Jones, Vols visit bus crash victims in Chattanooga

The city of Chattanooga is in the midst of a horrible tragedy as five students from Woodmore Elementary School died Monday in a school bus crash on their way home from school.

On Wednesday, Butch Jones, along with Alvin Kamara, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Derek Barnett, all left Knoxville early to fly to the Scenic City to be with those children who were still at Erlanger Hospital after being injured in the crash.

“You sit here and you hear about it and you feel kind of helpless and (you ask) what can you do to help? Is there anything you can do about it?” Jones said Wednesday afternoon after returning from the trip. “It was something that we just thought of and we ran it by some players and they said, ‘Coach, I’d love to go.’”

Jones said one girl in particular struck the group as being hopeful despite the tough situation.

“You walk into a room and a little girl can’t talk but she sees you and her eyes light up and she’s in a cast and she’s giving you a thumbs up.That’s something that I’ll remember and our players will for a lifetime,” Jones said. “When we got in the car to drive back to the airport it was silent. I think it was something that they will take with them for a very, very long time.”

Tennessee’s head football coach added he hopes to bring the students that survived the bus crash to Knoxville next spring.

“I’m going to look forward to having all of those kids — I want to do something special for them at the halftime of our spring football game,” Jones added.

What would a week of Tennessee football be like without some injury concerns? The fact is, no one really remembers anymore.

Two big concerns this week are the status of Todd Kelly Jr. and Latroy Lewis.

Kelly Jr. hasn’t played since being injured against Kentucky. Lewis left the field early against Missouri, both are battling ankle injuries.

On Wednesday Jones indicated that both were pushing and would have a shot at being available at Vandy, but nothing was certain for either player just yet.

Chance Hall, who hasn’t played since the last two weeks (knee) has been back at practice this week and Jones acted as though he could potentially see action on Saturday.

“Latroy Lewis is going to try and practice a little bit today. He’ll be a game time decision. Todd Kelly Jr. will be a game time decision. He’s going to attempt to practice today. Chance Hall did practice yesterday, that was encouraging and exciting to see. He practiced the whole time,” Jones said of the injury issues.

“With a lot of these individuals we’ll see how the week progresses. We’ll see what their availability is. We’ll try to warm them up in pre-game, see how they can go.”

The secondary will miss Kelly Jr.’s presence if he's sidelined. Simply getting lined up and in position has been an issue on defense of late, that’s something the veteran can help with.

As for Lewis, the Vols can use all the healthy bodies they can get up front these days. Tennessee’s defensive tackle rotation has been decimated by injury and despite being undersized, Lewis has been one of the better performers since sliding inside from end out of necessity.

Jonathan Kongbo gave some hope that the light might be coming on for him at DT with his play last week. He had a tackle for loss from that spot and provided one of the highlights of the day with a 58-yard interception return for a touchdown after perfectly diagnosing a screen play.

“Jonathan has had a very good week of practice,” Jones said of Kongbo and the defensive tackle situation. “Kendall Vickers has had a very good week of practice.

“We’ll continue to do some different things with some different fronts. Some different things that we’ll need to adapt and adjust to our personnel.”

Running back John Kelly showed plenty of glimpses during his first year and a half at Tennessee. Then he got his first real opportunity at Texas A&M and he hasn't stopped running with that chance. He entered the game in College Station with one mindset and that was to keep up with his fellow backs.

"Well once my role expanded in the middle of the year, I was excepted to go out and make sure there was no significant drop off," Kelly said. "I've honestly been trying to provide as much help as I can with the role I've been given. I think I'm exceeded my expectations."

Also helping Kelly, Alvin Kamara and the rest of the ground attack has been the legs of quarterback Josh Dobbs. The senior has went over 100 yards in his last two games and continues to add a dimension that defenses have to account for.

"Dobbs is a really good athlete," Kelly said. "He is just opening up the offense as much as any other person that makes big plays for our offense. Dobbs is a really big focus on a lot of defenses. What he is doing is going to open it up for everybody to make plays."

Junior Josh Malone's 731 yard receiving is more than his first two years at Tennessee combined. Malone's 2016 season is the most productive of any receiver in the Butch Jones era in Knoxville. Averaging 19.2 yards a catch, the mid-state native is living up to the hype. His head coach feels it's a product of his work and that he's still scratching the surface of his talents.

“Josh has worked exceptionally hard. I give him a lot of credit,” Jones said. “He and I spoke about this yesterday. You look at his progression in high school from his freshmen year to his sophomore, junior and senior season and now you look at his progression here. He continues to get better. He's obviously very, very competitive. He has that internal drive to be good in everything he does. It's a tribute to his hard work. I think he has a lot of confidence right now. Like we talked about he will be even better next year. He needs that next year to be able to grow and develop and work his craft. Josh Malone has come as far as anyone in our football program. I think that's a tribute to his character and his work ethic.”