Spring Ball 2021

[LittleVol]

A great majority of us are still waiting to see if Pruitt is truly getting another year. Regardless of that, there is still a football team that is going to have a critical off-season. A couple of huge positives too personnel wise to look at.

QB: We're going to have Bailey and Maurer for 2021. That's huge. Throw in a talented Kaden Salter and the QB room feels fresh again. Now the big question is will there be a true QB competition. Edit: I forgot about the Maurer credit card thing.

RB: More power is on the way. Cody Brown at 230. Evans at 220. Beckwith at 235 all 3 with speed and hands. Gray will certainly be the guy if he's on the team still but look for more power in the backfield.

WR/TE: Jalin Hyatt in year 2 should be able to back the safties out of the box. Velus will be the number 2 guy. Wideman and Tillman have go get it ability. Princeton Fant is getting better and better. Legit recieving TE threat.

OL: Friend is GONE. Wanya, and Darnell in year 3. Mays boys on the inside. Carvin, and Kalberht are big guys that have played a lot. I think we improve here with the QB consistency and the added power Rbs.

Defense:

Bruh...i don't know.

So comment if you are excited still about spring ball.
What will you be looking for?
Do you think a bigtime transfer is coming to Knoxville?
If Jeremy lets Chaney have complete control, do you see this team having a good spring.
If no Maurer, who will be the 3rd QB?
Any position changes??
Who are you most excited to see this spring?

 

[ATLVols]

Hopefully we add Arik Gilbert to the WR/TE group. Should be way better with a real QB for a whole season. I think Salter is going to make it very competitive against Bailey in the spring.

 

[Vol8188]

If we add the right transfers this could be a really good season. There’s talent in a lot of places but we have some key needs (edge rusher, DBs, QB)

 

[VOLfrombama]

Our defense should get better. Overall, they were still pretty young at everything but interior DL. My hope it that Pruitt spends more time molding the D, developing his Lbs, and working on his scheme and let the Offense do their thing with the fresh Qbs. His previous management of the Qbs makes me think he has no business on that side of the ball. Let the guy earning 7 figures a year handle that for you .

 

[DarkAvenger]

Our defense should get better. Overall, they were still pretty young at everything but interior DL. My hope it that Pruitt spends more time molding the D, developing his Lbs, and working on his scheme and let the Offense do their thing with the fresh Qbs. His previous management of the Qbs makes me think he has no business on that side of the ball. Let the guy earning 7 figures a year handle that for you .

We were old at OLB before Kivon messed up, DLine, and pretty sure our corners were three year starters. Kenneth George was the backup so I don’t know where this we were young crap comes in besides random sub packages.

 

[LittleVol]

Really need Roman Harrison to figure out OLB.
Bryson Eason is a guy I want to see get some much needed spring reps there this spring.

Calloway and Wideman need big springs at WR.

Are all the SRs coming back on Dline? Who's coaching them if so?

Running back?
Early enrollees - Salter looking to make a bid for playing time earlym

 

[74charger]

If cornbread is still there then “NO” I’m no excited about Spring ball or the program period.

 

[cgrish]

Hopefully we add Arik Gilbert to the WR/TE group. Should be way better with a real QB for a whole season. I think Salter is going to make it very competitive against Bailey in the spring.

With Pruitts history, he will decide who starts at qb before spring practice begins and work totally with him with the ones, which means we will not have a true qb competition. This is Pruitt's history.

 

[utvolpj]

With Pruitts history, he will decide who starts at qb before spring practice begins and work totally with him with the ones, which means we will not have a true qb competition. This is Pruitt's history.

Nailed it. That's exactly what he did with spring practice 2020

 

[LittleVol]

If cornbread is still there then “NO” I’m no excited about Spring ball or the program period.

That's perfectly understandable.

If he is retained, at this point I think it's clear to him to let Chaney do his thing on offense. And we saw that last 3 games. So that's kind of the perspective I'm coming from.
Get out of his own way. Double down on that defense with Ansley and finish strong in recruiting.

We still have a roster full of guys that chose to be Vols, that need development. As long as Covid permits, we should have a spring and I'm just trying to focus on that. All this uncertainty HAS to work itself out within the next 4 weeks.

 

[VOLfrombama]

We were old at OLB before Kivon messed up, DLine, and pretty sure our corners were three year starters. Kenneth George was the backup so I don’t know where this we were young crap comes in besides random sub packages.

you need depth to compete, especially when everyone stays hurt. We had a Sophomore playing a lot at corner due to Taylor's injury bug (Burrell). Flowers is still young in snaps due to injuries even though he was Junior (23 games total). Tank, Crouch, Toot, all Sophomores. A slew of Freshman played over any upperclassmen at almost every position. Lawrence ended up taking George's snaps by halfway thru the season. The only exception was interior DL, which I already mentioned, and you still had So and Fr getting quite a lot of snaps. That's young no matter how you slice it.

 

[VolBricks]

I agree with most of the statements above: Pruitt needs to stay out of the offense and let Chaney run it. Pruitt needs to concentrate on the defense and get them playing better, I saw too many players out of position (not playing the wrong position). Too many times the DB's looked lost and blew coverages. I think the ILB will be much improved this spring as long as there are no injuries.

For the start of the 2021 football season I hope we have HB as the starting QB with some packages for Salter to come in and run.

 

[Real Info]

We may actually need to go young on the dline some. Maybe we can find someone who can get a push and cause some disruption up front! Our older guys just don’t seem to make any plays in the backfield. The ones who did (Bennett & Johnson) are gone anyway.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Good run down in the OP.

I think we're still going to be dealing with the tail end of the whole coronavirus upheaval. Vaccine rollout may or may not have gotten to young adults by the time the scheduled spring practice window opens. That might mean that the NCAA and/or conferences decide to delay the window to early summer.

And that could affect things like position competitions. Could give incoming EE freshmen more time to get settled into college life and wrap their heads around the Vols playbook and vocabulary and processes. That could give them a better chance at breaking into playing time than even EEs had in previous years. A month or two shift in "spring camp" (say from April to June) could have an outsized effect, in short.

Too early to tell if any of that will play out. Just something worth keeping an eye on.

 

[TennesseeTarheel]

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

Rinse, repeat as necessary.

 

[SmokeyDog1973]

Will they let us have any spring ball with the Rona no doubt still will be here in March and April

 

[LittleVol]

Will they let us have any spring ball with the Rona no doubt still will be here in March and April

Well we've played a full season with it almost. I think as long they continue the protocols then they will allow them to practice I assume.

 

[SmokeyDog1973]

Well we've played a full season with it almost. I think as long they continue the protocols then they will allow them to practice I assume.

Yea I’m pretty sure we will get a full spring training in and hopefully a full fall practice in August.

 

[DarkAvenger]

you need depth to compete, especially when everyone stays hurt. We had a Sophomore playing a lot at corner due to Taylor's injury bug (Burrell). Flowers is still young in snaps due to injuries even though he was Junior (23 games total). Tank, Crouch, Toot, all Sophomores. A slew of Freshman played over any upperclassmen at almost every position. Lawrence ended up taking George's snaps by halfway thru the season. The only exception was interior DL, which I already mentioned, and you still had So and Fr getting quite a lot of snaps. That's young no matter how you slice it.

Burrell played in minimal snaps. Kenneth George was a corner not a safety. I think you’re thinking of Jackson who also is older and played majority of the year. Again you’re disregarding kivon bennet and Deandre Johnson both OLB. Flowers has played in almost two seasons worth and been in the program for three years. Your trying to fit a narrative out of sub packages. Our starters were OLD. Our depth was young but when your Juniors and Seniors played as bad as the freshmen that is a problem. Outside of 2 1/2 games our starters weren’t getting worn down and getting beat because experience... they were getting beat by not executing basic defensive principles in the middle of the field.

 

[TheGuy]

QBs is obvisouly going to be a big point of discussion

RBs I think Gray will be #1 but I think Evans with be the #2

WRs will be better I think. Hopefully seeing how Ohio St and Bama use their WR's speed, I think they utilize Hyatt, Jones, Calloway better than last year

TEs are going to be rough again, maybe Campbell can come in and bring more of a pass catching option

OL I still think can be great in the SEC with right coaching, and we are hopefully in that process now

DL will be stronger and getting most if not all guys back will help, especially with depth

LBs hopefully will work in the weight room along with pass coverage

DBs need a refresher, hopefully someone like Rucker or Lawrence can push these guys in competition more

 

[EZE]

As long as we have this dynamic duo as AD and HC, it is hard for me to get excited about anything:

 

[JonGrudensAgent]

I expect Spring Practice to be a disjointed mess much like everything has been under Pruitt.

Good chance they are replacing 4 assistant coaches so there will be a transition period there between new coaches and players.

Agree with OP on the defensive side. Huge question marks on D line. And who among those recruits are gonna step up to play LB.

Incoming RBs look promising but I am not sold on the receiver position improving. Just too much uncertainty.

This team is going to sorely miss Trey Smith on the O line and in a leadership role.

 

[UTwick]

Who is in charge of Strength and Conditioning? Seems like a good place to start in upgrading staff since the S & C guys lay the foundation for Spring ball. Yes, I have heard most of the rumors about who can hire due to NCAA investigation, Pruitt’s status, state hiring freezes and the like.

 

[FalconVol77]

A great majority of us are still waiting to see if Pruitt is truly getting another year. Regardless of that, there is still a football team that is going to have a critical off-season. A couple of huge positives too personnel wise to look at.

QB: We're going to have Bailey and Maurer for 2021. That's huge. Throw in a talented Kaden Salter and the QB room feels fresh again. Now the big question is will there be a true QB competition. Edit: I forgot about the Maurer credit card thing.

RB: More power is on the way. Cody Brown at 230. Evans at 220. Beckwith at 235 all 3 with speed and hands. Gray will certainly be the guy if he's on the team still but look for more power in the backfield.

WR/TE: Jalin Hyatt in year 2 should be able to back the safties out of the box. Velus will be the number 2 guy. Wideman and Tillman have go get it ability. Princeton Fant is getting better and better. Legit recieving TE threat.

OL: Friend is GONE. Wanya, and Darnell in year 3. Mays boys on the inside. Carvin, and Kalberht are big guys that have played a lot. I think we improve here with the QB consistency and the added power Rbs.

Defense:

Bruh...i don't know.

So comment if you are excited still about spring ball.
What will you be looking for?
Do you think a bigtime transfer is coming to Knoxville?
If Jeremy lets Chaney have complete control, do you see this team having a good spring.
If no Maurer, who will be the 3rd QB?
Any position changes??
Who are you most excited to see this spring?

Pruitt will ruin the offense. Sadly, none of this stuff even can matter to me until we have a legit head coach and coaching staff in place. Pruitt is going to pile drive any potential progress.

 

[SmokeyDog1973]

Pruitt will ruin the offense. Sadly, none of this stuff even can matter to me until we have a legit head coach and coaching staff in place. Pruitt is going to pile drive any potential progress.

. Have some patience he’s still learning on the job.