The Vol offense won the day.
Photo by Randy Sartin

KNOXVILLE— Tennessee’s offense won the day, but every unit on the team gave Vol head coach Butch Jones a reason to leave the field feeling good about the team’s status. “We’re no way game ready, but I do see progress and I’m really encouraged walking off the field here today,” Jones said. There are definitely issues that need to be addressed (turnovers, drops, missed assignments), but today’s scrimmage was the most encouraging performance of the spring by the team as a whole. Here are some notes on the play of the offense.

Quarterback: Though QB play resulted in three turnovers, this was the first scrimmage of the year where both Peterman and Worley demonstrated a clear ability to lead the team and consistently make plays. They finally completed some passes in tight windows, and made things happen with their legs. Even more impressive: They turned in their best outing of the year despite having just four scholarship receivers available. Check out our earlier post for more thoughts on the Vol quarterbacks.

Running back: Marlin Lane* continues to be away from the team for disciplinary reasons, and in his absence both Rajion Neal and Alden Hill looked sharp. Neal has always been elusive but struggled with runs in the middle of the field; the latter wasn’t the case today. He was decisive between the tackles and recorded several long runs straight down the throat of the defense. He also scored a TD on a 3rd-and-long play where he made a defender miss with a nasty juke and sprinted to the pylon.

Redshirt freshman running back Alden Hill has improved more than any other player this spring and really showcased his skills today. He doesn’t have the speed to record a ton of long runs, but he’s been extremely effective between the tackles. His pads are lower than just a few weeks ago, and he absolutely demolished a defensive back on a screen pass. Hill’s vision has clearly improved, he always falls forward, and is a terrible matchup for an opposing DB in the open field. Moreover, he’s getting better at finishing runs and has improved his quickness. Even if both Neal and Lane stay healthy throughout the year, Hill is quickly establishing himself as a good option when the Vols need a few tough yards up the middle. He’s certainly earned some carries this season.

Receiver: Jacob Carter, Paul Harris, Vincent Dallas, and Jason Croom (Croom injured a hamstring earlier in the week and was severely limited; if he’s back before the spring ends it’d be a surprise) were out with injuries today—that left just four scholarship receivers available. Devrin Young and Cody Blanc worked with the first team for most of the day while Pig Howard and Drae Bowles primarily ran with the second team.

Redshirt freshman Drae Bowles hasn’t made an impression this spring in either a positive or negative way, that is, until he made a tremendous touchdown catch in the corner of the end zone. On that play, Peterman found Bowles on an out-route and Bowles held on to a zippy pass thrown into tight coverage all while keeping his feet in bounds. He showed tremendous concentration to bring the ball in and stay in bounds, all while getting hit.

Devrin Young continues to get open and make defenders miss. He caught a 15 yard touchdown on a short out-route where he simply beat everyone to the pylon. Also of note, he put in some additional work after practice with Nathan Peterman. At this point, Young is the favorite to earn the starting nod in the slot this fall.

Sophomore receiver Cody Blanc was covered by Tennessee’s best defensive back, Justin Coleman, most of the day but still managed to make several big plays. He found himself open in the back of the end zone on one play and Peterman hit him with a fastball for a touchdown. Blanc beat Coleman deep on another occasion, but Coleman recovered to make an outstanding play on the ball and come away with an interception.

Pig Howard fumbled after getting decked by Dontavis Sapp early in the scrimmage. He recovered to score at least two touchdowns through the air on plays where he made several defenders miss. Howard is extremely talented but needs to be more consistent to earn the coaching staff’s trust.

Walk-on receiver Sam Cranford did an admirable job filling in for the injured Vols. He hauled in a handful of passes and worked with the first team on several drives.

Overall, it was an impressive day for such a short-handed unit. Tennessee’s receivers ran precise routes, limited drops (I counted just two), and made defenders miss. It was a nice bounce back performance from a group that struggled to catch the football earlier in the week.

Offensive line: Tiny Richardson continues to be held out of scrimmage portions of practice after having his knee scoped in the offseason. He should be healthy by the start of summer camp. In his absence, Ja’Wuan James filled in at left tackle, Zach Fulton worked at right tackle, James Stone was at center, Marcus Jackson at right guard, while Alex Bullard played left guard. The offensive line got a good push on running plays but struggled a little in pass protection—though part of that was a clearly more aggressive pass rush from the defense.

Tight end: With a lack of depth at receiver, the tight ends found themselves targeted more than at any point in spring. Justin King made two nice touchdown catches. Peterman hit him in the back of the end zone for one TD—King batted that one with his left hand and pulled it down while staying in bounds. He caught a 15 yard TD pass from Worley later in the day with several defenders draped all over him. Walk-on tight end Alex Ellis continues to have a good spring. He drew a pass interference penalty in the end zone that led to one score and also pulled in a nice TD pass from Worley on a separate drive. This was the first practice where the tight ends were a consistent threat in the passing game, and the coaches will look for more efforts like today’s moving forward.

Brendan Downs and Justin Meredith were once again in yellow jerseys and didn’t participate in practice.

*-According to Butch Jones, Lane could be back with the team before the Orange and White Game next Saturday. Barring unforeseen developments, we expect him to rejoin the team soon.