Tennessee football worked outside at the Haslam Practice Field on Thursday morning for its seventh fall practice. The Vols are holding their first fall scrimmage on Friday night at Neyland Stadium so Tennessee only worked in shells on Thursday.
The first three portions of practice were open to the media meaning we were able to watch only approximately 15 minutes of practices. With that limited of a practice viewing time, there are only so many takeaways that one can glean.
With that, it’s on to the notes and observations.
Offense
Let’s start with injuries and absences. With Tennessee back in shells some of the injury stuff was harder to tell because less players were wearing the red non contacts uniforms.
Still, running backs Cam Seldon and walk-on Jack-Henry Jakobik were working in red non contact uniforms.
Chris Brazzell, Dylan Sampson and Braylon Staley were all limited and didn’t go through all the drills while we were out on the practice field. Brazzell was also banged up during Wednesdays practice but Sampson’s limitations seemed very cautious.
Tennessee quarterbacks did some work with running backs on routes out of the backfield and it was not a good period for the running backs. Drops were constant for the running backs and coach De’Rail Sims was getting after his group pretty hard. Sampson, who is the best pass catcher of the bunch, was not going through the drill.
When Tennessee moved outside the running backs worked on blocking drills where Sims was more pleased. Particularly with sophomore Khalifa Keith.
After a bad passing session with the running backs, the routes on air portion of practice was a mixed bag. Nico Iamaleava was working with Bru McCoy, Squirrel White, Kaleb Webb and then both Holden Staes and Miles Kitselman at tight end.
The Vols were working in the red zone and also did some trips works with the tight ends on the short side and three receivers on the far side. They went back to the more traditional set with two pass catchers on each side of the quarterback after that.
Iamaleava wasn’t wildly inaccurate or anything but wasn’t super sharp either. He missed McCoy on a pair on passes to the sideline. Kaleb Webb also dropped a pass. Freshman receiver Mike Matthews was out there working at full speed for the second straight day. He was catching passes from Navy Shuler.
I didn’t spend a ton of time watching the offensive line but it looked like Andrej Karic was back to going through drills after spending the last few days working off to the side.
Defense
After having a red non contact jersey on during Wednesday’s practice, Arion Carter was back in his normal red jersey during practice. That could have just been because Tennessee was working in shells but Carter was full go in every drill while we were out on the practice field.
As has been the case all camp, freshman linebackers Jordan Burns and Grier Short (walk on) were not dressed out and were working off to the side.
After spending most of the last week either not dressed out or in a red non contact jersey, Temple transfer Jalen McMurray was on the practice field fully dressed out and going through all the drills we saw. He did still have a brace on his right knee.
Josh Heupel spent some time with the defensive line during the opening drills of practice where he was instructing them to play with violent hands and for certain defensive linemen to have better ball security after picking up fumbles during a drill.
Tennessee linebackers worked on zone coverage concepts while we were out on the practice field. The Vols’ secondary was working on zone coverage concepts as well but specifically in the red zone and how the field shrinking affects their assignments.
In the secondary all eyes remain on the STAR battle where Boo Carter and Christian Charles seem like the top contenders to win the job. McMurray is the X-factor in this battle to me. With him back healthy, I’m curious to see if he’ll push for the job.
