Fingers
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- Mike Matthews started practice by dropping a pass against air. Did pushups to make up for it. Responded by having a dominant one-on-one section. Went to the sideline for two well-thrown balls by Nico Iamaleava and snagged both over a defender. He looked really, really good today.
- Nico Iamaleava had a Go-Pro camera on his helmet. Believe the goal is to use that film to make sure his eyes are in the right place and to see how he goes through his reads.
- Ethan Davis and Miles Kitselman splite a lot of TE first-team reps. Similar to how the TE room handled practice a year ago with Holden Staes in the mix.
- In a more scrimmage-type format, the first team DBs did pretty well. They got beat a few times but also had some plays that gave Nico no options. That's without Jourdan Thomas, Jermod McCoy and a banged up Jakobe Thomas, too.
- Boo Carter got some WR work in. He had a white penny to go over his orange jersey to make it easy to rotate in. Caught a pass in the scrimmage portion. Got reps on both sides throughout practice, but mainly spends time on defense.
- David Sanders Jr. did not participate in the scrimmage portion of practice that we saw. Freshmen on defense got rotated in somewhat quickly. Took a bit for offensive freshmen and transfers to get tossed in. Travis Smith, Radarious Jackson, Daune Morris, Star Thomas, Sam Pendleton, Wendell Moe Jr. and Jack Van Dorselaer got some run.
-r.sylvia- Good amount of recruits in the building. Tristen Keys was the headliner.
Quick note #1: Mike Matthews made an "I'M HIM" catch in one-on-ones, Mossing freshman CB Tre Poteat. Caught a back-shoulder throw over Poteat's helmet and held on as they went to ground with some strong hands keeping firm control of the football. Better offense beating good defense and Matthews, Kelsey Pope and the other WRs on that side were fired up.
-p.brownQuick note #2: Boo Carter on offense is real. Multiple slot reps across one-on-ones and team period. He played the Star spot, too, then went over to offense and caught a couple of passes on 11-on-11.
Jermod McCoy, Jaydin Loftin and Jourdan Thomas were off to the side riding a stationary bike. Freshman Christian Gass, Jeremias Heard, Arion Carter, Daevin Hobbs, Mariyon Dye, and Christian Charles were in a group that was doing some light stretching while the team was in individual work. Cole Harrison and Amari Jefferson were in red non-contact jerseys. Jordan Ross was with the defensive lineman but didn’t have a helmet today. DaSaahn Brame is sick today, so he didn’t do too much. For a couple of reps in group offensive line drills, Sham Umarov did not have his helmet on. Freshman linebackers Jaedon Harmon and Jadon Perlotte were not full-speed.
Mike Matthews had himself a good day with two highlight catches. He ‘mossed’ a guy. Ethan Davis got a ton of work and freshman Jack Van Dorselaer receives the ball well for a young tight end – specially one who played defense his senior year of high school. Miles Kitselman, who had a one-handed catch on Monday in 1-on-1’s, was coaching up the young tight ends a lot this morning.
Freshman Radarius Jackson is already impressing with his route running. He had a nice break-in from the outside to make a catch in 1-on-1’s. Of Note: Boo Carter got some run on offense today, working in the slot. He was locked up once by Jakobe Thomas but also made a catch later in the day. Amari Jefferson was working routes on air but did not take part in drills going up against the defense, from what we could tell.
Nico Iamaleava, who was wearing a go-pro on his helmet for something the social department I’m sure is working on, had a good day. He kept once on a read-option and would have gone for a big-gain if this were an actual game. I thought he was pretty accurate throwing the football today. Same with Jake Merklinger, who had nice touch on a waggle. George MacIntyre looked good at times, but inconsistent today which is typical for a young quarterback early in camp.
The running backs mixed in and out throughout the day, but the pecking order was Peyton Lewis, DeSean Bishop, Star Thomas, Daune Morris and Justin Baker. Bishop looked good today and his body has changed a ton since he arrived on campus a few years ago. Thomas can be used in space by catching the football out of the backfield.
Up front, several guys got reps at center throughout practice. William Satterwhite, Nic Moore, Gus Hill, Max Anderson and even Sam Pendleton towards the end. The three centers who snapped the ball in team drills were Satterwhite, Anderosn and Hill in that order. Pendleton was getting work at right guard today and Wendell Moe at left guard. Bennett Warren was backing up both tackles.
Heard, Sham, Satterwhite, Perry, Johnson
Warren, Moe, Anderson, Pendelton, Grant
Duncan, Ginther, Hill, Bussell, Sanders
David Sanders continues to impress with his athleticism. He is going to be a good one and won’t take long for him to jump up with the first team.
Jeremiah Telander and Ben Bolton were the two guys leading this group with several coming off clean up procedures. Edwin Spillman and Jordan Burns were the next two up.
Isiah Campbell is going to be a player. Caleb Herring continues to look more like a college football player. He’s put on some great weight. Nathan Robinson is going to be a guy who helps them in the interior.
Rickey Gibson appeared to tweak his right knee at one point in drill work. He hobbled off and went to see a trainer for a little bit but was back in drills minutes later and took part in the competitions later on. So, that’s a good sign.
At cornerback, Gibson/Jalen McMurray were the first group while William Wright/Marcus Goree were with the second team. Tre Poteat and Collin Brazzell (Chris’ younger brother) were with the third group.
At STAR, it was Boo Carter followed by freshman Dylan Lewis and then Marcus Goree.
e.cainAt Safety, the first group was Andre Turrentine/Jakobe Thomas and then it was Edrees Farooq/Kaleb Beasley with John Slaughter right there, too.
Boo Carter adding offense to his role as a sophomore is very much a real thing. The SEC All-Freshman Team defensive back and return specialist got multiple reps on offense as a slot receiver during one-on-one drills and the lengthy team period we saw. It helps that the Vols are a little shorthanded in the slot with Amari Jefferson working his way back from an injury and signee Joakim Dodson not here yet, but Tennessee is being intentional about giving its defensive starter some looks on offense, which he’s had interest in playing since his stellar prep career in Chattanooga.
During one-on-ones, Carter ran an out route from the slot and was covered well by the lively Jakobe Thomas, and the safety let his fellow defensive back know about it after the pass breakup forced the incompletion.
In the team period, though, Carter caught a bubble screen and then got open against zone coverage and made a catch for a first down. He had to go to ground to catch a low throw from Jake Merklinger, so we didn’t get to see him create after the catch. But he got a handful of reps on offense after running out there with the first-team defense at his standard Star spot.
Sophomore wide receiver Mike Matthews was the standout in one-on-one work between the pass-catchers and defensive backs. He made an impressive back-shoulder catch from Nico Iamaleava against tight coverage from freshman cornerback Ty Redmond. That was just the appetizer for his “Moss” catch on the helmet of freshman cornerback Tre Poteat, who was not at all in a bad position on the play.
On the back-shoulder throw from Iamaleava, Matthews caught the pass on top of Poteat’s helmet, then held on with strong hands to complete the process of the catch as the two players went to ground. Poteat, to his credit, kept fighting trying to make the play. The football might have hit the ground at one point, but there is no dispute that Matthews controlled it with his vice grip.
Tight end Miles Kitselman made a one-handed snag on an Iamaleava bullet on his first rep and later caught a pass on sophomore safety Edrees Farooq and let him know there was nothing he could do about it. Also at that position, Ethan Davis freed himself up with a good shoulder fake on an option route against John Slaughter and freshman Jack Van Dorselaer got open on fellow rookie Sidney Walton. Van Dorselaer also had a catch in the flat in the team period.
Wide receiver Braylon Staley got open and caught two passes out of the slot, and freshman wideouts Travis Smith Jr. and Radarious Jackson had good routes to get open for catches. Smith couldn’t make a catch on the sideline against Marcus Goree Jr. on his second time through.
Defensively, cornerback Jalen McMurray had a couple of good reps, staying in good position against Chris Brazzell II and then reading the route to put himself in position to contest and force the incompletion.
Iamaleava used his legs to generate some positive gains on the first set of reps for the ones, and the first-team offense moved the football on its second turn with Brazzell making a catch and Lewis and Bishop (twice) picking up good yardage on runs.
The defensive line made its presence felt with those groups as Bailey along with Telander and Carter disrupted one run and Herring got pressure off the edge to force an incompletion.
Watched the defensive backs during the majority of individual work this morning. Kaleb Beasley and freshman Dylan Lewis (rated as a cornerback) were working with the safeties as they did some sled work with Tim Banks and Willie Martinez overseeing the proceedings and demanding for players to strike and snag off as they drilled getting off blocks.
p.brownJakobe Thomas and Andre Turrentine were coaching up freshman Sidney Walton after his rep. Thomas certainly is carrying himself like a veteran presence in his second year in the program. Turrentine emerged as a leader last season.
