With questions about the depth of Tennessee football’s wide receiver room this year, the tight end position could go a long way in solving potential issues in the Vols’ pass game. A year ago, Josh Heupel’s offense went to a good bit of 12 personnel, with a pair of tight ends on the field, for the first time. This season could see that expanded upon to a larger extent.
For Tennessee to be able to use multiple tight ends at once, it’s going to need depth. At the top of the room are a pair of returners in Miles Kitselman and Ethan Davis. Behind the two, it’s some young pieces. Cole Harrison returns after limited action and a pair of highly-touted freshmen in DaSaahn Brame and Jack Van Dorselaer join, as well.
While coaches and players have talked glowingly of both freshmen, it’s been Brame whose name has come up as a strong performer in both of UT’s fall camp scrimmages. After Friday’s scrimmage inside Neyland Stadium, head coach Josh Heupel spoke on what Brame has been able to do so far, especially considering being injured in the spring.
“You know, it’s tough for every player when you’re out, challenging yourself and mentally being engaged,” Heupel said. “Just like you’re taking every live rep. He got better throughout the course of the spring in that — not getting work, but handling yourself like a pro. His growth during the summer, the game has slowed down for him just in the course of training camp. How we’ve operated, his ability to see signals, get lined up, handle tempo, handle everything that we’re doing. And he’s made some plays. Been really good out in space and should be a big part of what we do this fall.”
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It was a process for Brame to get back to speed after missing time, though. Tight end coach Alec Abeln noted that when he was beginning to get back into the fold at the end of spring, you could tell he had some ground to make up.
Over the summer, Brame put in the work to catch back up. Now, he’s positioning himself to be a tight end that gets a fair share of snaps despite entering his first year of college.
“I think when he got kind of reintroduced towards the back half of spring ball, there were a couple of days where it’s like, oh, man, I’m behind,” Abeln said. “And a little bit of that sinks in. I think looking back, man, what a blessing that the summer he’s had as far as how deep the league’s been, the work he’s put in, all the stuff to get caught up where he doesn’t feel that way in fall camp has been really good for him. And I think obviously when his pads come on, that’ll be a transition for everybody. But I’m excited about where he is and just what he’s going to bring to the table.”
Tennessee begins its season in less than two weeks. On Aug. 30, the Vols will head to Atlanta to square off with Syracuse at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for noon ET and will air on ABC.
