Tennessee football put shoulder pads on for the first time this fall on Saturday morning as they got back to work on the Haslam Practice Field after not practicing on Friday.
The first three portions of practice were open to the media meaning we were able to watch only approximately 15 minutes of practices. With that limited of a practice viewing time, there are only so many takeaways that one can glean.
With that, it’s on to the notes and observations.
Offense
Let’s start with absences or limitations where things were mostly the same as they’ve been the first two days of practice. Mike Matthews was stretching but not dressed out and didn’t do any drill work. Cam Seldon remained in a red non contact jersey but was going through drills while we were out there.
After being absent at the open portions of practice on Thursday, Javontez Spraggins was back on the field and full go doing drills so it appears whatever held him out was of little importance.
Tennessee’s quarterback and running backs did their normal handoff drills with a little bit more work on outside runs than we typically see. Here was the order that the running backs went through the drill: Dylan Sampson, DeSean Bishop, Patrick Wilk, Peyton Lewis, Hunter Barnes, Khalifa Keith and finally Seldon. Iamaleava was jumping back in the rotation to do some work with both Keith and Seldon.
There was plenty of work on fundamentals for Tennessee’s receivers with both blocking drills and release drills. Tennessee worked in the red zone during the routes on air portion of practice. There was some changes with who all worked with Nico Iamaleava— Bru McCoy and Squirrel White were still with him, Ethan Davis was back at the tight end but Kaleb Webb worked with the first team for the first time this fall.
The second team working with Gaston Moore was Donte Thornton, Holden Staes, Chas Nimrod and Chris Brazzell. The third team with Jake Merklinger was Nathan Leacock, Miles Kitselman, Dayton Snead and Trey Weary. Freshman Braylon Staley was with Navy Shuler in the fourth team.
Results were a mixed bag. The first time through was extremely crisp besides one high throw from Jake Merklinger. The second time through had a truly dreadful stretch where White, Webb and Thornton all dropped accurate passes on three consecutive reps.
It’s three days in, it’s routes on air and we haven’t watched Tennessee work on the downfield passing game a ton to this point, but Iamaleava has been very accurate with the football.
Tennessee’s offensive line split up between the interior of the line and tackles for a portion of drill work. Of the normal starters there was no surprise with who worked where. But a few interesting notes from the freshman as most were working at tackle including Gage Ginther, Jesse Perry, Bennett Warren and Jeremias Heard. I expected both Ginther and Heard to work on the interior of the offensive line.
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Defense
Injury notes on the defensive side of the ball was the same as they were on Thursday which is certainly a positive. Freshman linebacker Jordan Burns was working off to the side without pads. Same was the case for Temple cornerback transfer Jalen McMurray but besides that Tennessee is healthy on the defensive side of the ball.
Christian Charles was working with the safeties during the drill portion of practice and was getting some extra instruction from Tim Banks. Banks told us earlier this week that Charles would work at safety this fall but we did see him working with corners earlier this week. Banks also called Charles the X-factor in the secondary.
The safeties were working on a bunch of tackling drills while corners were working on press coverage and jamming receivers at the line.
With us out on the outside practice field for the first time this fall, I spent a good bit of time watching the linebackers. Since Tennessee spent almost all of the open portions of spring practice inside and the linebackers work on the opposite side of the field from the media viewing area, I really hadn’t gotten to watch new inside linebackers coach William Inge work much.
Inge is certainly a very high energy guy and “physicality” was the key word he used while talking to his group. The inside linebackers were working between block shedding and tackling drills to gap assignment drills. Keenan Pili looks a bit slimmed down from last season.
Watching the linebackers and I do think the Elijah Herring loss to the portal post spring is a meaningful one. I’m not sure that Herring would have even been a top three linebacker but it’s a big blow to depth. Kalib Perry has to prove he’s a capable every down linebacker in the two-deep because the depth just isn’t particularly strong.
With that being said, freshman Edwin Spillman looked good going through drills. He moves well for a big guy. How he performs in pass coverage is still the question I have about him.
Didn’t spend any time watching the defensive line today so no notes on Rodney Garner’s group.
