Tuesday morning rewind

Tennessee was back hard at work on Monday after taking the day off on Sunday for media day. By all accounts, practices have very physically demanding to this point and yesterday, that demand doubled. Monday marked the beginning of the dreaded two-a-day practices on campus.

• Montori Hughes is impressive. At 6-4, 310 pounds, Hughes isn’t someone that will be overlooked, but according to John Adams, he can be overheard. “You can’t watch a practice without noticing No. 93,” wrote Adams. “He doesn’t have to make a play. He only has to make himself heard. He does that repeatedly, providing incessant chatter as he loudly challenges his defense or insults the offense.”
• According to Mike Strange, two players making the most of their opportunity to play with the first team are Gerald Williams and Steven Fowlkes. Williams put a big hit on Bryce Brown, ‘separating him from the football’ and Fowlkes made a goal-line stop on Tauren Poole. With Rico McCoy still being held out of practice, Nick Reviez, Lamarcus Thompson, and Savion Frazier worked with the first team defense while Greg King and Jerod Askew were in the rotation.
• We’ve seen the G-gun and the WildBerry, but this morning’s practice introduced us to the Nu-gun (I expected a much more creative name from the media, how disappointing). Nu’keese Richardson was a dual threat quarterback in high school and will likely be Kiffin’s choice for that change-of-pace quarterback this season. The result, however, was less than impressive. Richardson’s stat line consisted of a couple of incomplete passes, a couple of handoffs, and a fumble. When asked, Kiffin said “If we’re going to do it, instead of splitting those reps, I’d rather concentrate on one guy.” So don’t expect to see Gerald Jones or Eric Berry in that formation this season.
• It’s unclear what the crime was exactly, but in the early practice session this morning, the coaching staff decided to make an example out of freshman Mike Edwards and Janzen Jackson. Instead of practicing, they spent three hours running, blocking, and crawling around the field.
• Wes Rucker wrote that, “Senior quarterback Jonathan Crompton followed his sterling Saturday scrimmage performance with another sharp effort Monday morning, squeezing several completions into tight coverage.” There was no mention of how Nick Stephens performed.
• So far, lots of freshman are looking to earn playing time. At this point, the most likely candidates to see the field in 2009 are: Bryce Brown, David Oku, Nu’Keese Richardson, Marsalis Teague, Janzen Jackson, Darren Myles, Greg King, Zack Rodgers, Mike Edwards, Eric Gordon, Nyshier Oliver, Jerod Askew, and Robert Nelson. For those of you counting at home, that’s 13 names.