Some notes and observations from Tennessee’s Thursday night practice session – the fourth in camp thus far.
Non-contact: Wide receiver Jauan Jennings, linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin, defensive end Austin Smith and running back Jalen Hurd were in green, non-contact jerseys.
Butch Jones confirmed earlier in the day that receiver Latrell Williams (hamstring) is out until next week and Shy Tuttle is going through running, conditioning and some individual drills as he continues to recover from the leg injuries he sustained last season.
Circle of Life: With helmets and shoulder pads on for the second day, Jones again gathered the team for the Circle of Life drill to start off the open portion of practice. We couldn’t see many of the matchups as usual, but it appears that linebacker Daniel Bituli is becoming somewhat of a Circle of Life star as he is regularly called out to participate. We did see on Wednesday that he had decisive victories over tight end Austin Pope and running back Carlin Fils-Aime.
It’s primarily younger guts such as Bituli, Pope, Fils-Aime, Marquill Osborne, Marcus Tatum and others that participate in this drill. But some veterans such as Coleman Thomas, Cortez McDowell and Austin Sanders got opportunities as well on Thursday.
Working on the hands: The receivers were really focusing on their hands during a couple periods of the open practice. Assistants fired ball via the JUGS machine at a high rate of speed as the receivers started about 10 yards away and moved closer and closer. As you might imagine, it becomes extremely challenging once you’re within just a few yards of the machine.
Scrimmage notes: We got to see something resembling live football in the third period of practice today. There were no camera allowed and we have some restrictions as to exactly what we can say, but there were a few things and a few players who stood out to me.
• I think the hype for the defensive line is warranted. Every d-line group that saw the field really got to the quarterback in some capacity. And I don’t know about his complete game yet, but Jonathan Kongbo is no stranger in finding his way into the backfield in pass-rush situations.
• Emmanuel Moseley had a nice interception early in the scrimmage setting as he got some work with the first team over Justin Martin
• I thought quarterback Jarrett Guarantano handled his series well. He didn’t move the ball, but he didn’t get much help from his receivers, and I thought he made good decisions in terms of his progression and preventing a terrible play
• Tyler Byrd is a guy who continues to impress me. The quarterbacks continue to have a comfort level with him in the situations the media has seen
• At least for now, Drew Richmond is getting the first crack at left tackle with Chance Hall over on the right. It’s important to remember that depth chart notes such as those are very much subject to change and shouldn’t be read into too much at this point
