Tennessee football was back working at the Haslam Practice Field on Wednesday morning. It was the Vols’ third spring practice as they put shoulder pads on and worked in “shells” for the first time this spring.
Three periods of practice were open to the media meaning we watched roughly 20 minutes of practice with some of that coming during a stretching period. With a limited portion of practice open there are only so many observations to glean.
One final note is that a handful of recruits were at practice including three-star Alabama defensive line commit Tyson Bacon. With that, it’s on to the takeaways.
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Offense
Let’s start with injury notes. Offensive lineman Jeremias Heard remained working off to the side and was not dressed out. Both Amari Jefferson and Cole Harrison remain in red non contact jerseys. Jefferson did jump into some routes on air action with Kelsey Pope giving the transfer receiver some hard coaching.
It was not an entirely clean routes on air portion of practice on Wednesday. Mike Matthews had a drop and Nico Iamaleava misfired on one pass attempt to Matthews. Matthews ran good routes throughout the session and was getting some instruction and praise from Pope as well as offensive coordinator Joey Halzle.
Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre continue to be solid here in the early portions of spring practice and had strong days on Wednesday.
Tennessee’s running backs and tight ends got some pass block reps in against Volunteer linebackers and safeties. Walk-on running back Hunter Barnes had some really good reps including against Edwin Spillman who had a really good day in that drill as well.
Freshman running back Justin Baker did struggle in his reps. Pass protection is usually the biggest adjustment for a high school running back going to college.
A number of Tennessee offensive players were working during a tackling drill as part of some special teams training. New assistant John Bonamego was working on that as was running back’s coach De’Rail Sims and inside linebackers coach William Inge.
Defense
There were a lot more players out on the defensive side of the ball compared to the defensive side of the ball. Jermod McCoy and Jourdan Thomas continue to work on the bikes as they rehab torn ACL injuries.
Christian Charles, Daevin Hobbs, Emmanuel Okoye, Arion Carter, Jadon Perlotte, Christian Gass and Jaedon Harmon were all working off to the side and not going through team portions of drills. Two additions to that group were Nathan Robinson and Jamal Wallace. Both have been full go through practice to this point in the spring and are pushing for playing time at defensive tackle next season.
A couple specifics on injuries, Perlotte and Harmon both had slings on while Robinson had a cast on his right wrist.
Let’s start with the linebacker, running back reps. Edwin Spillman had a couple strong pass rush reps as did Jordan Burns.
I’m curious if those two guys might emerge as a third down specialist. Jalen Smith and Kalib Perry served in that role last season before both transferring away earlier this offseason. Tennessee has typically had at least one, smaller, faster player that is better in space on its third down package. Burns matches that mold unlike Tennessee’s other linebackers. The Vols could use Spillman similarly to how they used Jeremy Banks.
It was a lot of fundamental work for Tennessee’s secondary as they worked on jamming receivers and zone coverage. Boo Carter was working with the defensive backs on Wednesday’s open portion of practice.
