Tennessee returned to Haslam Field for its second practice of fall camp Tuesday on a sunny Knoxville morning.
As per usual, the Vols started their day stretching and doing some slight drill work on the indoor practice field before making it outside for the bulk of the work.
Tennessee only made three sessions open for the media to watch meaning we saw only 20 minutes of action compared to the 50 minutes we watched Monday. This is bound to be the norm for the rest of camp, especially when they put the pads on later this week.
Here’s our notes and observations from the second day of Tennessee’s fall camp.
Offense
Teaching has been a key element on both sides of the ball so far this fall with tons of emphasis on first step fundamentals. This was particularly apparent with Tennessee’s tight ends as they worked on blocking during the open portion of practice in drills similar to what they did Monday.
The biggest note from our limited viewing session was that Jaylen Wright was back in his traditional white practice jersey after spending the opening day of practice in a non contact jersey.
Hendon Hooker looked crisp in the routes on air portion of Tennessee’s practice. Reps stayed similar at the receiver spot with Cedric Tillman, Ramel Keyton and Jalin Hyatt being at the beginning of reps with Squirrel White and Bru McCoy not far behind.
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Defense
Christian Charles remained in a non contact red jersey while working with the cornerbacks during the drill portion of practice.
Warren Burrell, Brandon Turnage, Wesley Walker, Kamal Hadden, De’Shawn Rucker, Christian Harrison and Dee Williams joined Charles in cornerback drills.
Jaylen McCollough, Trevon Flowers, Tomarion McDonald, Jourdan Thomas, Andre Turrentine and Cameron Miller worked at safety.
The linebackers were divided into two groups for drills as they were yesterday with Aaron Beasley and Juwan Mitchell working in one group and Jeremy Banks and Solon Page III working in the other.
Right behind Tennessee’s top four linebackers in order of reps was Kwauze Garland and Will Albright. Freshman Elijah Herring wasn’t one of the first guys taking reps and even earned some criticism from Brian Jean-Mary for his fundamentals during a drill. However, he absolutely looks the part and is physically ready to play. That’s not something you could have said about Aaron Willis last year.
I think Herring is going to outplay his recruiting ranking. We’ll see if he can become a rotation piece this season if anyone goes down with an injury. It’s still hard to see him cracking that top four with everyone healthy.
Defensive line work was much of the same as Monday. Tyler Baron and Byron Young led the group in every drill as the group worked on its usual circle-strip drill and then footwork drills.
Mike Ekeler and Rodney Garner teamed up during the footwork portion of practice as the outside linebackers worked with the defensive lineman. Freshmen James Pearce Jr. and Joshua Josephs earned praise from Ekeler.
