Vols Fall Practice #2

[Fingers]

Miles Kitselman remained in a red non contact jersey while Chris Brazzell was not present at the parts of practice open to the media.

While Merklinger had the best day Wednesday to open camp, the redshirt freshman signal caller struggled Thursday, completing 13-of-18 total passes while we were watching. There was one bad drop in there but Merklinger was mostly inaccurate.

Joey Aguilar had a really nice day Thursday, completing 16 of his 17 pass attempts with the lone incompletion being a dropped pass from a running back that was accurate. George MacIntyre had a better day than he did Monday too, completing 13-of-15 pass attempts.

The quarterbacks worked on play action rollouts, seemingly out of the pistol, and threw deep out routes. Merklinger especially struggled in this session. But the fact that was a throw Tennessee’s quarterbacks were working on was interesting.

Freshman receiver Travis Smith Jr continues to look really good though he did have one bad drop. Walk-on Trey Weary has been working in Chris Brazzell’s place during routes on air, but Smith would be my candidate as the third outside receiver at this moment.

All I got on the injury front here is Jermod McCoy working off to the side as well as Boo Carter who was not wearing a helmet and appeared to have a weighted vest on.

Caught a tough stretch for sophomore defensive back Marcus Goree Jr. who did pushups after dropping a pass, had to do a drill twice after messing up the footwork and then proceeded to knock a cone on the final rep.

sophomore defensive back Kaleb Beasley looks way bigger. I was skeptical about him playing safety this season but after seeing him in person I now believe he is big enough. Beasley and Edrees Farooq is one of the position battles I’m most intrigued by early in camp.

r.schumpert

Boo Carter remained on the same plan as yesterday for the most part. He was out for stretches with the team and doing some things in the warmup period, not wearing a helmet, and then was not present when practice actually began. So, he was off doing something in the weight room or somewhere else in the complex.

The quarterbacks and running backs were working routes out of the backfield early on. DeSean Bishop and Star Thomas looked at home during the drill. Peyton Lewis looks noticeably different from spring as the weight room has done Two more routes-on-air notes: Smith sent wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope to the ground in a good way, showing the physicality needed to get off press coverage simulated by his position coach. He also had a drop, which meant pushups. Matthews joined him in doing those pushups.

Running backs coach De’Rail Sims was praising both Bishop and Lewis on several occasions this morning. Those two guys are clearly leading the group.

freshman tight end DaSaahn Brame was everywhere today. He took more reps in routes on air while the media was present than any other tight end (it felt like) and looked good doing it

Travis Smith dropped a pass and had to do pushups. Was cool (and maybe unrelated) but Mike Matthews did the pushups with him. Smith, overall, looked good today. He was getting some special coaching from Kelsey Pope at points in time, as he knows as well as anyone that Smith and Radarious Jackson will have to play this year. We were impressed with Smith as he looks more and more polished through spring and now into camp.

Joey Aguilar was the more accurate passer today while the media was on hand. One area where Aguilar shined was on the run. He throws the ball well out of the pocket, or he did today at least when they were working bootleg action, rolling out to both the right and left. There was one rep where all three quarterbacks were rolling to their left and throwing across their body. Aguilar hit the receiver on the money. Jake Merklinger skipped it and George MacIntyre missed high.

We still thought Merklinger looked decent today, though he was probably better on Wednesday while we were out there. MacIntyre had a solid first day on Wednesday as he tries to make this a true three-man race.

William Inge was working some one-on-one with Edwin Spillman. He was communicating the need for explosiveness in his pop on the sled.

Jalen McMurray, who continues working at the STAR position, was coaching up a lot of the young defensive backs today. One of those was Dylan Lewis, who has been working at STAR as well in the absence of Boo Carter. Colton Hood continues his work at cornerback. The coaching staff is excited about freshman Tyler Redmond as they think he can be a player in the future.

e.cain

Wide receiver Chris Brazzell II again was not going through position drills this morning, but his absence shouldn’t continue much longer.

All-SEC cornerback Jermod McCoy did emerge from the Anderson Training Center to continue his rehab work off to the side of the field where the rest of the defensive backs worked.

It started with some passes to the running backs on the indoor field, and the quarterbacks were pretty accurate outside of a couple of high throws by freshman Mason Phillips to Daune Morris and Hunter Barnes. Freshman Morris and veteran transfer Star Thomas looked natural catching the football, but running backs coach De’Rail Sims seemed most pleased with Peyton Lewis.

The order again was Jake Merklinger followed by Joey Aguilar and George MacIntyre. The best quarterback over the two periods in our estimation was Aguilar, and it particularly showed up when the Vols did some play-action rollouts out of the pistol. Throwing on the run to the right and to the left, Merklinger struggled while Aguilar was accurate and MacIntyre flashed his off-plat

Merklinger threw low running to his right to Mike Matthews, but bounced back to hit Deon Hardin going in the same direction, but his throw was a little short to Radarious Jackson rolling against the grain to the left.

Aguilar’s throw going right was on the back shoulder of Travis Smith Jr., but rolling left his placement to Trey Weary couldn’t have been better.

Aguilar doesn’t look like a guy who got here two months ago or a player feeling his way out while honing a new set of techniques. The obvious disclaimer here is that things could look much differently in team periods.

In some safety/Star work, Andre Turrentine, Edrees Farooq and Kaleb Beasley was the order at safety with Jalen McMurray followed by Marcus Goree Jr. at Star.

The main quick note from individual drills for the offensive line was redshirt freshman Bennett Warren was repping at left tackle after working at right tackle on Wednesday.

p.brown

 

[FBtime]

 

[WillisWG]

Five periods of practice were open to the media so we watched approximately 30 minutes of practice. But none of that time was stretching so we got a bit more action packed.

The one downside to not watching stretches is that it was a bit harder to figure out who was absent and who was present. Miles Kitselman remained in a red non contact jersey while Chris Brazzell was not present at the parts of practice open to the media.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Pistol you say?

 

[Fatman Photos]

1st Page? lol

 

[ButchPlz]

Pistol you say?

 

[Legion of Doom]

Going to be a fun year getting back to our fast pace. Can’t wait to see team play. The distractions of Nico and his family I think caused issues in locker room. Happy they don’t have to worry about all of that.

 

[HeuperDrive]

Think what’s most exciting about this one is the tidbit about Joey's ability throw on the run. That’s something that made Hooker excel here. If he can throw dimes on the run in-game…. Look out.

 

[volsarelife1]

Like hearing Aguilar throwing well on the run! Always nice to have

 

[ENGRVOL]

It’s important to not overreact to these numbers so will temper my expectations for Joey. will be okay if he is just a Heisman finalist rather than the winner

Thanks Fingers.

 

[VolFan_stuck_in_the_901]

Through two days, I haven't read anything to convince me that Merklinger should be starting over Aguilar. Be nice if the weirdos on Vol Twitter would stop with this "Start Merklinger!" BS already

 

[PEPPERJAX]

PHANGERS!!!!!!

 

[Skooter]

Good to read about passes to RBs. This staff and qbs have not used RBs as they should in the flats and late dumps under pressure. RBs should have 8-10 receptions minimum. No more games with 1-2. Peyton nor Brady would be the winning QBs they became if they didn’t use their RBs on the passing game. It’s bothered me why we don’t, especially since I came from the era where we ran RB screens as well as anyone and racked up a lot of yards doing it. OL have olay’d enough on pass pro so I don’t buy it’s hard to coach.

 

[WillisWG]

It looks like the rollout was where Merk had most of his misses. Videos today are much better.

 

[Bigorangefan 98]

Through two days, I haven't read anything to convince me that Merklinger should be starting over Aguilar. Be nice if the weirdos on Vol Twitter would stop with this "Start Merklinger!" BS already

Good have competition. At the qb … nothing is really settled yet … with ja having slight lead

 

[WillisWG]

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

I'm warming to Joey A. Seems to have a consistent, fast release once he sets to throw.

I know it's youth but there's something about G-Mac's upper body motion on his throws that looks..... I think the technical term is "hinky".... just something about his shoulder movement that looks unnatural or "bumpy."

I'm not a QB coach but I did have a spicy McMuffin this morning.

 

[WillisWG]

No bad Qs today. Joakim impressive kid...heck all of them are impressive. David 38 lb gain. between 305-308

 

[HooahVol]

The quarterbacks worked on play action rollouts, seemingly out of the pistol, and threw deep out routes. Merklinger especially struggled in this session. But the fact that was a throw Tennessee’s quarterbacks were working on was interesting.

Appalachian State uses the pistol a lot. I wonder if Heup is conforming our offense to fit Joey's strengths versus making Joey fit into a new system?

 

[PlanetVolunteer]

Think what’s most exciting about this one is the tidbit about Joey's ability throw on the run. That’s something that made Hooker excel here. If he can throw dimes on the run in-game…. Look out.

He did at Appy, so glad it's translating thus far.

In that interview He said he was a good baseball player. I feel like that background always helps with those throws in football.

 

[Mr. Tri Star]

Can't wait for the season to start. Love this time of year. GBO

 

[BruiserVol]

Sounds like coach is trying a few wrinkles. I like it.

 

[TheVolsFrog]

Appalachian State uses the pistol a lot. I wonder if Heup is conforming our offense to fit Joey's strengths versus making Joey fit into a new system?

Seems like I heard talk of Pistol during spring practice. I think CJH was already planning to implement it into his system.

 

[HeuperDrive]

Seems like I heard talk of Pistol during spring practice. I think CJH was already planning to implement it into his system.

Yeah, there was a thread on it in fact:

Thoughts on a potentially new offense?

According to reports out of practice today the offense worked out of mostly condensed pistol sets. Oklahomas offense this past year used a variety of different formations and motions and the offense Landry Jones ran under Heupel at Oklahoma was vastly different than what we run now and was...

www.volnation.com

So this has definitely been in the works for a while now. Probably did influence our choice to take Joey, but he himself isn’t why we made the switch.

 

[FranklinVFL]

Going to be a fun year getting back to our fast pace. Can’t wait to see team play. The distractions of Nico and his family I think caused issues in locker room. Happy they don’t have to worry about all of that.

I gotta say, I know this is passes vs. air but hearing about Aguilar's ability to run and pass on the run has me excited as I think that gives us an extra dimension that we did not have with Joe or Nico....If Joe and Nico tucked it, they were running. Appears Aguilar may have that ability to make a quick pass on a scramble or run that could surprise some defenses and hold the back to covering their receiver a second longer to confirm it is a run....that can get us a few extra yards each time....but it does sound like we could have a return of a much faster paced offense.