Tennessee veteran tailbacks Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small leading the way

Tennessee running backs coach Jerry Mack has the best weapon at his disposal this pre-season and that’s the weapon of competition. 

Mack’s running back room is deeper than it’s been and it has a blend of experience and youth. 

Leading the way for Tennessee are veteran’s Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small. Wright has drawn praise all pre-season from the coaches including head coach Josh Heuepl. 

“His body is dramatically different,” Heupel said. “He was one of the guys that we recognized as we started training camp, just for what he had done in the off season. The changes that he had continued to make to his body, been very intentional in his work. He’s continued to grow and just being able to have a championship mindset, be able to reset from play to play, play with passion, not playing just straight out of emotion. Been great with the young backs. He’s been a great leader, great teacher for those guys.

“He’s into it when he’s not even the guy that’s getting the reps. On the football side of it, he’s a guy that early in his career just wanted to run around everything and just use his speed to his advantage. That’s how he had kind of developed as, as a young back in high school with some of what they did. He can still do all those things, but he’s got really good vision. He understands blockers, he understands how to use them. He delivers double teams to the second level. He finds space. His vision on the back door cuts has grown. He’s doing it at the right time. He’s playing at a really high level.”

Small is returning from off-season shoulder surgery and has been steady throughout fall camp. Small said he has knocked off the rust of missing spring practice and has also been focused on leading.

“I honestly just want to feed into those guys and give them what I have learned so far in my experience in college,” Small said. “I take pride in trying to make sure those guys are in the best position possible when it’s their time.”

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