Already without Bru McCoy this spring, Tennessee’s receiving corps was down both Ramel Keyton and Squirrel White on Monday morning. We didn’t see Keyton out there and White was not in full pads. The sophomore went through stretch before staying inside to work out with director of competition development Kurt Schmidt. At linebacker, Aaron Beasley, who was held out of the scrimmage, continues to manage what we believe is a hamstring injury. He was doing some drills on Monday morning before staying inside. Also inside and working out with the other injured players was Keenan Pili, so the Vols are now very young at linebacker.
It’s also worth noting that Oregon transfer Dont’e Thornton, who has dealt with a hamstring injury, was running routes and getting a lot of work in Monday’s practice. He didn’t scrimmage, but could be working his way into being able to scrimmage on Thursday, which would be a benefit for him.
Nimrod, Weary, Leacock and Webb all had good snags on hard-thrown slant passes.
Even without Beasley and Pili, Tennessee has a good-looking group at linebacker with sophomores Elijah Herring and Kalib Perry plus freshmen Arion Carter, Jalen Smith and Jeremiah Telander. Walk-ons round out the numbers so there are still plenty of bodies for Brian Jean-Mary. There is one veteran practicing in fifth-year senior Kwauze Garland, and Beasley and Pili still can help from the sidelines so all is far from lost.
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The offensive line continues to be a work in progress, something of note from the scrimmage on Saturday. With Mays sidelined for a short time, what an opportunity it is for Parker Ball, Addison Nichols and Vysen Lang to show what they can bring to the table.
Overall, the quarterbacks looked fine but there was some miscommunication at times, which is understandable with some new guys taking reps up front.
With Jaylen Wright sidelined while we were out there, it was a whole lot of Dylan Samspn and DeSean Bishop during individual. Both of those guys had good scrimmages on Saturday and are doing their part in providing some depth to a room that is injury-bitten at times.
We continue to be impressed with rising sophomore Elijah Herring who has shown some strong leadership traits all spring. Freshman Jeremiah Telander is a guy who has shown his athletisism at practice over the last week. With all the talk on fellow freshman Arion Carter, Telander continues to chip away.
Secondary work was split into two with the emphasis still on open field tackling. The defensive line spent their time under the cage while we were out there as more and more eyes are on Elijah Simmons to see how he performs this week after standing out so far in spring drills.
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