One of the more intriguing football practices got underway in the Southeastern Conference over the weekend when Tennessee opened up its spring camp.
The Vols hit the field for their first practice under new coach Butch Jones on Saturday for what Vols fans are hoping is the first step toward re-establishing Tennessee as a force in the SEC East once again.
Tennessee has a proven winner as head coach and it has some talent on hand, but the Vols lost some pretty big playmakers from last season in quarterback Tyler Bray, receivers Justin Hunter and Cordarrelle Patterson and defensive end Darrington Sentimore.
“I think it was a typical first day of practice,” Jones said. “I thought our players were eager. I thought you could feel the energy. But we have a lot of work to do. It has been 105 days sinceTennesseehas played football and I think it showed a little bit.
“We are taking the approach that this football team is down 15 practices because eight of our 12 opponents that we play next year had those extra 15 practices with bowl practices. Every single rep counts, every single practice counts but I liked our energy. But again, now we have to come back and we have to improve on today and we have to have an even better practice on Tuesday.”
Jones talked about what the new coaching staff hoped to accomplish in the spring.
“I think the big question is, ‘what do you want to accomplish in spring football?’” the coach said. “There are a number of things that we want to accomplish and I think the big thing is developing our overall standard of play. You can’t take anything for granted.
“We’re looking for individuals who consistently perform at a championship level and I think that’s a big word: ‘consistency,’ in everything we do,” Jones said. “I think a team-togetherness, team-building, team chemistry is all relative to winning. It’s the coach that uses this that makes it. It’s going to be the team that buys into this, the team that believes in themselves. We talk about that it’s better to be a player-coached team than a coach-coached team in terms of team togetherness. We’re developing that brotherhood, that family each and every day. It’s our overall identity, our style in which we’re going to play.”
Jones realized the Vols were hit hard by offensive losses from last season which throws a spotlight on position battles. The biggest spotlight will be on who will step in to replace Bray.
“Not just the quarterback position, but in every position, it will be a grade every day — a plus or minus. Everyone will be charted and everything will be detail-oriented. I know I talked about it before, but it’s all about consistency; your performance every day, especially at the quarterback position. The individual who manages the football the best and makes the least amount of mistakes, but really, it’s the individual that gives us the best opportunity to win come Saturdays will be our starting quarterback.
“We have a lot of work to do. Everything in the throw game is rhythm and spacing and timing, this is the first time we have seen them throw the ball,” Jones added. “I like a lot of things that they did but we were late a little bit in our progressions and obviously everything will be accelerated when the pads come on. They are students of the game. The big thing is it is not where you start it is where you finish.”
The top two quarterback prospects are little-used junior Justin Worley and redshirt freshman Nathan Peterman. Worley played in five games behind Bray and was 15-of-23 for 134 yards. Peterman watched and learned last season.
“With Tyler and Justin last year, I went through a big learning process watching them,” Peterman said after Saturday’s practice. “To be honest, I’m so glad I came here because they’ve pushed me to become a better player and throw more accurate balls. I feel like I’ve gotten better because of the competition.
“They’ve made it clear that it’s going to be an open competition,” Peterman said of Jones, who recruited him while at Cincinnati.
“I’m just trying to focus on the details, like (offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike) Coach Bajakian likes to say. Just do everything right and give us a better chance to win. Just to get better; I know I had one interception on the first play of team. Just to speak the same language and kind of read the defenses a little better. They have a fast-paced offense, so just calm down.”
Whoever wins the quarterback job he will have a new approach to offense to get used to, and it is one that veteran running back Rajion Neal is excited about.
“I like the outside zone. For the past two years I haven’t ran outside zone, since my freshman year I am happy getting back to that,” said Neal, a senior, who rushed for 708 yards and five touchdowns last season.
“They split us out a lot, I like that. They let the tailbacks get out and mix and mingle and do a lot of things from the inside in and out. The guys seem pretty excited about it. I like the concepts of what we are running. It’s fun, I am not going to lie to you, it’s fun.”
That is already a plus for the Jones coaching era. It’s fun and Vols football hasn’t been a lot of fun recently.