Tennessee took the field on a steamy afternoon on Tuesday, a day sandwiched between two-a-day workouts on Monday and Wednesday. Here are some notes and observations from the defensive perspective:
Depth chart notes: This is the primary first-team look we saw today:
DE: Derek Barnett, Corey Vereen
DT: Jordan Williams, DT Danny O’Brien
LB: A.J. Johnson, Dillon Bates
S: Brian Randolph, Devaun Swafford
CB: Emmanuel Moseley, Cam Sutton, (NB) Justin Coleman
There was a ton of shuffling for the second unit. Roughly, this was somewhat of a consensus second team:
DE: Dewayne Hendrix, LaTroy Lewis
DT: Owen Williams, Michael Sawyers
LB: Kenny Bynum, Elliott Berry
S: Todd Kelly Jr., LaDarrell McNeil
CB: D’Andre Payne, Michael Williams, (NB) Malik Foreman
Several others were rolling in and out such as DT Dimarya Mixon, DT Trevarris Saulsberry, DE Kendal Vickers and LB Neiko Creamer
Circle of Life: Butch Jones challenged the Berry twins in the Circle of Life drill, saying (not seriously) that he only had one spot left on the travel squad. Evan and Elliott battled to a virtual stalemate. Elliott went again against linebacker Justin King and King easily got the better of him.
Live action: We saw four live 2-point conversion plays and 15 additional live red-zone plays.
The defense got three stops on the 2-point conversion, though they were aided by a couple of drops by the offense. The offense clearly had the upper hand in the red-zone work. Marquez North made a nice leaping grab over Emmanuel Moseley in the corner of the end zone on the first play. A couple plays later, Devrin Young took a swing pass on Moseley’s side in for a score. Moseley did bounce back with a couple nice coverage plays later in the drill. Owen Williams got absolutely popped by Jashon Robertson on one screen pass. Williams was slow to get up, but returned to practice later.
Later in practice in some one-on-one o-line vs. d-line drills, Dewayne Hendrix, who has been somewhat overshadowed by Derek Barnett this camp but has done a lot of good thing, had an impressive rep, blowing by Marques Pair with ease for what would’ve been a straight run at the quarterback.
Injury update: DE Curt Maggitt was absent again. DE Jaylen Miller worked in The Hole and didn’t even have his pads on as practice started. Jalen Reeves-Maybin started practice with a green, non-contact jersey, but shed it later in practice. Still, he wasn’t very active in the contact drills.
Here’s the link to today’s Offensive Notes and Observations.
Editor’s note: Any depth chart notes should be considered unofficial and often change from practice to practice. Per UT policy, we do not report specifics on any formations or schemes.
