War Room: Camp notes, recruiting nuggets, hoops

We begin this edition of the War Room as we always do. The War Room is a collective effort of Tennessee notes and news gathered throughout the week by the Volquest staff that is located only on the General’s Quarters. And now, it’s on with the news.

The biggest news on the football front is the status of senior center Cooper Mays. Mays is out for a period of time due to a procedure he underwent on Thursday. As a result, Ollie Lane has repped this week at center and was at center on Thursday in the first major scrimmage. 

Lane is back as a COVID senior. At one point middle to late last season it appeared that Lane was going to move on, but he decided to return for one more year with his teammates and the opportunity to play more with the opening at left guard. Now Lane finds himself possibly being the engineer of the tempo of the offense at center, at least for the time being. 

It’s going to be interesting to see how the center and left guard positions are going to settle in over the next few weeks and it’s safe to say that Tennessee can’t afford any more injuries on the offensive front. 

We mentioned after the scrimmage that Joe Milton was without his full compliment of targets. Bru McCoy, Donte Thornton, Squirrel White and Ramel Keyton all sat out on Thursday. Bru and Squirrel have been banged up and we believe the other two were cautionary with a potential slick track due to the overnight rain. The same can be said for Jacob Warren at the tight end position.

Elsewhere, Jaylen Wright has had a really good start to camp. Remember, Wright missed all of camp last year with a hamstring injury and that slowed his start to the season. Wright is healthy and we are told he has been the most effective back to this point. Wright’s also been more vocal showing some leadership as well. 

As far as the young guys, Khalifa Keith has impressed with his physicality and his fundamentals. Keith has miles to go to learn the offense, but for a freshman he’s pretty sound as a pass protector with his technique, which is something you don’t see very often with incoming freshman backs. 

Josh Heupel made it clear he likes where this team is at running back wise.

“I thought as the scrimmage went on, the running back group did a really nice job,” head coach Josh Heupel said. “Jaylen Wright had some really nice runs reading what’s happening up with up front with our blocking schemes, doing a great job of pressing. Nice big run. I thought Jabari played really well. It was important for him to get some live work too, (after) missing the spring. Dylan Sampson did a great job on run game, pass game too. The young guys inside of our program, all three young guys, have been really promising and (I’m) excited about that group.  Coach Mac has done a great job with it.” 

It’s clear Rodney Garner likes his young defensive linemen. Now, it’s important to note that doesn’t mean any of them are going to have huge early impacts. They might, but that’s not why Garner is happy. He’s happy with the mental make up of those guys. Their toughness and competitiveness as well as their talent. Now it’s all about development with them, but there’s no question he likes their baseline or starting point as defensive linemen at this level.  

In the secondary, Brandon Turnage has had a good start to camp. He’s kind of a forgotten guy because he hasn’t been able to stay healthy, but if he can then he’s a nice piece who could be in the rotation. It feels like they are pretty settled at corner for now with Kamal Hadden and Doneiko Slaughter as the starters. The young corners have not disappointed in their development as they continue to learn and grow in the defense. There are talented bodies at that position. 

The injury to Tamarion McDonald, which has cost him practice time, has given Tim Banks and Willie Martinez time to look at Warren Burrell, Jourdan Thomas and Gabe Jeudy-Lally at the STAR position. When McDonald gets back to work it will be interesting to see if he goes right back to the STAR spot or if they decide to rep him some at safety some to continue build depth and possibilities at that spot. 

As expected the defense won the early start of the scrimmage on Thursday. It didn’t help the offense that they had limited bodies at the receiver position. There’s no concern there but there were no chances being taken either on Thursday morning. 

On the facilities front, the temporary bleachers at Lindsey Nelson Stadium have been removed down the left field line. Look for them to be used at another facility, maybe softball, where Danny White has said they need to improve things. 

Look for ground to be broken on things at LNS in early September and the work will begin on the left field side of things. 

Work at Neyland Stadium is slowing down as it’s clean up time to get ready for the home opener against Austin-Peay. The portals into the lower bowl on the south end have been bricked and they are stopping there for now. Drilling is continuing for wi-fi as they try to get as much done as they can this season. 

They are pulling miles of cable as electricians are continuing to bore holes. Crews are working four 10-hour days and three 8-hour days as they work seven days a week. It’s unknown how much they will get done before game one, but they will continue to work throughout the fall on the lower bowl. The cabling is well on its way on both the east and west sides. The end zones are more of a challenge from an installation standpoint. 

Recruiting

Things are a bit slow in recruiting at the moment mostly because kids are focused on their own seasons and so are college coaches. There have been some August commitments and one of Tennessee’s biggest targets is set to announce next Monday.

Missouri defensive lineman Williams Nwaneri will decide from his top five. Missouri has a ton of buzz because of the NIL law that would allow him to get paid this fall as long as he chooses an instate school. They are by far and away the most risky pick of the five, but they offer something the others don’t at the moment and that’s the ability to get paid now. 

Tennessee has been on the phone with him routinely this week and so we believe each school is continuing to push heading into the weekend. But it certainly feels like Missouri is the likely destination.

Much like NWaneri, Ryan Wingo could benefit from the change in law at Missouri. He got a prediction there last week but some people we have spoken to feels like Texas and Tennessee continue to have the most pull here. If he isn’t deciding until late the Tigers “pay them before they get here” approach definitely loses its advantage with Wingo able to make money when he arrives on any campus in January.

The Vols continue to be in a great spot for Danny Okoye as he gets ready to officially visit next month. Oklahoma, Texas and others have all be working him but his relationships in Knoxville seem to be very strong. He is in constant dialogue with the staff as he prepares for his senior season.

We first dropped in the Monday night chat the news that offensive tackle Jordan Seaton had reached out to Tennessee and other schools of late. The DC native, who plays for IMG, will be in Nashville next weekend to play Lipscomb and Tennessee is hoping to get him to town for an official visit for the UTSA game with IMG on a bye that week.

Two weeks before Seaton comes to Knoxville, Tennessee hopes to host Chris Cole on an official. The Salem, Va. product will go to USC the first weekend in September and as of now is planning to be in Knoxville the following weekend. If that schedule holds that would give Tennessee the last visit before he announces his commitment on Sept. 10.

Jordan Ross is one we continue to watch. He has teased an announcement, but nothing has come to fruition yet. Tennessee continues to hold a good position in this one, but the longer it goes, the more unpredictable it gets, especially with EDGE boards across the country resetting as other prospects continue to make their decisions. 

Georgia ATH Kam Mikell continues to have strong dialogue with Tennessee, as we reported last week. Colorado is working to become more of a player here, and the Buffs are also recruiting him as a receiver, which is clearly his preference at this point. He is having ongoing conversations with both staffs about official visits. He was originally scheduled to be in Knoxville in November for the Georgia game, but we would not rule out that visit happening the weekend of South Carolina.  

Roger Saleapaga released his top schools on his birthday to close out July. After checking into this one more throughout this week, the two teams that continue to be most consistently mentioned are Tennessee and Auburn. Alabama and several others are working hard to be more in the picture, but Saleapaga’s established relationships with the Vols and Tigers have both those programs deep in this recruitment. 

Recruiting analyst Aaron Amaama and first-year tight ends coach Alec Abeln continue to make a strong impression on the four-star prospect. While there is a long way to go here, Tennessee has positioned itself well heading into the fall with an official visit still left to use later in the process. 

Finally, the Vols continue to hear from Kameryn Fountain and we still believe there is a good possibility he will visit here this fall for a game.

Hoops

Tennessee is freshly back from a 10 day swing through Italy where the Vols played three exhibition games, two against the Lithuanian U-21 national team and one game against Stella Azzurra, a lower level Italian professional team. 

No one around the program is drawing any long term conclusions about any players based off the European trip but in talking to a few people this week there were some positive vibes coming off the trip, as you’d expect.

The biggest benefit from such an excursion is simply the team bonding and the resulting chemistry that can come from spending so much time together so far away from home. 

As far as one the floor the staff understandably wanted to get a look at some of the newcomers against outside competition. Not that the competition the Vols’ faced in Italy was top-notch, but the staff welcomed the opportunity to see the guys playing in a different environment against different players and different styles than what they see in practice. 

Again, nothing is written in stone as far as player evaluations or what the rotation will look like after that trip, but nevertheless there were some guys who made a strong impression. 

Not surprisingly the trip was described as ‘a good one’ to us for Dalton Knecht, who led Tennessee in scoring in all three games. Jordan Gainey also showed up as more than just a shooter. We’re told that the staff was pleased from what they saw from J.P. Estrella as well.

It was also mentioned to us that it was a good trip for DJ Jefferson simply from the standpoint that he hasn’t had any game reps outside of practice since arriving on campus. 

By no means were we told anyone had a ‘bad trip’ those are just a few of the new guys that the staff was happy to get a look at and felt they showed well. 

Someone asked in the chat the other night if the staff would like at Gainey as someone who could help hold down the fort at the point until Zakai Zeigler is fully healthy. After asking around some this week it turns out that’s something that the staff will at least entertain moving forward. 

On the recruiting front we’ve been saying for a few weeks now that it looked like Tennessee was heading into the fall with a 2024 board currently consisting of two players; Bishop Boswell and Chase McCarty. 

Add Las Vegas prospect Pharaoh Compton to the list of Tennessee targets for the fall. The four-star wing is a bouncy athlete that Tennessee has been tracking since last winter. After watching him during July and talking it over the staff decided to offer him. 

The Vols have quickly set up an official visit with Compton who will be in town on Sept. 8. He’ll be joined in town that weekend by Boswell who is scheduled for his own official visit that weekend. 

Boswell is slated to be at Wake Forest the prior weekend and that will be on to watch. Wake has been on him longer than anyone and they’ll be looking to close his recruitment down that weekend. We’re also told that Xavier is a dark horse to keep in mind in that race. 

McCarty will make his official visit to Knoxville on Aug. 25. 

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