The highlight of Tennessee’s Wednesday practice came when the media was leaving and in the indoor facility. Kicker Brent Cimaglia drilled a 61-yard field goal as the media was heading back to the media room to write up practice notes.
Aside from that, it was a normal practice for the Vols considering the events of Tuesday. Within a day of three players — Jacquez Jones, Will Ignont, and Shannon Reid — announcing that they were transferring, the Vols were back to work.
With Reid and Ignont gone, the inside linebacker room is quite a thin at the moment. Henry To’o To’o and Daniel Bituli remain the starters, but Solon Page has been thrust into the two-deep alongside Jeremy Banks. J.J. Peterson remains on the third team, but the redshirt freshman received many compliments for his reps during drills from his teammates.
Freshman Aaron Beasley was in a non-contact jersey. He moved back to inside linebacker group on Tuesday following the departures.
Quarterback continues to be the same old song and dance during the open period of practice. Jarrett Guarantano takes the first rep, and then JT Shrout, followed by Brian Maurer. All three quarterbacks looked fairly good, though Shrout and Maurer are struggling to be consistent.
A day after missing practice, tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson was back in attendance working at the front of the line with Austin Pope on two-man sled drills.
Alontae Taylor, who appeared to pull his hamstring on Tuesday during drills against the wide receivers, was working on the side with the strength and conditioning staff on the bikes. Jahmir Johnson, Wanya Morris, and Jordan Allen did as well. Emmit Gooden continues to be in full pads, though he works with the strength staff indoors once the media arrives.
The offensive line spent the open period working on combination blocks. They also worked through five-man offensive line drills.
Defensive line coach Tracy Rocker was fiery on Wednesday, which has been normal of late. Rocker lit into Savion Williams on multiple occasions, and he also got on to Aubrey Solomon. The group worked on pass-rush drills from under a chute and also worked with the sleds.
