Why Tennessee’s offensive skill players aren’t sweating position battles
Last week running backs coach Jerry Mack, when asked about Tennessee’s player rotation in the backfield, said he would “have to be crazy” to take out a running back that is in rhythm in the game.
“So it really just depends on the flow of the game,” Mack said at the time. “One thing about running backs, if the guy has a hot hand, you want keep him in.”
That hot hand could belong to junior Jaylen Wright, who has drawn rave reviews during fall camp. It could be senior Jabari Small, the veteran among the running backs and the who has spent the offseason showing his younger teammates how to be a pro. It could be sophomore Dylan Sampson after his head-turning freshman season.
“I do foresee,” Mack said, “that we’re gonna need all those guys as the season progresses.”
Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle agreed during his press conference following Thursday morning’s practice. With the season-opener against Virginia (Sept. 2, Noon ET, ABC) a week away, the Vols feel good about their options on the ground.
“All three of those guys and the true freshmen (Cameron Selden, Khalifa Keith) we got are all playing on a really high level,” Halzle said. “Our job is to find creative ways to give them the ball and utilize their skillset.
“(The) hot hand, sometimes a guy gets rolling and you don’t take that guy out of the ball game, but the way we play with tempo and the amount of snaps we’re gonna get, man, just because you’re not the first guy on the field doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t end up getting the most carries that day.”
Wright and Small were the workhorses last season. Wright had 146 carries for 875 yards and 10 touchdowns. Small went for 734 yards and 13 touchdowns on 157 attempts. Sampson made the most of his carries, finishing with 397 yards and six touchdowns on 58 rushes.
It will be a similar balance this season.
“It’s just rolling guys through,” Halzle said, “making sure everyone stays fresh and that we always have a guy on the field that’s capable of ready to go in that moment and not gassed out.”
It’s that way at running back. And wide receiver. And even tight end.
There aren’t any Tennessee skill players on offense sweating a position battle, either. All the Vols know they’ll get their chance and will put up their own numbers.
At wide receiver, Jalin Hyatt and Cedric Tillman are off to the NFL after being breakout stars the last two season.
Hyatt had 1,267 yards and set a Tennessee single-season record with 15 touchdowns, becoming the first wide receiver in program history to win the Belitnikoff Award and the first to be a consensus First Team All-American.
Tillman had 1,081 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2021, becoming the first Tennessee receiver to go over 1,000 yards in a single season since Justin Hunter in 2012.
Now it’s up to Bru McCoy, Ramel Keyton, Squirrel White and Oregon transfer Dont’e Thornton to carry the load.
Asked on Friday about the dynamic between Thornton and White during preseason practice, with both players battling for reps in the slot, Halzle said they’re pulling in the same direction.
“We have guys that actually support each other and very similar again to the running back question,” he said. “Like the way we play, there’s not a shortage of snaps to go around. There’s not a shortage of opportunities to catch balls.”
“We don’t really get a lot of that backbiting in the locker room,” Halzle added. “It’s a very amicable workspace for everybody and you go get yours, come off the field, I’ll go get mine. That’s kind of the mindset for a lot of our skill guys.”
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