Tennessee coach Josh Heupel met with the local media Monday morning as the Vols’ training camp winds down and they begin game prep for the season opener against Virginia.
The third-year Tennessee coach touched on a number of topics including two of the most important position battles: right tackle and secondary.
In the secondary, Tennessee has a lot of contributors back from last season as they search for consistency and growth.
At corner, the Vols return six players that saw meaningful playing time last season, but have any separated themselves from the pack? Doneiko Slaughter and Kamal Hadden appear to be ahead while BYU transfer Gabe Jeudy-Lally and Brandon Turniage pushing right behind.
At safety, things are much more simplistic. Jaylen McCollough is back and Wesley Walker is stepping up into a larger role.
Redshirt sophomore Andre Turrentine and junior Christian Charles both have talent and will look to push the seniors ahead of them for playing time. The biggest takeaways from Tennessee’s secondary is the number of bodies and Heupel indicated that they are going to use them.
“The guys that we’ve gotten back that were out early in training camp (Wesley Walker and Tamarion McDonald), the last three or four days those guys have continued to increase their loads. We’ve gotten a lot of live work with those guys,” Heupel said. “I feel like we have a pretty clear understanding of who those guys are and how they’ll play and compete. We will play a lot of guys on the backend. Feel like we’re in a good spot and over the next 12 days should be ready to roll.”
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Miami transfer John Campbell Jr. seemingly has the starting left tackle spot locked down but there’s still some uncertainty at right tackle. Gerald Mincey moved back-and-forth between left and right tackle during training camp while Jeremiah Crawford is locked in at right tackle spot.
Mincey and Crawford split time at left tackle a season ago and as the Vols’ season opener against Virginia looms there’s still uncertainty on what the right tackle spot is going to look like for Tennessee this season.
“Nothing yet,” Heupel said on if the right tackle starter was finalized. “That’ll continue to unfold here until kickoff. I anticipate still seeing multiple guys play, and that’s true at the right-tackle position, but true across the board.”
While Tennessee is less than two weeks away from the season opener, there’s a good chance their fall camp battles will continue into the season. The Vols are massive favorites in their first two games (Virginia and Austin Peay) and can use them to figure out what they have before heading to Florida.
Improving over the course of the season is important every year. However, the soft schedule to open the year and the number of talented underclassmen looking to break into the lineup heightens that emphasis.
