Nathan Peterman is in the running for the Vols starting QB job. (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)
The Tennessee Vols took a week off for spring break and coach Butch Jones was not happy with what he was seeing out of his team
He let the players know he wasn’t pleased with the first five practices of spring football and he was expecting things to change when they came back together after the break.
“We spoke prior to spring break that I thought the maturity of our football team would show coming back,” said Jones.
The players got the message. When practice resumed this week, it looked like a different football team.
“Overall I did like our mental approach but also it was very glaring that some individuals are more mature than others,” said Jones. “Some individuals prepared more than individuals coming back but I thought it was a very productive practice and probably our most physical practice so far since we’ve been back.
“I was not pleased with the first five practices especially the scrimmage in terms of our overall style of play in which we’re going to play football here at Tennessee but every opportunity is a teaching moment,” he said.
“Today had many teaching moments. We concluded practice with a live team period and then we graded our position groups on the field if we had loafs and not playing our style.”
Jones was pleased to find that for the most part, the players retained a lot of what they learned prior to the break. For the rest of the spring, the Vols will work on being more physical and conditioning themselves so they will be in shape to compete for 60 minutes.
“Today, I did like our approach,” he said after the sixth practice. “I thought our practice was demanding and we’ll continue to demand and demand even more as spring ball progresses.”
The Vols have to replace large parts of the offensive and defensive lines, find some step-up receivers and, of course, a quarterback.
The Vols have four players vying for the starting quarterback position. Senior Justin Worley would appear to be the number one guy thanks to his experience, but he’s being challenged by sophomores Nathan Peterman and Joshua Dobbs and redshirt freshman Riley Ferguson. The fight for the quarterback job has the attention of Jones.
“I sat in on all the quarterback meetings today,” he said. “I liked their note taking, I checked all their notes, I liked that process. We are going to be patient. We are going to find out who we can win with. It is a long process, with spring football, summer and then into August and we are going to do our due diligence every day.
“But I did like the mentality of that group today and I liked their approach on Monday as well.”
He is happy with every aspect of his team’s approach to the game.
“Effort; intensity. It starts in the classroom. We talk about the mental effort, the mentality intensity by which it takes by which you approach your meetings, the notes, taking copious notes. Everything that goes into being a great football player,” the Vols coach said.
“(It is a) work in progress. We have to get much faster as a defense and as a football program. We are not up to SEC speed,” he said. “So it starts with recruiting, it starts with being bigger, stronger, faster.
“You have to play chess, you can’t play checkers, you have to play chess. It is getting your players in the right spots and if they have value in one regard or another it is trying to extract as much value as you can in your football program,” Jones said.
