Tennessee football was back on the Haslam Practice Field Monday morning for its ninth fall practice. It was the Vols’ first time on the practice field since Saturday’s scrimmage as they begin their third week of preseason practice.
Only three periods of practice, about 15-20 minutes, were open to the media Friday morning so there’s only so many observations to glean from the action. With that, it’s on to the notes and observations from Tennessee football’s ninth fall practice.
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Offense
Let’s start with injury notes. Mike Matthews was in a red non contact jersey while Braylon Staley was working off to the side in the open portions of practice. Sticking at receiver, Chris Brazzell was out there and fully dressed out for the first time in fall camp. He wasn’t quite full go, however, and was starting routes on air at the break point and was not quite going full go.
At the tight end spot, both Miles Kitselman and Jack Van Dorselaer were in yellow jerseys which is somewhere between full-go and no contact at all. Cole Harrison was full go after being sidelined for much of fall camp. On the offensive line, Brian Grant remained in a red non contact jersey.
While we were watching, Jeremias Heard was repping as the second team left tackle and Bennett Warren was repping as the second team right tackle.
On to routes on air where it was a pretty rough sessions. Jake Merklinger had his worst session of preseason practice and was inaccurate throwing the football, completing just six-of-15 attempts that I saw. Joey Aguilar completed 16-of-18 passes and George MacIntyre completed 12-of-15 passes.
Drops were an issue from the jump with Mike Matthews and Ethan Davis each dropping passes from Merklinger. DaSaahn Brame and Miles Kitselman also had drops on passes from Merklinger. Cole Harrison dropped a pass from Aguilar while Radarious Jackson dropped a pass from MacIntyre.
We did get to see Tennessee’s quarterbacks toss some deep balls. Merklinger really struggled here, missing balls down the sideline and down the seem. Aguilar didn’t have a deep ball down the sideline hit the ground but two of his three throws were under thrown.
Aguilar did have one deep ball on the money and threw good passes down the seem to Davis and Amari Jefferson. The only Aguilar deep ball to hit the ground was a pass down the seem to Harrison where the young tight end seemed to run the wrong route.
MacIntyre was solid throwing the deep ball with one incompletion coming on an overthrow down the seem to Jack Van Dorselaer. The lanky freshman has the most aesthetically pleasing deep ball of any of the quarterbacks.
Defense
There were a handful of injury updates. Let’s start on the positive side of things where Rickey Gibson was back out there and full-go after missing some time last week. Jermod McCoy was also going through individual drills like he did last Thursday. Boo Carter continues to be full-go as well. Colton Hood remained in a red non contact jersey.
On the more negative side, Josh Josephs was running on an elliptical in the weight room as the team warms up. He’s been limited for about a week straight now. Linebacker Jeremiah Telander and freshman cornerback Ty Redmond were in red non-contact jerseys. It was the first time I’ve seen either wearing those jerseys this fall.
Defensive end Christian Gass continues to work off to the side which has been the case throughout fall camp to this point.
Tennessee continues to do some special teams/block shedding drills to open practice. Both Redmond and Hood did go through those drills.
Spent the vast majority of my time on the offensive practice field so don’t have any more takeaways from the defensive side of the field today.
