Vols Football: 4/16 Practice Notes

Vols linebacker Chris Weatherd lines up during a drill during Thursday’s practice. PHOTO: Nathanael Rutherford

Spring practice is beginning to wrap up for the Vols, as this week marks the third of four weeks of spring practices for the football team. The Orange and White game is a little over a week away now, and today’s practice saw some more situational work.

Thursday saw some Vols return to the practice field for the first time in a while. Offensive lineman Coleman Thomas, who was cleared of theft charges earlier this week, was back on the practice field and saw time at center for most of the practice. Cornerback Emmanuel Moseley was back Tuesday, but he saw more action today after missing a chunk of practices with mono.

Also, several injured Vols also saw some work today with the rest of the team instead of just on their own during the open portion of today’s practice.

Here are some notes from today’s practice:

• Once again, the Vols began practice with a Circle of Life drill after their stretches. The match-ups today pitted some of the biggest and most athletic players against one another. The match-ups included Charles Mosley taking on Shy Tuttle and Evan Berry going against Cortez McDowell.
• During an 11-on-11 drill that saw minimal contact, a lot of the currently injured Vols participated in the drills. The entire starting defensive line consisted of injured players, such as Curt Maggitt, Derek Barnett, Danny O’Brien, and even Kyle Phillips lining up behind Maggitt to observe. Marcus Jackson practiced at left guard as an injured player on the 1st team offensive line as well.
• On the 2nd team offensive line in the same drill, Jack Jones saw action at right tackle and Chance Hall was in at right guard. Emmanuel Moseley was at the second corner spot on the 1st team during several drills as well.
• The team ran through another 7-on-7 skeleton drill during practice again today, and Von Pearson was still with the 2nd team wide receivers.

Observations

During the aforementioned skeleton drill, quarterback Joshua Dobbs impressed with some well-placed throws. He completed a couple passes to running back Jalen Hurd that would’ve gone for big gains in an actual game, and he put one ball perfectly in a tight window between two defenders where only Pig Howard could catch it.

Neiko Creamer, who was brought in as a linebacker in the 2014 recruiting class, has since converted to tight end, and he ran through some drills with the unit today, most notably during the skeleton drill. Coaches are still trying to improve his mechanics as a receiver, however, as his route running still needs some work.