Coming off a 41-21 win over South Carolina, Tennessee returned to the practice field for its second workout in prep for UAB on Saturday (7 p.m., SEC Network).
The Vols were in shells, yet another change by Jeremy Pruitt to give his team a bit of a physical break.
All eyes were on the three quarterbacks, with Brian Maurer and Jarrett Guarantano back at practice. During individual work with the tailbacks, Guarantano, who sported a big white brace on his left hand/wrist that Rob Lewis deemed the Luke Skywalker hand, was very careful with the handoffs. He didn’t take nearly as many reps as Maurer or Shrout, either.
When the quarterbacks moved to routes on air, Shrout when first in the pass skeleton drill, with Maurer and Guarantano following suit. The group was solid overall, but the highlight of the period was Jauan Jennings taking a few reps at quarterback and chucking it deep, including hitting Tyler Byrd in stride on a seam route. On the very next rep, Jennings ran an in-route and caught a pass from Guarantano.
As we were leaving the field, Maurer took the first-team reps during 11-on-11 work.
Elsewhere, Tennessee was without two offensive lineman Tuesday, as Darnell Wright and Jahmir Johnson were observers as the rest of the unit worked under the watchful eye of Will Friend. Marcus Tatum was taking the first-team reps at right tackle with Wright out. Jeremy Pruitt actually opened practice watching the wideouts and OL, offering some encouragement and coaching to Ryan Johnson and Jerome Carvin before heading over to the defense to coach the cornerbacks.
The OL split into guards and tackles halfway through the period Tuesday, with Wanya Morris, Tatum, K’Rojhn Calbert and a couple walk-ons working on combo blocking with Brian Niedermeyer’s tight end group.
Defensively, just a few notable highlights. Quavaris Crouch was back at outside linebacker working with Chris Rumph’s unit. Crouch saw just four snaps Saturday, as the Vols were hesitant to take Daniel Bituli or Henry To’oto’o off the field. Meanwhile, Darrell Taylor was sporting a huge black brace on his left knee/leg but was going through individual work.
Tracy Rocker had his defensive line working on quick stems and pass rush stunts. Latrell Bumphus, who did not play against South Carolina, was with the first-team alongside Aubrey Solomon, Kurott Garland, Darel Middleton.