Following his second blow to the head in as many games, freshman quarterback Brian Maurer participated during the open portion of Tuesday’s practice for the Vols. But on Wednesday, he was not in attendance for practice as Tennessee continues to prepare for Saturday’s game against South Carolina.
With Maurer out, the Vols only had two scholarship quarterbacks on the practice field on Wednesday.
It was the JT Shrout and Jarrett Guarantano show during the final open day of practice. The two quarterbacks were the only two scholarship quarterbacks to take reps during drills, with Shrout taking the first rep while they were working on RPOs and hand-offs with the quarterbacks. When the quarterbacks began to work with the wide receivers, both Shrout and Guarantano took reps at the same time.
Guarantano didn’t look good throwing the ball on Tuesday, but he rebounded decently on Wednesday, as he was much crisper throwing the football. As for Shrout, he continues to show off his arm during practice.
Jim Chaney kept a watchful eye on the quarterbacks and wide receivers during today’s practice. He consistently emphasized to the wide receivers that they would have to be very physical in their routes this weekend against the Gamecocks.
Along the offensive line, the first unit continues to consist of Wanya Morris at left tackle, Trey Smith at left guard, Brandon Kennedy at center, Jerome Carvin at right guard, and Darnell Wright at right tackle. The tackles worked with the tight ends during practice. The TE group had just wrapped up a blocking drill in which they scraped a lineman while pulling before engaging with a blocker at the second level of the defense.
Junior defensive lineman LaTrell Bumphus continues to work off to the side with a member of the strength and conditioning staff. Greg Emerson, Matthew Butler, Darel Middleton, and Aubrey Solomon made up the first team offensive line.
Head coach Jeremy Pruitt will address the media after Wednesday’s practice concludes.
