Tennessee football was back on the Haslam Practice Field Friday morning for its seventh fall practice and its final practice ahead of Saturday’s first fall scrimmage on Saturday.
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 seventh fall practice.
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Offense
Let’s start with injury notes where there were a few small changes from Wednesday’s practice. Miles Kitselman and offensive lineman Brian Grant remained in a red non contact jerseys. Braylon Staley was working off to the side but didn’t do any routes on air work. I was unable to spot receiver Chris Brazzell or freshman tight end Jack Van Dorselaer.
Tennessee’s quarterbacks worked on some short passes to running backs out of the backfield early during the open portions of practice. Freshman running back Justin Baker dropped a pass from fourth string quarterback Mason Phillips and running backs coach De’Rail Sims was chewing him out.
There’s no true update there but the running back rotations continues to fascinate me. Peyton Lewis, DeSean Bishop and Star Thomas all look like solid contributors. How does the rotation shake out? Does someone emerge as a true No. 1 back.
On to the routes on air portion of practice. It was a pretty crisp portion of practice as the Vols worked in the red zone. There were no drops but a handful of incompletions on inaccurate passes.
Counting the throws to running backs and routes on air, Jake Merklinger completed 17-of-18 passes, Joey Aguilar completed 15-of-18 passes and George MacIntyre completed 16-of-17 passes. Thought both Travis Smith Jr. and Radarious Jackson made some nice snags as did Kitselman on a Merklinger throw that was a bit high.
Aguilar overthrew Matthews on an in route and misfired a pass to Tommy Winton Jr. Merklinger overthrew an out route.
I watched Tennessee’s quarterbacks work on some throw on the run drills during the start of practice. MacIntyre throws the best ball on the run of the quarterback group. Merklinger had one really bad throw on the run but was solid besides that. Lastly, Merklinger was wearing the GoPro during the open portions of practice.
On the offensive line, Jesse Perry was getting some starting reps at right guard beside David Sanders Jr. Bennett Warren was working at the left tackle spot as Lance Heard’s backup.
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Defense
There were a good numbers of injury notes on Tennessee’s defense during the open portions of practice. I was unable to spot Rickey Gibson III or Josh Josephs as they remain sidelined at practice. Colton Hood was in a red non contact jersey but was going through drills like normal.
Jermod McCoy had a helmet on and was doing some brief drill work. There were some limitations with that but it was still a good step in the right direction as he works back from injury.
William Wright and Emmanuel Okoye were both fully dressed out and stretching with the team but were working off to the side when the team moved outside.
Marcus Goree, McCoy, Hood, Tre Poteat and Colin Brazzell were working with the cornerbacks during the open portions of practice.
During safety drills, Edrees Farooq continues to work in the first team with Andre Turrentine during the open portions of practice. Farooq is battling with Kaleb Beasley for the starting spot besides Turrentine though both will likely play.
