By Vince Ferrara

Here are some of my observations and notes from the fourth University of Tennessee spring football practice.

Vince’s View
*We were able to view stretching and the first three periods of practice #4 on Tuesday.

*We didn’t see center Coleman Thomas early in practice. Butch Jones revealed after practice that Thomas had surgery (appendectomy) and will be out an unknown amount of time. He said that could be one week, two weeks or unknown.

*Jashon Robertson was lining up in drills at center early in practice. It is quite possible that Jack Jones and/or Venzell Boulware could have seen reps there later in practice as well.

*Butch Jones restarted period 2 because he thought there were too many balls on the ground. He holds the quarterbacks responsible for the team and getting practice off to a good start. After that “teaching opportunity” the passing game was improved.

*The quarterbacks (Quinten Dormady and Jarrett Guarantano) are very even in terms of accuracy, arm strength, consistency, leadership and technique from when we see them. I’ve heard both have been strong in the film room as well. Butch Jones said they have done well with ball security, but also haven’t been challenged much yet by the defense.

*With Bob Shoop’s defense in year two, I expect to see more blitzing and varied defensive looks. Butch Jones talked about the defense showing the offense some exotic blitzes out of the 3-4 defensive alignment. In order to execute those looks and execute on the fly based on the looks you get, the back two levels of the defense will need to be more interchangeable. We’ve talked about who the second linebacker will be with starter Darrin Kirkland Jr. I think that will be the 2nd best guy, not just an outside linebacker because I believe those two positions will be interchangeable, for the most part. I see the same thing with the two safeties. It will be as much left and right safety as anything else where both will need to come down in the box and cover single-high over the top.

*DBs coach Charlton Warren alluded to the flexibility I mentioned when it comes to the nickel position and the 3rd (Sam) linebacker in the base 4-3. That means a LB will cover the slot at times and a nickel will have to slide back into the 3rd LB position. That means more options and not quite as concrete starting positions as you may imagine. There are plenty of bodies among the linebackers and secondary, and many look good in their uniforms, but many are unproven.

*The DBs worked on the transition from press coverage to finding the ball and high-pointing it in one drill. Many of them looked good with minimal balls on the ground.

*Nigel Warrior has stood out to me early in camp. He goes through all his drills like there’s a huge t-bone steak waiting on him at the end of the drill if he does the rep correctly. He can change direction with explosiveness, has excellent ball skills and plays with confidence. He’s still a little on the slender side, but his speed and tenacity will likely more than overcome the size. Warrior definitely has the body to add muscle and fill-out into a powerful and intimidating safety.

*Mike Canales continues to be an interesting listen at practice. He is an almost non-stop voice of technique, motivation and encouragement. Canales and all the coaches appear to be in sync with Butch Jones that they can’t afford to waste any reps with so many guys either out or limited in practice.

*Trey Smith still looks good at left tackle. We’re a long way away from the opener, but the more we see him look comfortable there, and the more his teammates, including on defense compliment him, the more you could envision him even starting the opener. Drew Richmond hasn’t looked drastically different from last year yet, to me, but the sample size is very small.

Spend some time on our website where we’ll have blogs from Jimmy Hyams, practice reports from Josh Ward, interviews with players and coaches, videos of practice footage. Scroll through our big stories on the main page or click on the Vols tab under “All WNML stories” archived to find all of our posts saved there.