Notes from Vols Practice – 8/22

Tennessee Vols starting quarterback Justin Worley participates in drills Friday afternoon at practice. PHOTO: Nathanael Rutherford

While it may not be game week quite yet, the Vols are no longer in camp mode and are starting to prepare for next Sunday’s game against Utah State. The blue practice team jerseys are out, and the 1st and 2nd teams are a little more solid.

The Vols practiced in the scorching sun Friday afternoon for their second official practice of the week, and head coach Butch Jones was just as intense as the heat.

Among the onlookers at today’s practice was a scout from the Kansas City Chiefs. While he was undeterred by the heat, only a handful of media members attended practice today.

Here are some notes from today’s practice:

• The punt returner candidates have been further narrowed down to seven players consistently seeing time during drills. Cam Sutton, Devrin Young, Vic Wharton, Emmanuel Moseley, Pig Howard, Josh Malone, and Von Pearson all dropped back in punt return drills today, and those seven look to be the top candidates moving forward.
• Punter Matt Darr didn’t have the best day at the office, but that may have had less to do with his ability and more to do with allowing the punt returners to field a wider array of punts. Darr would boom a punt, then hit a shallow one, then shank one. He looked more inconsistent than ever before, so my bet is it was planned.
• All the running backs practice some pass blocking drills where they were critiqued on their footwork and squaring up their shoulders. Jalen Hurd ran the drill first, followed by Marlin Lane and Devrin Young.
• George Bullock started kickoff duties, and Aaron Medley appeared to be on the 2nd team depth chart. The team practiced corner kicks and onside kicks.
• During a situational drill where the offense and defense took the field with 1:20 remaining in the 4th quarter with the offense trailing by 7, some players seemed to have made a push for more playing time based on the 1st and 2nd teams. Alex Ellis was out with the 1st team tight ends, and Chris Weatherd saw time at the third linebacker spot when the defense lined up in that formation. Elliot Berry saw time in the secondary on the 1st team as well.
• Todd Kelly Jr., Colton Jumper, and LaTroy Lewis all played on the 2nd team defense during the situational.

Observations:

Butch Jones came out on fire today, and he was very displeased that his team did not share his passion, especially during the situational. After only the second play of the drill, Jones stated that the offense came out with “zero intensity” and had them head back to the sideline and start over. It didn’t get better from there.

The defense generated a sack on third down and began to celebrate, at which point Jones called them out over the speaker system. He berated them for not knowing the situation, saying the offense was in four down territory and instead of celebrating, they needed to line back up and prepare to play. Once Jones finished addressing them and the teams lined up for the 4th down play, Justin Worley found Von Pearson across the middle and Pearson eluded a defender to score and tie up the “game.”

A few plays later, the offense suffered two consecutive illegal procedures, one negating a first down. Shortly after that, Jones stopped the drill and had the whole defensive unit and offensive unit line up in the middle of the field so he could address everyone on the team. He told the defense they need to play with more leverage, especially the safeties, because allowing a 4th down touchdown late in the game is “inexcusable.” He also preached to the offense once again about their lack of intensity during the drill.

On a positive note, the wide receivers and quarterbacks seems to be developing much better timing. Worley was able to throw to a spot and a receiver meet the ball there instead of always leading receivers to spots, and the timing just looked much crisper today than it has so far this summer.