Tennessee football began its fall practice on Wednesday morning, working on the Haslam Practice Field in helmets and no other pads as the Vols’ began their fifth fall practice under Josh Heupel.
Seven period of practice were open to the media so we got to watch almost 45 minutes of practice though the Vols did basic drills for the open portions of practice.
With that, it’s on to the notes and observations from Tennessee football’s first fall practice.
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Offense
Let’s start with some small injury notes. The offense was pretty healthy at the start of fall camp but there’s a few small notes to get to. Miles Kitselman was in a red non contact jersey while receiver Chris Brazzell was working off to the side. Sophomore tight end Cole Harrison was going through the warmup portion of practice without his helmet and then worked off to the side once they got further into practice.
It’s on to the main part of the fall and that’s the quarterback competition. Josh Heupel and offensive coordinator Joey Halzle stated Tuesday that this is an open competition but the first day of practice furthered my belief that this competition is between Joey Aguilar and Jake Merklinger.
The two alternated first team reps, throwing to Mike Matthews, Miles Kitselman, Braylon Staley and Trey Weary. MacIntyre was consistently running the third team reps.
The routes on air portion of practice was short with Tennessee only working on underneath routes. On the reps I saw, Merklinger completed all 13 passes he attempted. Aguilar was six-for-11. Mike Matthews, Miles Kitselman and Amari Jefferson all had bad drops on Aguilar passes but the transfer was also innacurate on throws to Radarious Jackson and DaSaahn Braame.
There is some overlap with the two throwing at the same side so I likely missed a result or two, for what it’s worth.
Freshman receiver Travis Smith Jr looks like a $1,000. He was working with the second team receivers and catching passes from both Aguilar and Merklinger. Braame was also much bigger than I expected him to be. Blocking is always a question for young tight ends but he has the physical build to become a good blocker.
Kitselman was not going through contact in blocking drills due to the red jersey and was providing Kitselman a good deal of instruction during that time.
On the running backs, DeSean Bishop led the way in reps followed by Daune Morris, Peyton Lewis and Justin Baker. Duke transfer Star Thomas was also going through drills.
Lastly, the offensive line was doing their usual technique drills during the open portion of practice and that is especially important in these practices before they put on full pads. One note there is how slim David Sanders is. As a recruit, he was known for his quickness. I’ll be curious to see how he holds up against power rushers in the SEC as a freshman.
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Defense
Let’s start with Boo Carter who was going through warmups with his teammates without wearing a helmet but did not go outside with the rest of the defensive backs when the drill portion of practice began.
Star corner Jermod McCoy stretched without his helmet and then worked off to the side. I did not spot defensive back Jourdan Thomas out on the practice field and freshman Ty Redmond was wearing No. 4. That does not bode well to Thomas torn ACL recovery and ability to play this season.
The only other injury of note on the defensive side of the football was freshman edge rusher Christian Gass working off to the side.
Sticking on the defensive line, Grand Valley State transfer Josh Schnell came to Tennessee as a defensive end/defensive tackle but has the build of a strong side defensive end. I’m a bit skeptical of his ability to hold up at defensive tackle in the SEC with his build but we will see. Freshman Mariyon Dye came in as an edge/defensive end and he looks very physical. I imagine he’ll end up at strongside defensive end.
Junior Daevin Hobbs looked great and a bit more thin compared to last season. Hobbs continues to be one of the most intriguing players on the roster because of how badly Tennessee needs a defensive tackle to step up and take another step forward.
I didn’t spend much time watching the linebackers so I’ll have more notes on them later on but I was impressed by the build of freshman inside linebacker Jadon Perlotte.
Defensive backs did angle tackling walk throughs and zone coverage work. There was a lot of buzz about Colton Hood on Tuesday and it’s easy to see why. He’s a tall and strong athlete who was very fluid in his movements.
Hood was working at corner, Marcus Goree Jr. was working at STAR and Jalen McMurray worked both at STAR and corner.
