Tennessee returned to the practice field for the first time in over two weeks today in preparation of their appearance in the TaxSlayer Bowl on Jan. 2 against Indiana. The Vols were a little light on numbers today at several positions due to the fact that 12 players graduating this weekend and many of those spending time with their families as a result of that.
Those absences were particularly notable at receiver without standouts Jauan Jennings and Marquez Callaway who are two of the graduates. That gave a young guy like Ramel Keyton ample opportunity to get extra reps, which he took advantage of with several nice snags during the routes on air periods we were able to observe.
Brandon Kennedy, who was another of the graduates, was absent from practice today though we would assume that was more a result of his recent surgery.
During the routes on air portion of practice Jarrett Guarantano was by far the most accurate of the quarterbacks. He looked sharp with no indication that he was rusty as a result of the Volsā time off over the past two weeks. The same wasnāt true of Brian Maurer. The freshman stuck a couple of dimes in there to receivers but was also way off target on a few attempts.
On the offensive line, and elsewhere, it looked like it was really back to basics with fundamentals being the theme of the day. The O-line spent a chunk of the early portion of practice simply working on āget-offsā and tandem blocks. Itās always interesting to note that despite being the most accomplished player up front Trey Smith is always working himself into position to get extra reps in whatever drill may be going on at the time.
Defensively, it was like the offense all about fundamentals, for the linebackers it was a lot of footwork drills as well as some pass coverage reads based on formations and motions. Henry ToāoToāo continues to work with the elbow brace and the knee brace, but didnāt miss any reps. For the safeties it was all about technique and ball skills work as it was for the cornerbacks who as always was getting Jeremy Pruittās full attention in the individual periods.
For the ends/OLBās, there was a fundamental focus on using your hands to get off blocks and to beat tackles in pass rush work. Darrel Taylor who graduated today was not at practice. For Tracy Rockerās group, not surprising it was a about gap control and gap integrity. Darrel Middleton was on the practice field working with the defensive line. There have been rumors about his standing academically. Finals finished yesterday.
Tight ends coach Brian Niedermeyer was not with the tight ends today. Heās on the road recruiting and will return later this evening for practice this weekend and the official visit weekend.
