze Garland was in one as well for the second consecutive practice. Neither freshman defensive lineman Nathan Robinson nor Daevin Hobbs were fully dressed out as has been the case all spring.
Aaron Beasley and freshman corner Christian Conyer were each fully dressed out but working off to the side during the drill portion of open practice.
As has been the case for much of drill work this spring, defensive coordinator Tim Banks spent extended time with Tennessee’s safeties while defensive back coach Willie Martinez worked with cornerbacks. Both safeties and corners were working on coverage fundamentals and handoffs in zone coverage.
Redshirt freshman Christian Harrison was working with corners today after spending most of fall with the safeties. Harrison is the son of NFL legend Rodney Harrison and is trying to break into a larger role this season.
Things were largely par for the course for defensive lineman and linebackers. Tyler Baron and Dominic Bailey were leading the way for drills with the defensive lineman. Bailey has been impressive this spring and is looking to become an impact defender in his redshirt junior season after earning a consistent role last season.
Former Tennessee punter Paxton Brooks was at Tennessee’s Wednesday morning practice.
