Vols Back to Work After First Spring Scrimmage

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Back at Haslam Field after the first scrimmage of spring ball, the Tennessee Volunteers competed their ninth practice of the semester on Monday to kick off their third week. 

At the conclusion of practice, second-year wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope, along with offensive lineman Ollie Lane, running back Dylan Sampson and offensive lineman Javontez Spraggins met with members of the media at the Anderson Training Center.

Pope has seen incredible growth and development of his unit thus far in camp. The wide receiver room is one that has built strong players into stars in both years under head coach Josh Heupel. Pope noted that that success isn’t because of a rigid system, but instead finding ways as coaches to put players in a position to succeed.

“I think offensive football is all about molding your players,” Pope said. “You talk about Velus (Jones Jr.). He was a bigger slot. He’s six feet, 210 pounds, built like a running back and the toughest guy in the world. Jalin (Hyatt) ran 10.4 in the 100 meters in high school, has long-strides and a completely different skillset. Cedric (Tillman) is 6-3, 210 pounds and is a 50-50 ball guy. He doesn’t jump like Jalin but has a big catch radius.”

 

All three VFLs found their groove on Rocky Top, each easily surpassing 1,000 career receiving yards while Hyatt and Tillman posted 1,000-yard seasons, displaying how well the staff does catering its offense to the guys on the field.

“As an offensive coach, you have to tailor your system to the skillset of your players,” Pope continued. “I think even more, us being able to be successful with a bunch of different body types and skillsets shows recruits it doesn’t matter what they look like, these guys can put me in a position to win and help (me) get to where (I) want to get to.”

 

That ability to mold and excel is also a feeling that is experienced in the running back room. Though, in that room it is a three-headed monster of guys who can punish defenses in unique ways on the ground.

 

“I believe this is a good thing for our running back room,” Sampson said, speaking on the depth of the tailbacks. “You don’t ever want to be short or limited on running backs. We got a healthy running back room coming into the fall and it’s going to be really dangerous. We all compliment and help each other.”

 

It’s a bit of a different story for the offensive line, who is quickly working to gel with some new faces. It helps that the group…