Tennessee football returned to the Haslam Practice Field on an abnormally cool August Saturday morning in Knoxville as the Vols put on shoulder pads for the first time during camp.
After getting to watch a bit more the first two days of practice, only three period of practice were open to the media on Saturday morning. So there’s only a limited number of observations to glean.
With that, it’s on to the notes and observations from Tennessee football’s third fall practice.
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Offense
Let’s start with injury notes as usual and things were largely the same as they’ve been the first two days of practice. Tight end Miles Kitselman was in a red non contact jersey but was doing drills with his teammates. Sophomore tight end Cole Harrison was not fully dressed out but went through warmups before working off to the side for the rest of the time practice was open.
We spotted receiver Chris Brazzell today. He had a helmet on but not a jersey. The senior receiver did not go through warmups with his teammates and got some work off to the side.
Tennessee’s quarterbacks worked on short throws with running backs before beginning routes on air. They continued to work on some shorter routed but started pushing the ball at least into the intermediate with some deep out routes.
Before I get to the numbers, I did miss some of the early reps as it was the first drill they worked on after moving from inside the Anderson Training Center to out on the Haslam Practice Field. That especially led to me not getting all of George MacIntyre’s throws as I watched from a far while walking over to the offensive practice field.
Both Jake Merklinger and Joey Aguilar were nine-for-11 passing in the five or so minutes of routes on air the media was able to watch. Mike Matthews dropped an Aguilar pass on a comeback route. The pass was a bit high but one he should have hauled in. The same was the case on an Aguilar pass that was a bit behind Braylon Staley but still should have been caught.
Merklinger sailed a comeback to Travis Smith Jr. and Amari Jefferson had a really bad drop. Josh Heupel usually isn’t super rah-rah on the practice field but he was getting after the receivers pretty good for the drops and lack of focus.
Kitselman did have a really nice one handed catch on an Aguilar pass that was a bit out ahead of him.
Make of this what you will, but Merklinger was the only quarterback wearing a GoPro on his helmet for the second straight practice.
Watching the running backs, I continued to be impressed by a new one every day. Duke transfer Star Thomas just looks mobile and shifty catching passes out of the backfield. And as we noted the other day, Peyton Lewis looks slimmer and quicker this camp.
The smallest of observations to end on offensively— DeSean Bishop rocking the no gloves look is absolutely fantastic.
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Defense
On the availability front, Boo Carter had a slight change to his status which you can read about here. Jermod McCoy continued to work off to the side while not wearing pads. The same was the case for freshman edge rusher Christian Gass.
During the first portion of open practice, Tennessee did a bunch of special teams work with a bunch of defensive backs getting work block shedding as gunners.
Got an up close look at Colton Hood during that part of practice and it’s easy to see why Tennessee is high on him. Has great length. If his speed is at an SEC level, he could easily be a top notch guy this season.
Edwin Spillman continues to look like a potential big time contributor. He’s slimmed down a bit from his freshman season and is much more toned. The sophomore is someone I could see breaking out and changing the outlook of the defense.
Sticking with the linebackers, Arion Carter was the defensive player with the GoPro on his helmet. While I’m not reading much into Merklinger having the GoPro, Carter having it furthers my feeling that the inside linebacker is the leader of the defense.
Still didn’t spend enough time watching the defensive line so no new observations there. The Vols are back at it on Sunday morning for practice No. 4.
