Vols Practice Thread #10

#1

Fingers

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Just left Tennessee’s practice. Haven’t seen a ton of NFL scouts in Knoxville this month, but the Lions and Panthers were both represented today.
-David Ubben

Halfway through fall camp, Vols continue to cross-train guys at multiple spots. Princeton Fant was back at TE today and Dillon Bates was with the ILBs. Also, former DT Kivon Bennett was at OLB.
-Jesse Simonton

Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt spent some time with a different position group (OLBs) early in practice, but he quickly got drawn back to his beloved CBs like a magnet was pulling him.
-Wes Rucker

The group of players limited today included Darrin Kirkland, Chance Hall and Trey Smith.

Jauan Jennings appeared to go through everything, including routes on air, while we were out there.

We finally saw Drew Richmond working on the right side of the line at tackle during individual drills. We've heard rumblings of this for a little while now, about him flipping over to the right side to open up left tackle for Smith. Of note, it looked like Ryan Johnson got some work next to Richmond on the right side, and Jerome Carvin and Riley Locklear each got some work at left guard.
-Patrick Brown



Once again, there were far too many drops by receivers during passing drills today. I counted at least five or six in the five or six minutes I observed the quarterbacks and wide receivers

I thought Tyler Byrd put in a good day of practice today from what we got to see.

The more I see from Tennessee’s outside linebackers, the more I think that unit could be in store for a big improvement this year. I still don’t expect the Vols to be one of the best pass rushing teams in the SEC, but I do like what I’ve seen consistently from Darrell Taylor and Jordan Allen. After a somewhat slow start to fall camp (at least in my eyes), I think Jonathan Kongbo has improved and keeps looking better too.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: After the Vols’ top two players at tight end, I don’t really know what they have depth wise. ... Dominick Wood-Anderson and Eli Wolf both have looked pretty good in practice, but I just don’t think the depth overall is there at that position right now.

I thought overall today that Jarrett Guarantano had a slightly better practice than Keller Chryst, but we only got to see about six or seven minutes of the quarterbacks throwing to receivers.
-Nathanael Rutherford

During positional drills, Trey Smith got a bit of light contact work at left guard. He was worked on combo blocks with left tackle Drew Richmond.

Rough, rough afternoon for wideout Jauan Jennings today. The redshirt junior dropped 3-4 passes during routes on air and continues to look limited/hobbled out there. Jennings was visibly frustrated after dropping a slant late. ... but on the flip side, sophomore wideout Jordan Murphy continues to gain confidence with every practice. Could say the same thing about Tyler Byrd, too.

Princeton Fant was back with the TE group. Perhaps the RB experiment is over, or maybe the Vols see Fant as a true H-back/FB. Both Austin Pope and Ja’Quain Blakeley do all individual drills with the TEs and not the RBs, too.

Emmitt Gooden was getting a crash-course in SDE and DT from Tracy Rocker, while Kingston Harris saw reps at both nose and DT.
-Jesse Simonton





While Shy Tuttle got reps at nose tackle with Kyle Phillips and Alexis Johnson at the end spots, Tennessee gave freshman Kingston Harris a look at the nose, with JuCo transfer Emmit Gooden and senior walk-on Paul Bain working some at the two end spots. Gooden and Bain previously had been working at the nose.

The 6-foot-3, 316-pound Harris appeared likely to get a look in the middle given his size, but he'd worked only at end in the open portions of practice so far in camp.

Tracy Rocker was far more pleased with his group's work on Tuesday than he was on Saturday.

Shawn Shamburger was lined up at safety in some of the pattern-matching drills the Vols did with their secondary on Tuesday.
-Patrick Brown
 
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#4
#4
Glad to see Richmond going over to right tackle.... I believe if he remains at right tackle we will finally see some solid production out of him..
 
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#13
#13
How do you coach receivers to catch everything that is thrown their way? Or did we just recruit a bunch of receivers with iron hands?
 
#14
#14
Rough, rough afternoon for wideout Jauan Jennings today. The redshirt junior dropped 3-4 passes during routes on air and continues to look limited/hobbled out there. Jennings was visibly frustrated after dropping a slant late. ... but on the flip side, sophomore wideout Jordan Murphy continues to gain confidence with every practice. Could say the same thing about Tyler Byrd, too.
not really surprised to hear that about JJ.

but that's really good news about Byrd.....would be huge for this offense if he could step up and be a contributor.....
 
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#16
#16
If JJ really isnt close to 100%, I would like to them them shut him down for awhile and get him healthy. Season is a marathon, not a sprint.
eh, he's been shut down, and it's really the 2nd full week of fall camp. it's time to get him back in the swing of things, and you gotta start somewhere. not really concerned about him at this point.
 
#17
#17
eh, he's been shut down, and it's really the 2nd full week of fall camp. it's time to get him back in the swing of things, and you gotta start somewhere. not really concerned about him at this point.
This. It's probably rust as much as anything. He hasn't even practiced since the beginning of the first game last season.
 
#20
#20
How do you coach receivers to catch everything that is thrown their way? Or did we just recruit a bunch of receivers with iron hands?

Gotta work on their hand eye coordination, +those guys need to work on the jugs as much as possible too. Receivers are like shooters in b-ball, their streaky. Once they get a collectively good practice under their belts they should gain some confidence. Confidence can do wonders for a receiver.
JJ having issues may be affecting the guys as well, they all feed off him imo.
 
#22
#22
If JJ really isnt close to 100%, I would like to see them shut him down for awhile and get him healthy. Season is a marathon, not a sprint.

His knee is still bothering him from his injury last week. If you’ve had a knee injury, it tests your concentration because of fear of hyperextension again. I’m hoping it’s not serious..
 
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#24
#24
How do you coach receivers to catch everything that is thrown their way? Or did we just recruit a bunch of receivers with iron hands?

Definitely sucks to hear we are still seeing all the drops. I guess I don't fully understand the injury that JJ had. Seems like its taken forever to get over.
 
#25
#25
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: After the Vols’ top two players at tight end, I don’t really know what they have depth wise. ... Dominick Wood-Anderson and Eli Wolf both have looked pretty good in practice, but I just don’t think the depth overall is there at that position right now.
-Nathanael Rutherford

Not a good sign for LaTrell Bumphus.
 
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