Tennessee Holds First Full-Pad Contact Workouts

RB Kamara Has His Helmet's Black Stripe Removed

  • Saturday, August 8, 2015
  • Special to Chattanoogan.com
photo by Tennessee Athletics

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee held its first full-pads practice of training camp on a sunny, Saturday afternoon at Haslam Field.

As the team continued to focus on their daily approach, coach Butch Jones was pleased with the group's renewed, aggressive attitude and how the players handled heavy installation on both sides of the ball.

"Every day in training camp, obviously, is of the utmost importance," Jones said.

"Everything we talk about is about embracing it, and a lot of times when you go through training camp, you either endure it or you embrace it. It's a long process and I wanted to see how we would come out and compete.

"It was the first day in full pads, a little bit of heat in the afternoon and in the sun, and I thought our players did a very good job. I thought they had a very good, workman-like approach."

While the players finally got their chance to tackle in full pads, Jones and his coordinators put a heavy focus on installation, taking no practice opportunity for granted as they prepare a young Tennessee team.

"We've been extremely aggressive with the installation and for the most part, I think our players are handling it," Jones said. "But we can never compromise on our style of play. So, being able to put the pads on a tackle a little bit today, I liked a lot of the things that I saw. We have to get the most out of each and every day. With a young football team, they have to understand the importance.

"Everything is about how you prepare yourself from a mental standpoint, from a physical standpoint, from the training room to rest and recovery to hydration to paying attention in the meetings and then being able to take that classroom setting and apply it to the field."

Team Focus at Mike LB

The fight to be named Tennessee's starting mike linebacker on opening day has been billed as one of the most wide open positional battles of the fall for the Volunteers, with both junior Kenny Bynum and redshirt freshman Dillon Bates in the mix for the first-team spot.

"I definitely think everyone is improving and there's great competition at mike linebacker," said Bynum. "I'm going to do everything I can to try to hold down this first team spot. But it's definitely a great competition."

Bates echoed the assessment, stating, "There are a lot of guys that are competing for that spot. It's every day. You can't miss any reps ... we all rotate and we get about equal reps, so it's still a pretty open competition."

But while the struggle up the depth chart remains intense, the focus remains on the development of the unit as a whole, as per Jones’ “power of the position” mantra.

"I'm not going to hold anything back from teaching [the younger guys] just because I might lose my spot," Bynum said. "It's for the betterment of the team ... it's not like we're being selfish with what we know."

"It's not really `I'm going to do my best to not help anybody else.' We're all helping each other to get better as a position ... We've got to be all one unit and be able to help each other so that we're interchangeable."

Wide Receivers Happy To Start 2015 Healthy

After battling through injuries in 2014, wide receivers Marquez North and Josh Smith head into this year healthy and focused on working their way back into playing shape.

"The training room did well getting me back," North said. "I don't have any problems actually with my shoulder. We're all just getting back to football conditioning."

North said that he has put nagging injuries to his shoulder and feet are behind him and he is ready for a new season. He credits the UT sports medicine staff for not pushing him to come back until he was ready.

Smith suffered a high right ankle injury in 2014 that limited him to just three games. Like North, Smith spent the summer recovering and is mainly focused on conditioning in camp.

"Just coming out here and running feels good," Smith said. "No pain. All that I'm worried about is pain, so I'm good. My conditioning level, that's all I want back."

Kamara Becomes First To Have Black Stripe Removed

On Wednesday, redshirt sophomore running back Alvin Kamara became the first new Vol of the 2015 camp to have the black stripe on his helmet removed.

The black stripes on the helmets of newcomers are removed once the new players have earned the respect of their peers and fully embraced the Tennessee Football way of life. It is a tradition that Jones started at Rocky Top in 2013.

Kamara previously redshirted his 2013 freshman season at Alabama before running for 1,211 yards and 18 touchdowns last year at Hutchinson Community College. He enrolled at Tennessee in the spring and participated in spring practice and the spring game.

Pearson Returns to Practice

Wide receiver Von Pearson was back at practice on Saturday afternoon and, according to teammates, showed few signs of rust at his fall camp debut.

"He looked really good to me," said junior wideout Marquez North. "Really athletic, typical Von."

"Von's the old Von," added Josh Smith. "I love him. He's my brother and I love having him out there ... I think that's fun to have him back, so I'm excited."

Jones offered a similar assessment of the returning receiver saying, "to his credit, he's in very good shape. You could tell, just with the football endurance, that he's worked at it ... We'll know a little bit more when he's able to get the pads on, but of what I could see with the work he got in today, I was pleased with his endurance."

But beyond the physical nature of Pearson's work on Saturday, Jones was even more impressed with the senior's mental acuity.

"That's what I was waiting to see, was his recall, and it was very, very good," Jones said. "Von did a very good job of taking the mental reps that he needed, but also our players, talking with him, with the new things, the new install. I thought Von's recall and retention from the spring was very good."

McKenzie and Tuttle Continue to Impress

"They are huge," defensive tackle Danny O'Brien said with a chuckle when describing two of Tennessee's much anticipated freshmen duo:Kahlil McKenzie and Shy Tuttle.

"No, they are huge, but they want to learn," O'Brien continued. "That is the biggest thing. Shy sits next to me in the meeting room, and he is always asking me questions like `Why this or why that?' That is really impressive. Kahlil is a freak. It's great to have a guy like that in our program. He is going to eat up double teams. He is going to make plays, and he will be a great player for the University of Tennessee."

O'Brien, a redshirt junior this year, has gladly welcomed the pair of 300-pound defensive tackles to the program, seeing the positives of adding size and strength to the position, while also benefiting from them personally.

"It's great," O'Brien said. "That is how you build championship programs, and that is why Coach Jones recruits those big-time guys. It helps me as a leader because I can't slack off or show weakness. They are looking at me, so it makes me a lot better player. I know that I have them on my heels. We are going to compete all of the time just like we compete with the offense."

Despite the high ratings of the freshmen, Jones continues to remind everyone that McKenzie and Tuttle are still going through their first fall camp at the collegiate level.

"As we know, it is a line of scrimmage league," Jones said when asked about newly added depth at defensive tackle. "We have some youngsters that are very, very talented, but they are learning to play at a higher level of collegiate football. We have to be very cautious that we don't place too many expectations on 17 and 18-year-old kids, being in a college program for the first time, being in the Southeastern Conference."

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

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