COMMENTARY: Vols have some critical areas to watch in preseason camp
· Yahoo Sports
There are burning questions that will have to be answered over the next four weeks of the Tennessee football team’s preseason camp that will start Wednesday.
For now, I’ve gotta give the benefit of the doubt to Josh Heupel. In his sixth season as the Vols head coach, he has yet to mishandle any significant situation. He’s been around long enough to keep from heading into a season opener without everything — at least, the big things — in place.
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Here are some areas to watch as the action starts heating up, heading into the start of the season at home against Furman Sept. 5.
THE QUARTERBACKSThis is the area that will get all the attention from the average fans,
I was convinced that Heupel was going to pull off a Joey Aguilar and sign a grad-transfer quarterback at the end of spring practice. He could have gone that direction because getting a grad transfer would have allowed for the transfer portal to be circumvented. Grad transfers can leave at any time.
That told me that Heupel, a pretty good judge of quarterbacks, was pleased with what he saw in Faizon Brandon and George MacIntyre. They don’t have to be great. They have to be good enough to facilitate the offense.
My primary concern is that the 6-foot-6, 208-pound MacIntyre is too thin to take the punishment SEC defenses dish out. Food allergies restrict him from gaining a lot of weight.
Brandon, on the other hand, is more solid (6-4, 225) and athletic. His concern is that, as a true freshman, how will he handle the transition?
My bet: Brandon wins the job and does pretty well.
THE RUNNING BACKSWith DeSean Bishop as RB1, why would there be a concern?
Well, because there’s no clear-cut RB2.
Last year, Peyton Lewis was a solid backup, then Star Thomas, a Duke transfer, came on to play a significant role.
That quality backup doesn’t exist this season — yet.
Daune Morris is as close to someone who could fill that role as there is. Javin Gordon is a junior transfer from Tulane while Justin Baker and Hunter Barnes hope to add depth.
It took Bishop, who watched Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson ahead of him, a couple years to learn to run like a power back. The time has come for Morris to take that step.
My bet: Morris earns the No. 2 job while Gordon makes some contributions.
THE DEFENSIVE LINEOne interesting quirk of the offseason has been that Tennessee’s defensive linemen, as a group, have lost at least a few pounds each.
They’re coming into the season a bit leaner, and hopefully meaner. That could mean speed is the foundation of the new scheme.
The interior of the line is solid with Xavier Gilliam and Daevin Hobbs.
The edge position is the one that’s in flux. Chaz Coleman was supposed to be the big money, high profile guy there. However, the Penn State transfer was away from the team most of last spring and all of the summer before leaving the team for medical reasons.
That leaves Tulane transfer Jordan Norman and youngsters Tyree Weathersby and Mariyon Dye to anchor the ends.
My bet: This is a chance for coordinator Jim Knowles to be creative. The linebacker position is loaded. Will he move a linebacker to end?
THE SECONDARYLast year’s stud corner Colton Hood was the 37th pick in the NFL Draft. Jermod McCoy, who was a first-round talent two years ago but had an injury force him to miss all of last year, was the 101st player chosen.
Replacing that sort of quality along with some other defections will be the challenge this year.
Ty Redmond had some growing pains as a freshman at corner last year, but he should be better. Kayin Lee transferred from Auburn and safety TJ Metcalf came from Michigan.
That’s a pretty good place to start.
Portal additions Quay Moss (Kansas State) and Dewan Lane (Penn State) along with youngsters Dylan Lewis, Tre Poteat and Tim Merritt give coaches Anthony Poindexter and Michael Hunter, Jr., something with which to work.
My bet: After a few weeks, the secondary will be solid.