Tennessee football's first spring practice of the 2025 preseason is in the books.
Afterward, Vols head coach Josh Heupel met with the media.
Here's what he said about what transpired inside Neyland Stadium.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Opening statement
Good night of work, first scrimmage of the spring. All in all, I thought the operation, just coaches and players, both sides of the ball, really good. Some things pre-snap that we’ve got to clean up on both sides of the ball, but other than that, a pretty clean night. Really good special teams work at the beginning of the scrimmage and in the middle, as well. Good night of work.
On if there were explosive plays from the offense
I saw some big plays down the football field tonight. Young wide receivers I thought did a good job in their first opportunity in a scrimmage environment. Went and made plays. So, I like what I saw on that tonight, but in early part of spring, too.
On freshman WR Travis Smith Jr.
He, like our freshman class, the mid-year guys in January, just really mature. He’s handled himself extremely well. Accountable in his competitive makeup, how he approaches every single day. Did a great job in the offseason, continuing to grow his body. And then for a young player has handled what we’ve installed already in the early part, which is a lot. He’s handled it extremely well. And so when you understand what you’re doing, now you can attack how I need to play from snap to the whistle and he’s got great size, great length, competitive to the catch and you saw that tonight.
On Smith, Radarious Jackson needing to be ready this year
That’s just the landscape of college football. As your roster turns over, your young guys have got to be ready to learn it, earn it and go take a job. And once they prove that our job is to put them in a place where they can go have success. Those young guys have approached it the right way. We’re a long way away from where we need to be, but if they continue to chop wood every single day, you've got a chance.
On how Nico Iamaleava is different now compared to the end of last season
Command and control, complete understanding. Some of that’s with checks. It’s controlling your protections, understanding routes and then in the scope of that, being able to put him in different positions because you’ve got that trust in him. But this is a time of growth for him and for everybody that we have on our roster.
On running backs, DeSean Bishop
I thought DeSean and Peyton (Lewis) did a really nice job today in the run game, but also in pass protection. I thought the young guys that are new to our football team went out and executed extremely well. Popped some runs. But I liked the way that they finished them getting pad under pad and going plus-two.
On how the offensive line, new pieces did
At this point, don’t have just a first five. We’re playing guys in multiple positions, seeing their ability to handle it, but also seeing the growth and execution within that. There’s great competition every single day and we’re going to keep that going here as we go through spring.
On the tight end room without Miles Kitselman
Miles is a great leader. He’s handled himself that way even since he’s been injured and we need that from him. He’s got a lot of experience. His maturity and he’s got great leadership traits. The other guys at that position are getting a ton of work. They were doing that before Miles. We kind of had him in a limited role. When I say that, just because of the amount of football that that he’s played. It’s gonna be important that all of those young guys continue to come along. Ethan (Davis) has done a really nice job. He’s continued to grow. I think I said that a couple days with you guys outside of the game and that’s parlayed itself into to how he is playing play-in, play-out, day-in, day-out with us on the field. The young guys got to continue to take steps forward.
On the center position
Tonight I thought the guys did a really good job. There weren’t a bunch of issues as far as communication. We worked silent count tonight, had crowd noise. I thought they handled it all-in-all really well. There’s a lot of young guys that are extremely talented. We just got to continue to grow within the scope of what we’re doing. Thought they performed well tonight. They’ve done that the first five, six days, but we still got a lot of growth left.
On how receivers Mike Matthews, Braylon Staley did
Those guys have been really mature in the way that they’ve approached everything that we’re doing inside of our program. Just year one to year two, we’ve talked about that with quarterbacks in the past, but it’s true for everybody. They got a great understanding. They understand how to take care of their bodies. They’ve competed extremely hard every day in practice, consistent in what we’re getting from them. Those are two young guys that have maturity, that are gonna have to take a leadership role inside of that wide receiver room, as well. Not just in how they play, but bringing that entire group along.
On what he wants the team to take into the rest of spring
Tonight, you know, the first thing is coaches are off the field. You've got to take ownership of it. First thing is learning how hard you have to play from snap to whistle and then being able to reset from play to play. As we go watch the tape tonight as a staff and then tomorrow with our guys, there’s gonna be a lot of things that we’re gonna have to get better at. Just playing smart football within the scope of our schemes. I wanted to see that tonight from the sidelines. I liked what I saw, but we’ll see a lot more as we watch the tape.
On where the defensive line is at
The guys that have played a lot of football have continued to grow as players. Some young guys got some reps last year, but maybe weren’t getting the bulk of them. They’re gonna have to step up. I like the length and athleticism of that group. We've got young guys that are gonna have to continue to really grow here through spring ball. Some guys that aren’t practicing right now, when we get to training camp, it can’t be day one for them. They've got to do a great job being a pro and growing within the scope of what we’re doing schematically.
On what he liked about the team's defense
I thought all in all, they played extremely hard, ran to the football. They were physical at the point of contact, had some guys that made competitive plays and that’s a starting point.
On what he liked from quarterbaks Jake Merklinger, George MacIntyre
I thought both of them handled the mechanics of just the operations pretty well throughout the course of the game. There’s some things that they gotta get better at, too. You know, making sure all 11 are on the same page and we’re operating the right way. But for night one inside of a scrimmage atmosphere, doing it on a silent count, crowd noise, they handled themselves pretty well.
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