Tennessee football was back at practice on Tuesday morning after a short break for Easter. The Vols will be off again tomorrow before returning on Thursday. That will be the final practice open to the media, with a closed practice on Friday and then the Orange & White Game on Saturday to round out the spring.
That means that this is the penultimate notes and observations of the spring of 2026. Here’s my full notebook from the brief portion open to the media.
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Offense
Quarterbacks started by throwing to running backs before heading outside to throw in the red zone. The order of reps remains the same: George MacIntyre, Faizon Brandon, Ryan Staub and finally Mason Phillips. However, the grouping of receivers was shaken up a little.
Despite being one tight end line, it seemed like they were trying to get into more 12 personnel looks with receivers in the red zone during routes on air. On the left of the quarterback was Radarious Jackson, Braylon Staley, Deon Hardin, Joakim Dodson and Ian Duarte. On the right was Travis Smith Jr., TK Keys and Mike Matthews.
In the portions we watched, Matthews and tight end Dasaahn Brame both didn’t run routes. Neither was in a non-contact jersey, though.
Takeaways from the red zone routes on air would be that none of the quarterbacks looked 100% sharp, but nothing too bad to worry about. Nobody stood out head and shoulders better or worse than the other today. I thought Keys was moving really well, too. Starting to flash the five-star prowess in his route running and ability to reel in tough catches after taking things slow to start the spring.
Running backs were working on pass pro when I looked over. Going to be important for the guys behind DeSean Bishop to pick that portion of it up quickly as young guys.
Defense
Rodney Garner was in attendance again as he returns from his off-season procedure. He’s still after his guys, barking orders at defensive linemen from the side. Isaiah Campbell stood out to me today. We don’t get to watch defensive linemen do too much, but he’s moving well and has good size for a sophomore defensive tackle. UT is going to need him and Ethan Utley to take a step this year.
Edwin Spillman also looks exactly like you’d want him to at this point in his career. Especially with Arion Carter still out, he’s the head of that deep room and certainly seems poised for a big year.
A guy that’s flown under the radar this spring is Auburn transfer cornerback Kayin Lee. We haven’t gotten to see him in real pass coverage yet, but there’s not much to nitpick about him in the drills we see him go through. Could be an elite corner tandem with Ty Redmond.
