Tennessee football worked inside the Anderson Training Center on Wednesday morning for its 11th practice of fall camp the day before its second spring scrimmage.
It was also the final day of fall camp that Tennessee was opening practice to the media so this is the final practice observations of fall camp.
After letting us only watch two period on Monday, Tennessee threw the media a bone and let them watch some red zone one-on-ones between pass catchers and defensive backs. Still, we only watched 15 to 20 minutes of practice so only so many takeaways to glean.
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Offense
Let’s start where we usually do with injuries and absences. Both running backs Cameron Seldon and Peyton Lewis were in red non contact jerseys. Seldon has been in the red jersey all fall camp but this was the first time that Lewis has been in that boat.
With Lewis a little banged up and DeSean Bishop staying healthy, it feels like the redshirt freshman has a grasp on the third running back battle.
Walk on receiver Trey Weary was no dressed out but was stretching. Braylon Staley was out on the field and stretching but didn’t go through any routes on air or anything else.
Let’s start with the routes on air portion of practice and we’ll have detailed notes on all the one-on-ones in the final section of the story.
Bru McCoy, Squirrel White and Kaleb Webb were the receivers working with Nico Iamaleava. Dont’e Thornton, Chas Nimrod and Chris Brazzell were the receivers working with Gaston Moore and Mike Matthews, Nate Spillman and Dayton Snead were the receivers working with Jake Merklinger. The tight ends rotated with all three main guys working with all three quarterbacks.
It was a mixed bag of results during the red zone routes on air work. Fade routes were particularly an issue for the group as a whole. Webb had one pass that he bobbled and couldn’t get his feet in bounds while Iamaleava overthrew McCoy on one rep.
With this being the final practice open to the media during camp it feels like a good time to discuss Jake Merklinger. The freshman quarterback was overall impressive with what we were about to watch of fall camp. He was accurate with the football and honestly pretty consistent for a freshman. The question for him is how well he can learn the offense and how consistent he can be operating it.
It was business as usual with the offensive line mostly working in two different groups while doing leverage run blocking drills. What is worth noting is that all the starters were going through the drill which has not been the case for most of camp. It’ll be curious to hear how many of the starters work during Thursday’s scrimmage.
Defense
The most notable thing on the defensive side of the field was that I couldn’t spot Rickey Gibson during the open portions of practice. One of Tennessee’s projected starters at cornerback, Gibson was off to the side working during Monday’s practice.
Freshman defensive back Jackson Matthews was in a red non contact jersey while freshman linebacker Jordan Burns was working off to the side as he has all of fall camp.
The was one other defensive lineman in a red jersey but he had it rolled up so it was hard to tell who it was. I believe it was either Mike Bethea or Isaiah Inge.
Tennessee’s defensive line has stayed as healthy as any group to this point in fall camp. That probably won’t remain the case and that will be okay because Tennessee has an abundance of depth there.
Jourdan Thomas was on the sideline on a scooter and was providing some encouragement and coaching for guys while on the sideline. Christian Charles came over and dapped him up and gave him a hug at one point early in practice.
I didn’t spend too much time on the defensive side of the field during the open portions of practice so that’s about all I have on that side today. Let’s get into the red zone one-on-ones we got to watch.
Receiver/Tight Ends vs Defensive Backs One-on-Ones
I recorded the result of every rep and tried to keep track of quarterback, pass catcher, defensive back and route. The reps go very quickly so I missed a few details on a couple reps so apologies for that.
- Nico Iamaleava fade route to Dont’e Thornton was incomplete. Jordan Matthews had strong coverage.
- Miles Kitselman burned Andre Turrentine on a slant and hauled in an Iamaleava pass.
- Squirrel White beat Boo Carter on a slant and caught an Iamaleava pass.
- Iamaleava overthrew a fade to Kaleb Webb.
- Mike Matthews toasted Kaleb Beasley on a slant but dropped an accurate Gaston Moore pass.
- A Moore pass to Holden Staes was incomplete. Jalen McMurray had strong coverage.
- Ethan Davis beat Jakobe Thomas on a route and hauled in a Moore pass.
- Chris Brazzell beat Jermod McCoy on a slant and hauled in a Moore pass.
- Nathan Leacock beat Colin Brazzell on a slant and hauled in a Jake Merklinger pass.
- Chas Nimrod absolutely toasted Christian Charles on a slant and hauled in a Merkliner pass.
- A Merklinger pass to Kitselman was incomplete.
- Matthews ran Bru McCoy off his outbreaking route and Iamaleava’s pass was incomplete.
- Ethan Davis made the play of the session, beating Christian Harrison on a fade and hauling in an Iamaleava pass with one hand.
- Dayton Snead beat John Slaughter on a slant and hauled in an Iamaleava pass.
- McCoy beat Jalen McMurray on a route and hauled in a pass.
- Thornton caught a Moore pass on a fade but it was a tad overthrown and he couldn’t get his feet in Beasley was in coverage.
- Carter broke up a Moore slant intended for Staes.
- White beat Harrison on a slant and caught Moore’s pass.
- Jermod McCoy had good coverage on a Moore fade route intended for Brazzell.
- Matthews burnt Brazzell on a slant and hauled in Moore’s pass.
- Thomas was in coverage on a Merklinger incompletion intended for Tommy Winton.
- Will Brooks nearly had an interception on a Merklinger out route intended for Nate Spillman.
- Bru McCoy beat Matthews on a slant and hauled in an Iamaleava pass.
- Kitselman beat Turrentine on a quick out and caught an Iamaleava pass.
- Nimrod beat Carter on a slant and hauled in an Iamaleava pass.
