Tennessee football held its first scrimmage of fall practice on Friday night at Neyland Stadium with former players and family members of players in attendance. The scrimmage was not open to the media but head coach Josh Heupel met with the media following the scrimmage.
The Vols’ fourth-year head coach discussed a multitude of things about the scrimmage including quarterback play, the structure of the scrimmage and much more. Here are three takeaways about what Heupel said about the Friday night scrimmage.
More From RTI: Everything Josh Heupel Said After Friday Night’s Scrimmage
Running Back Absences Create Opportunities For Young Backs
Huepel said that Dylan Sampson did not participate in the scrimmage after being a bit limited and banged up at practice in the days leading up to the scrimmage. Cam Seldon also was not active in the scrimmage which was no surprise as he’s been in a red non contact injury all fall as he works his way back from spring shoulder surgery.
The depth of Tennessee’s running back room is one of the biggest offseason questions and the two injuries presented opportunities for the young running backs on the Vols’ roster. Redshirt freshman DeSean Bishop was one player that took advantage of the opportunity.
“I thought DeSean Bishop had a really nice night — efficient, effective, ran hard. Thought he did a really nice job,” Heupel said when asked what he liked about the offense.
Bishop earned praise last fall camp before suffering an injury that sidelined him for the entirety of his freshman season. The local prospect keeps shining when he gets opportunities.
“He’s very consistent. Really proud of how he’s rebounded from the injury,” Heupel said. “Just his continued growth as a person is — the way that he approaches every day he comes into the building. He’s got great vision, great pace. He does a really good job of using the blockers in front of him and setting those blockers up. Ran with great pad level tonight.”
It was also a big night for freshman Peyton Lewis who was full contact for the first time since suffering an injury in spring practice. Heupel said it was a good night for Lewis though there were “some runs that he’ll have an opportunity to grow from as well.”
The competition for the third running back spot is a fascinating one but it’s hard not to feel better about the Vols’ depth at the spot.
Efficient Offensive Operation
After Tennessee’s first fall scrimmage before the 2023 season, Heupel talked about Tennessee’s offense not operating at the level he wanted to see. That was a telling sign ahead of a season where the Vols struggled to move with elite tempo and injuries consistently derailed opportunities.
But that wasn’t the case on Friday night when Heupel was actually surprised by the overall crispness of the scrimmage.
“It was a pretty clean scrimmage for scrimmage one,” Heupel said. “Communication, personnel. There weren’t any issues with any of that. There’s some playing penalties that we gotta get smarter at. That’s always the case at this point. And gotta learn how to play extremely hard, but play it with great technique and know when the play is over and get yourself in a position to where you don’t hurt the team.”
That obviously starts with the quarterbacks and Heupel liked what he saw from not only Nico Iamaleava but also Gaston Moore and Jake Merklinger.
“I thought he looked good throughout the course of the night,” Heupel said of Iamaleava. “Just decision making, body position. There is going to be some throws that he is going want back, but he played really well.”
“Both of them did a great job operating the offense, but they really have all training camp,” Heupel said of Moore and Merklinger. “Merk’s a young guy, continues to get better every single day. He has great confidence. He works extremely hard at it. He’s got a really good energy in the huddle. His demeanor is really positive. Gaston just has done a really efficient job tonight. Made some really nice throws out on the run. He’s done that all through training camp.”
A Good Night For The Secondary
The challenging thing about intrasquad scrimmages is that something going well for one group means something is going poorly for another group. So while Heupel was complimentary of the quarterback play he also singled out the secondary in a positive light.
“Thought our secondary played really well early in the scrimmage as well,” Heupel said. “Really, really pleased with how they started.”
Secondary is one of the biggest question marks on Tennessee’s roster as they break in an entirely new starting back five. There’s reason for optimism about the starters, especially at cornerback, which the early scrimmage success indicates that those guys did some nice things.
“Their athleticism tonight, played some really tight coverage down the field,” Heupel added. “Just within the game, the subtle details that allow you to play it at a really high level in particular corners tonight, I thought they did a really, really good job.”
STAR remains one of the biggest questions in the back end of the secondary since Jourdan Thomas’ injury. We’ll have more on what Heupel said about that competition later today.
