Position battles: tight end

[Fingers]

Ethan Wolf appears to have the early inside track on the tight end battle.

After enrolling in January, Wolf took advantage of some injuries and his own ability to ascend to a first-team spot with Tennessee's offense, and he appears on track to maintain the spot in the early going of the Vols' preseason training camp.

Wolf changed his jersey number from No. 88 to No. 82 after working with Jason Witten when the former Tennessee and current Dallas Cowboys star came back to Knoxville this summer.

His biggest gains, though, came in spring practice, which set the foundation for his freshman season.

"It was extremely valuable, in terms of mentally and physically," he said. "Getting into the weight program in the winter was huge, just making the changes to your body necessary to play this year as a freshman. I wouldn't have rather done anything else than come in early and make the gains that I could have."

Freshman Wolf still leading at tight end for Vols | Times Free Press

 

[CroKev]

"Now we've got just about everybody back healthy, so the reps are getting divvied up between us all, and he's going to see who can perform. The best scenario would be us all being able to play at the same level and being able to sub and be a dominant force throughout the game with fresh bodies."

I love this quote and it would really be great to see us pass to the TEs more. CBJ sure did while he was in Cinci and he likes 1 and 2 set TE formations. We have so many tools available now.

Finally, I really liked what WolF said about being an EE and getting in the weight room early. All our commits need to be paying attention to that!

 

[VOLorNuttin]

I think us having a mostly inexperienced OL, we will likely see a lot of 2 TE formations, for both max protect and run schemes.

Great thing about having Wolf and Helm is they are both good targets in the passing game. Not having much of a threat at TE hurt us last year.

 

[OrangeLining]

RTI had Branisel running with the ones. I like this Wolf kid though.

 

[Biopsyman]

I bet you see Helm lined up a lot outside on certain sets Mismatch nighare

 

[Fullfillmer]

Unleash the Wolf -- I couldn't tell you when or where, but I watched one of his high school films when he committed and he is without question going to be a great weapon for us. His route running and hands resembled a wide receiver rather than a tight end, so we will be going to him and I do see some correlation between he and Whitten for this reason.

 

[DL916]

The Wolf of Vol Street

 

[Biopsyman]

The Wolf of Vol Street

Hope he can score like the Wolf of Wall Street

 

[JohnMcA60]

He is an all around great TE. Helm can catch and bransiel isn't nearly as far along. I see Wolf being a stable target for 4 years at UT along with being a good blocker. Hope to see him play on Sundays.

 

[VolinMichigan]

We haven't had a complete blocking/pass catching TE at UT for a while. Def need these guys to help out the new Oline as well as be able to make plays down the field.

 

[P.O.T.S. VOL]

I think us having a mostly inexperienced OL, we will likely see a lot of 2 TE formations, for both max protect and run schemes.

Great thing about having Wolf and Helm is they are both good targets in the passing game. Not having much of a threat at TE hurt us last year.

Agreed. The more help we can have around our qb's the better.

 

[runthrutheT]

Wolfhelm...that's a pretty manly name for this generation of vol fans to name their kids.