Tennessee held its first scrimmage of fall camp on Sunday afternoon, getting in a couple hours of work in the heat inside Neyland Stadium.
The scrimmage was not open to the media, but here are some quick hitters and nuggets from sources in the house collected by Jesse, Austin and Brent.
The overall takeaway from Sunday was that a young defense held its own against Tennessee’s veteran offense. While Marquez Callaway (a long fade over Warren Burrell) and Dominick Wood-Anderson both had long touchdowns, the offense didn’t generate a ton of explosive plays. They did put together some nice drives, but were forced to settle for lots of field goals. Both Brent Cimaglia and Paxton Brooks impressed by drilling their kicks, though. The defense also had a few balls hit their hands, including a potential pick-six from starting quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, that was
dropped. Still, the prevailing sentiment from folks was the unit played faster and more aggressive and that it’s clear for many that it’s Year 2 in the system.
Several sources thought Aubrey Solomon and Greg Emerson had nice days, with each playing with the 1s at defensive tackle and nose tackle and recording sacks. Darel Middleton also ran with the 1s at times.
By far the biggest buzz from Sunday was created by several freshman, though. Henry To’oto’o played with the 1s in both base and sub-packages, with one source saying he “looks like he’s been in the system for two years.” With the California native
working with the first-team, Will Ignont and Shanon Reid were with the 2s. Meanwhile, outside linebacker Quavaris Crouch recorded a couple tackle for loss with the 2s, as Tennessee is working him at defensive end and BUCK in sub-packages. With Alontae Taylor a bit banged up right now (he still saw snaps with 1s and 2s), freshman Warren Burrell was paired mostly with Bryce Thompson on Sunday. Finally, tailback Eric Gray continued to impress folks with his speed and wiggle. He scored a 20-yard touchdown run and folks in attendance talked about how he’s “hard to touch.” Gray got lots of work Sunday, too, as Tennessee’s tailback unit was a bit shorthanded with Jeremy Banks non-contact and Carlin Fils-Aime still out.
Elsewhere, as has been the case in practice throughout the week, Shawn Shamburger got most of the work with the 1s at STAR. And Deandre Johnson got the bulk of work the 1s opposite of Darrel Taylor.
Jeremy Pruitt noted Saturday that Tennessee had about 10 offensive lineman they felt comfortable with right now and would work multiple combinations until they found their best five. That was the case Sunday, as various groupings working with the 1s. With Trey Smith still not cleared for contact, sophomore Jerome Carvin took the initial reps at left guard, while Riley Locklear worked at right guard. But later in practice, Carvin worked at center with the 2s. Meanwhile, freshman Wanya Morris worked at left tackle initially but also saw time at left guard, while K’Rojhn Calbert was at right guard with the 2s and 1s. Jahmir Johnson saw time with the 1s at left tackle, while Marcus Tatum got the bulk of work at right tackle.
As for the backup quarterback battle, JT Shrout threw a couple dimes but also had a bad interception. Brian Maurer got a lot of work with the 2s.