Tennessee was back on the practice field Tuesday morning for the second practice of fall camp. Unlike yesterday, the media was only permitted for the first three periods – equating to around 20 minutes. Like yesterday, however, the team was still donning just helmets as full pads will come on later in the week.
Christian Charles was again sporting a red non-contact jersey but was going through turnover circuits and individual drills with the cornerbacks. Jaylen Wright was not in a red jersey today, however, he was still off to the side getting 1-on-1 work with a trainer.
Watching the defensive line go through bag drills, you can easily see the burst from both Joshua Josephs and James Pearce. Both have some weight to gain in order to hold their own consistently in this league – and that will come in time – but the burst and get-off is really something there.
Amari McNeill has indeed changed his body as he looks completely different. Tyler Baron and Byron young continue to lead that group both in words and actions. They are always the first two in line and are constantly coaching up the rest of the group, just as Garner is.
Speaking of the veteran assistant, Tennessee may not be practicing in pads yet but Garner continues to crank up the intensity with his unit. Garner has set a tone early in each of the first two days of practice, specifically seeming to send a stern message to young players about what his standard is and how important attention to detail is. One frequently heard theme from D-line drills is some colorful variation of the need to ‘get lower.’
The offensive line looked about the same as it did yesterday with Crawford and Mincey splitting reps with the first team at left tackle. The second offensive line group today consisted of (l-to-r) Mincey, Lane, Ball, Lampley, Davis while the third group was (l-to-r) Perry, Clipper, Nichols, Krivosh and Grant. Savion Herring, Masai Reddick and William Parker were all rotating in.
As always, it was just group and individual work – so don’t think that’s the working order past the first group.
From what we could tell, it appears there was no major shakeup in the defensive secondary from day one to day two. Wesley Walker was still with the STARs, Christian Charles and Brandon Turnage with the corners and Andre Turrentine was practicing with the safeties.
Willie Martinez was preaching the importance of keeping a good angle while chasing a down a tackle in the open field. Jaylen McCollough is noticeably thinner and Kamal Hadden looks quick, though he’s sporting a heavy brace on his right elbow.
The linebackers were on the far field going over stance & steps before getting under the cage for run-reads. The groups were split in two with Mikes and Wills as Jeremy Banks, Aaron Beasley and Solon Page continue to lead that group. Juwan Mitchell looks well rested. He’s been quick this week in turnover circuit drills and looks as healthy as we’ve seen him. Will be good to see what he looks like when the pads come on.
As far as the offensive skill, it appeared to be a decent day while the media was present. Each scholarship quarterback took their turn throwing routes on-air to an uncovered receiver. Jacob Warren made a real nice catch over the middle of the field on a throw that was high from Hooker. Alex Golesh liked it so much, he let out a loud, “yessir!” The running backs joined the group, catching balls from the slot. You can tell Dylan Sampson has experience running routes and catching the ball out of the backfield, though he did drop one pass from Hooker while we were out there.
Walker Merrill looked comfortable running routes again from the outside today. They’ll need him there to buy some time for the freshmen duo of Chas Nimrod and Kaleb Webb. Bru McCoy looked good running routes, catching every pass I saw thrown his way. Jalin Hyatt made an impressive grab over the middle of the field when a ball was thrown behind him.
All in all, it looked to be a good day while we were out there. Keep in mind that we saw just the first 20ish minutes of practice and some of that was stretching. They get a lot of work done after we leave. Coming up at 11:20, we’ll hear from quarterback’s coach Joey Halzle before offensive freshmen Masai Reddick, Squirrel White, Dylan Sampson and Justin Williams-Thomas take their turns answering questions from the media.
