It’s been a while since adverbs such as ‘really’ and ‘extremely’ were used to describe Tennessee quarterbacks, especially when used in conjunction with positive adjectives. But those were the words Lane Kiffin chose when talking about his quarterbacks on Wednesday.
“I thought the guys practiced extremely well,” head coach Lane Kiffin said. “I thought the quarterbacks were really good. They threw a number of touchdowns in the red zone and guys made some plays. It was good to see and I thought they executed extremely well.
Kiffin admitted that the quarterback play isn’t as consistent as he would like but the trend is clearly one of improvement.
“They’re both playing really well,” he said. “Their team feels some confidence about them because they played so well and they continue to play well. They have their ups and downs, but it’s not as many downs as in the spring or in our first five practices (this fall).”
Tennessee will be back at practice on Thursday afternoon before having their final two-a-day session on Friday.
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Mike Strange is the latest to write yet another piece on injuries. Ed Orgeron sums up the staff’s philosophy on the matter in three words or less. “We’re building depth,” Orgeron said.
Also of interest from Strange, the fact that freshman linebacker Greg King has been workin with the first team and Jerod Askew is ‘coming on strong’. In fairness, it’s worth mentioning that Rico McCoy, Herman Lathers, and LaMarcus Thompson have all missed time with injuries.
Gerald Jones did not practice on Wednesday. He is still being withheld due to a leg injury.
Everyone wants to know the status of Marlon Walls. Today we learned that Lane Kiffin has filed a waiver on Walls’ behalf with the NCAA Clearinghouse. What that means exactly? I have no clue.
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During last Saturday’s scrimmage at Neyland Stadium, Lane Kiffin spent a lot of time on the field in the huddle with the offense. That’s not going to be the case in this Saturday’s scrimmage.
“I have to get out of the huddle here eventually,” Kiffin said. “It’s kind of like with a baby. You’ve got to wean them off the bottle.”
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After being pulling off the practice field by the clearinghouse on Tuesday, Eric Gordon returned to practice on Wednesday with a vengeance. Gordon intercepted a poorly thrown Nick Stephens‘ pass in the morning session, and followed that up Wednesday evening when he ‘sliced in front of a receiver’ to earn his second pick of the day.