Tennessee's Darrington Sentimore 'in shape now'

photo Vols defensive lineman Darrington Sentimore participates in a drill during spring practice at Haslam Field.
Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee defensive end Darrington Sentimore insists he's a different player from the one who struggled with conditioning and consistency during spring practice.

After Tuesday afternoon's practice, he thanked a coach and a teammate from his Alabama days now at UT for helping him make that change.

"I'm in shape now," Sentimore said. "I can run down running backs now. I had lacked that [focus] at the beginning because I was out of shape."

The 6-foot-2, 280-pound former Crimson Tide reserve cited UT defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri and Nick Gentry, a former Alabama defensive lineman who's now with the Vols in an administrative-intern role, for aiding his development. Sentimore is battling Steve Fowlkes for a starting spot at end opposite Marlon Walls.

Upon leaving Alabama last summer after two years in that program, he spent a semester at junior college and enrolled at UT in January.

Gentry was Sentimore's Alabama teammate for two seasons (2009-10), played in 24 games his final two seasons and helped win two national titles with the Crimson Tide. His role as an intern is limited, but Sentimore has sought him out for help.

"Coach Sal has been teaching me a lot of great things, and Nick Gentry's been teaching me a lot of things," Sentimore said. "He's been helping me understand and work with the different types of schemes the offense is running. He's giving me little points I need to know with the defense.

"At Alabama he was helping me out a lot. He's just bringing it over here, and he's gotten better at [teaching]. He's showing me whatever I need to do to be successful out on the field."

The Vols are sorting through their options on the defensive line. Coach Derek Dooley said Monday Sentimore had been "very active" early in training camp and noted some "encouraging" signs with the Louisiana native's conditioning and weight. Though UT is deeper up front, it's unproven.

"We're deeper," he said, "but I don't know how good we are."

Class attendance

Receiver Da'Rick Rogers and cornerback Eric Gordon missed Tuesday's practice to attend class. Their afternoon summer courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays forced Dooley to move last Thursday's practice to night at accommodate the academics. Rogers missed a spring practice amid speculation he was transferring, but his absence Tuesday had no such drama.

Tuesday was the final day of summer classes at UT, and Dooley cited Fowlkes, who had his junior season in 2011 mostly wiped out due to academics, as an example of finished the summer strong in the classroom.

"We talked about a lot, when camp started, not going to sleep at the wheel in school," the coach said. "You've got a week left in summer school and it's easy to shut it down, and that's what [Fowlkes] did. He wasn't even a concern for not coming back, and he tanked it, messed up his finals and then all of a sudden, 'What?!'

"We have several guys who've got a lot of work to do to finish it out."

Now fighting for a starting spot, Fowlkes was "the best scout-team guy we had [last year]," Dooley said.

Injury time

Dooley said tight end Mychal Rivera tweaked his knee, and though the coach said the injury is "nothing serious," the senior is expected to miss about a week of work. Freshman linebacker Justin King joined UT's tight-end group Monday. Walk-on defensive lineman Joseph Ayres, a former McCallie School standout, made the same move Tuesday.

"With Rivera out, we're thin at that position, and we've got a lot of D-linemen," Dooley said. "We're looking on the board to see who could help us in those areas. Joe Ayres, I think he can really give us a little value, especially as a bigger, physical guy to help us block."

Freshman tailback Davante Bourque missed his second consecutive day of practice with what Dooley termed a neck injury.

Sutton picks Vols

Cameron Sutton, a three-star athlete from Jonesboro High School in Georgia, watched Tuesday's workout as an unofficial visitor and committed later Tuesday evening. The 6-foot, 170-pound projected cornerback has offers from Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Arkansas, Clemson, Florida, Missouri and Virginia Tech, among others.

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com or 901-581-7288. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/patrickbrowntfp.

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