Tennessee football worked inside Neyland Stadium Wednesday as the Vols held their second fall scrimmage on a cool August morning.
Afterwards Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with the media to discuss the scrimmage and the last week of fall practice.
Here’s four takeaways from what Heupel said.
Injury Notes
Tennessee has largely avoided the injury bug so far this fall camp. However, Heupel provided updates on a handful of injuries Wednesday.
Freshmen Tyree Weathersby and DeSean Bishop have been absent from practice in recent days and Heupel provided serious injury updates on both. Weathersby is out for the season due to injury and while Tennessee isn’t ruling out a possible return for Bishop, he’s expected to be out a few months.
While Weathersby wasn’t likely to factor along the defensive line this season and Bishop was on the outside looking in at the running back rotation both injuries are blows to the Vols’ depth and the underclassmen’s development.
Heupel also touched on Cooper Mays recovery after undergoing a major procedure last week. The Vols are hopeful that Mays will be back for the season opener against Virginia but are continuing to work on contingency plans.
“We believe we’ll have an opportunity to get him back,” Heupel said. “Everything has gone well since he missed training camp and had the issue that he had. But at the same time, and it’s true for every position, but in particular the offensive line, you better have contingency plans and you don’t know when that’s gonna happen.”
Milton Taking Care Of Football
It was nearly a throwaway line from Heupel in his Wednesday press conference.
“I don’t know if he’s thrown a pick all training camp,” Heupel said of Joe Milton III.
That’s significant and meaningful news. We know Milton can do the spectacular but whether he can do the mundane consistently is the question involving the Tennessee signal caller.
Taking care of the football isn’t the only thing that registers under that category but it is the most important. Granted, throwing interceptions hasn’t been a major issue for Milton. His next interception will be his first at Tennessee. But the news that he hasn’t thrown an interception all of fall practice is certainly a good sign.
According to Heupel, Milton has been consistently accurate with the football all of camp.
“Man, he was really accurate with the football, really decisive. Been a really good decision-maker,” Heupel said. “Been in control of the protections, for the most part, and we’ve continued to push their hand on that side of it.”
More From RTI: Everything Josh Heupel Said After Tennessee’s Wednesday Scrimmage
Still Needing To Improve Operationally
While Tennessee’s offense found success— particularly early on— in Wednesday’s scrimmage, Heupel still would have liked the Vols to be more efficient mechanically.
“The communication side, I thought, could’ve been better offensively — just some of the mechanics stuff.” Heupel said in his opening statement.
Tennessee’s third-year head coach was quick to clarify that those mistakes don’t fall squarely on Milton’s shoulders but on the offense as a whole. Heupel didn’t appear panicked about the issue but did not that they had taken a step back in that regard from the first scrimmage to the second scrimmage.
“Some of it is,” Heupel said on whether the issues were normal for this time of year. “The first scrimmage, in all reality, was probably a little cleaner than today’s. But it was just operationally, off the sideline, play clock, getting things settled as we get out there on the field first play of a drive. I’m not worried about where we’re at. We’re pretty intentional on working those things during practice. I thought today could’ve been cleaner. But it wasn’t just one guy. All of us just need to be a little bit cleaner.”
A reason to panic? Probably not. But it is something to watch as the Vols get closer to kick-off.
Tennessee Leaning On Experience In Secondary
Tennessee has steadily improved its defensive back depth over the last two seasons. But have they improved their defensive back play from last season’s poor numbers?
That’s the question Tennessee is trying to answer this season. The Vols return most of their key contributors in the secondary from last season in addition to BYU transfer Gabe Jeudy-Lally and a trio of talented freshmen. Those freshmen have earned praise for their growth since spring practice but it appears they’re still behind the returning upperclassmen.
“We got some young guys that have really grown here over the last 11, 12 practices. Excited about them,” Heupel said. “They’ll play some defensive snaps but they’ll play a ton on special teams too.”
So it appears that Tennessee isn’t going to lean on its freshman corners to open the season. That could change if the veterans don’t show improvement on Saturdays, but don’t expect a defensive back overhaul when the Vols’ defense takes the field against Virginia.
However, there’s no doubt Tennessee’s depth has radically improved in the back end.
“We have great competition that creates urgency in the meeting room, creates urgency in the offseason,” Heupel said. “It shows up in the way they play and compete on the practice field and today when we’re inside the stadium. We have guys that are vets that played a lot of football last year. … So we absolutely have more depth, more competition and as we get closer to kickoff figuring out the rotation as those guys continue to compete and show that they’re going to play at a championship level.”
