Tennessee took to the field for its spring scrimmage Saturday afternoon competing for 20 drives of offense versus defense.
Hendon Hooker was extremely efficient in limited action while the Vols’ defense recorded three touchdowns on the afternoon.
Here are the stats and notes from the spring scrimmage. Let’s take a look at what Josh Heupel had to say afterwards.
On Jimmy Calloway’s long touchdown and playmaking ability
“Great play by him, obviously has so many athletic skills and traits and, you know, just the growth and evolution of him as a player. It speaks to a lot of the young players that we have inside of our program. Excited for him to perform in that way. What a great day today and the sun finally came out. There’s a great energy on campus, right? With everything going on tonight, with baseball. So many positive things happening here inside of our athletic department. Today, you get a chance, a unique opportunity to bring VFLs, you know, our player’s parents and recruits on campus. Obviously, we’re not inside of Neyland Stadium. We miss our fans, would love the opportunity to be in front of them inside of that stadium. Excited about the renovations, what’s going on, you know the future of Tennessee football. It is a huge part of recruiting right now and the momentum that we have, but today it was great energy on the practice field. You know, we got the checkerboards on here we got the T and felt like a game day for those guys.”
On the three late defensive touchdowns
“Some huge plays on the back end of the scrimmage. I love the competitive nature and makeup. Offensively, had a couple of drives early in the scrimmage. Defense is able to reset, find energy, find momentum, continue to make plays. You want back-and-forth and I love the way the defense finished off the scrimmage today.”
On what the plan was to manage Hendon Hooker’s workload
“Well, (it was) just unique in the way it unfolded. The first drive for the 1s had a huge play-count and today, you know, there’s no TV. It was strictly play-count and how we’re trying to manage each set for all of our guys to get a lot of competitive work and he happened to get a bunch of it on the first drive.”
On Cooper Mays being held at and Addison Nichols working at center
“Yeah. Addison is going to be a great player. Not a good one, he’s going to be a great one here. Today, managing all the things that he’s seen on the other side of line of scrimmage, getting his hands on the ball, making calls. He’s shown growth and progress and today was day 10 for him. You know, Cooper Mays is fine, no issues, just felt like we want to pull him out of this one. That’s the opportunity like, you know, your young players inside your program – I don’t care where they’re at all three phases of the game. Like, just the constant growth that that this group has been able to show, proud of what they’ve done. You guys know that I’ve been really excited about who they are off the field and how they’ve come into our program. Excited to finish the back third of spring ball and see where we can get before we kind of break.”
On his assessment of his quarterbacks
“I thought Hendon Hooker did a really good job managing some things. Joe Milton III made a bunch of plays today – a scramble, a deep throw down the middle of the football field. He’s been really consistent throughout spring practice. Tayven Jackson, as a young guy, continues to get a bunch of reps. He’s learning from every single one of them. Just like all of our young guys, the game – there’s a lot of moving parts and it’s true at the quarterback position. I love that he’s resilient and comes back and competes the next play on no matter what’s going on with previous play. He’s got a bright future.”
On Jabari Small and Cedric Tillman not participating
“Yeah, precautionary with those guys. Feel like we’ve done a good job of kind of managing guys here through spring ball. They’ve showed really good glimpses of a lot of growth her during our offseason. We want to continue to develop those guys.”
On if the scrimmage is more about judging individuals than groups
“It’s about individuals for sure, in spring football, the growth that they show. That could be in the way they compete and play when coaches are truly off the field. It’s their ability to see and recognize signals, get their alignment right and get their eyes in the right place. Can they go make plays when they’re in those situations? How do they handle success and adversity? It’s grown into a player that’s going to compete at a championship level. Within that, you’re able to evaluate your position group, too, and those are things that myself and our staff are constantly looking at.”
On the defensive line’s disruptive plays
“During the course of spring ball, throughout scrimmages, yeah there’s been back-and-forth on both sides of the line of scrimmage. In practices you see position groups that show great plays, but it is about the growth of each individual player. Today, there’s some things that schematically guys just didn’t function and operate on the offensive side of the play. The defensive line did, they defeated one-on-one blocks. You saw those guys create pressure and havoc on the quarterback today. That’s something that’s important for us as a program moving forward. With the 3rdand longs, we weren’t nearly as efficient as we need to be on that side of the ball. It’s been a point of emphasis in how we’ve constructed our practice. I thought today the defensive line did a great job.”
On the maturity and progression of the four freshman receivers
“I think those guys have shown a great ability. Even leading into spring ball, I thought they grasped what we were doing. They spent a ton of extra time inside of the building trying to understand, you know, see and recognizing signals and being able to function as a group. As a whole, as a young group coming in, they’ve handled and transitioned into college football and the tempo and style of how we play about as well as a group I’ve ever been around.”
On how Jimmy Calloway responded to a tough season and has bounced back
“Today was probably his best day on the grass. You want that in those competitive situations, for them to rise to their best performance. For Jimmy, he is so talented. The way he approaches and does everything in his life, but also on the practice field and in the meeting room, (is what it will take for) him to maximize his talent. He’s a guy that, inside of our program, we have high expectations for. He’s going to continue on that growth. And it was great to see him formulate that.”
On the progress of the freshman lineman
“O-line and d-line, is one of the tougher transitions. It’s not just the speed of what you’re playing against on the other side of the line of scrimmage and the schemes that you have to understand. The fronts are so dramatically different and the number of pressures that they see. There’s a mental side that can be overwhelming for those guys, initially. You also have the physical hand-to-hand combat of going against – you’re an 18-year-old that should be going to your Senior Prom, and instead you’re on the practice field competing today. There’s a physical element of going against a 21, 22-year-old that those guys are growing through. I love what they’re doing with believing in their future here. They’ve been a great group. With the offensive line and defensive line, I’m proud of the continued growth that they’ve shown.”
On if there were any major improvements from scrimmage one to scrimmage two
“I don’t think there was anything disappointing in the first scrimmage. There’s a lot of things that you want to improve on. Our guys have been great. They’ve been consistent in the way they’ve approached the building. They’ve been great in the meeting rooms, not that there aren’t things we are trying to push them through. It’s a group that wants to be their best. That’s the endeavor or the journey that we’re on right now. I love the leadership that we’re getting in the locker room. You saw a ton of energy in the way those guys played today. You saw it a bunch in the turnovers that were created. I love the way we are continuing to grow.”
On the development of running backs
“More opportunities for young guys in your program. Len’Neth Whitehead (had) a healthy offseason, it’s shown in what he’s done to his body. He continuing to get a ton more reps. I think he’s making a lot of strides as far as a running back in pass protection, in understanding schemes, how to deliver blocks and play better with pad-under-pad on the backend of it. Justin Williams-Thomas, I thought, had his best day today, without watching the video. Just in the speed, tempo and urgency that he played in. I liked a lot of what I saw today.”
On how hard the lack of depth in the defensive back room has been this spring
“It’s been difficult. That’s the great thing for recruits out there, there’s a ton of opportunity inside of our program. For the most part, we really haven’t had to change the rep count. We’ve tried to make sure that those guys are taken care of and ready to go compete when it’s time to compete. It’s a group that, even the injured guys, right now are doing a great job. I think they’ve grown in their understanding of what we’re doing schematically. They’ve been really engaged in this process and kind of become coaches on the sidelines. That’s got the chance to help them become better players when they get back.”
On the play and growth of freshmen Tyre West and Elijah Herring
“Tyre West is continuing to grow every day. I was talking about the -lineman, the young guys, he’s a guy that has a high skillset. If he continues to grow in understanding and physically grow inside of the strength and conditioning area in this back half of this spring semester and summer is going to be big for him. We are going to need him and some of those young-guys coming into our program to push and play and help us on the defensive side of the ball. Loved seeing him compete and make a bunch of plays.
“Elijah Herring has done a great job. It’s the young guys, you’ve seen him. If you saw him in December, he’s completely different physically right now than he was when he got here on campus. Played a bunch on the front line in high school, moving to the second level. He is learning how to pick up pullers and schemes and be able to fit off of that. It’s something that he is continuing to grow in, but a guy that cares deeply. He is completely engaged in the process and has shown great growth every day.”
