Kelly reflected on how quickly his time has gone by here and how he feels about heading into his final season on Rocky Top.
“It’s wild how time flies. The veterans told me when I was freshman that when you blink your eye and you snap your finger, you’ll be a senior and it’ll be your last time running through the T. Now I’m looking and realizing how much that meant to them and how much it means to me now.”
For the first time in nine years, Tennessee has posted back-to-back nine-win seasons. The Vols are one of just three SEC schools to win nine or more games in each of the past two seasons. Kelly talked about the sense of pride that gives him, especially being a Knoxville native.
“When you’re a Volunteer, considering the situation that you’re in representing your state, playing in Knoxville, it’s a pleasure and I take the opportunity and I run with it. With that being said, having the opportunity to win some ballgames here and seeing this program progress, it speaks volumes to this program and what we’re trying to do which is win ballgames.”
Kelly was just recently named to the watch list for the Wuerffel Trophy, which is known as “College Football’s Premier Award for Community Service.” He talked about the joy he takes in helping out his community.
“It is [rewarding]. Most of the guys that I’ve seen on that list, we do it not to be on that list but just to do it for the cause and give back to the community because I know how many kids want to be on this platform. I was a kid and was enabled to make it this far, and I just want to give back to my community, especially being from here. Whether it is an elementary school or tutoring middle schoolers, whatever it may be. Just whatever I can do to help that’s what I’m going to do.”
Safety is shaping up to be one of Tennessee’s deepest positions this season. Kelly talked about the depth and completion at the position how he thinks things will play out during training camp.
“We have a lot of safeties that can play in the ballgame and be in there when their name is called. That takes pressure off of us and also makes us compete. This training camp is going to be all about competing to get one another better, and at the end of the day, whoever is on the field we are going to support each other.”
Depth at tight end should be a strength for the offense this season, especially considering position coach Larry Scott will also be serving as offensive coordinator. Wolf believes the depth at the position will give the Vols chances to create mismatches on offense.
“We’re pretty deep right now. Last year we had a bit of injury throughout the position, but now we have two new guys in that are doing very well. They haven’t had much time to learn the offense, and we’ve put in a lot of time with them making sure that when they go out on the field, they’re at least going to know what they’re doing. Eli (Wolf), Jakob (Johnson), and Austin (Pope), all those guys are working their butts off every day. And to be able to put another guy on the field, it creates mismatches, it allows us to be able to go from a run set to a pass set, and that’s what everybody looks for in a 12-personnel set and what everybody wants to do, you just have to have the guys to do it and I think we do.”
The offensive line returns players that accounted for 55 starts a season ago and Wolf believes the o-line will be a major strength for the team this year.
“I think we’re going in the right direction. We’ve got some new guys that are coming in and creating competition, and there’s competition every day. You’re always trying to out-do somebody, whether it’s friendly competition or not, which 99 percent of it is. We’re taking steps forward in the weight room and in the meeting rooms, and now we’re going to start on the field and I think that we’re going to have depth and we’re going to be a strong offensive line this year.”
Chemistry and leadership is vital for any offense to succeed. Wolf believes that this summer’s 7-on-7 practices have helped the team is both of those areas.
“Timing is the biggest thing. The coaches aren’t allowed to be out there, so it’s put on us, we have to go out there and develop a 7-on-7 and all that stuff just to get the timing down. And another thing it builds is leadership. You can’t do it without leaders because everything would go in all different directions, you have to have everyone on the same page, everybody running the same plays. We’re not going out there to just throw the ball. We obviously want to go out there and succeed and improve our timing and I think it’s going to pay off.”
-UT Athletics
