Alexis Johnson available to play in Vols' opener

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 4/25/15. The University of Tennessee's Pig Howard (2) gets taken down by defensive players Shy Tuttle (2) and Chris Weatherd (42) during the Dish Orange & White Game in Knoxville on Saturday, April 25, 2015. Final score was Orange 54, White 44.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 4/25/15. The University of Tennessee's Pig Howard (2) gets taken down by defensive players Shy Tuttle (2) and Chris Weatherd (42) during the Dish Orange & White Game in Knoxville on Saturday, April 25, 2015. Final score was Orange 54, White 44.

KNOXVILLE - Just two weeks after he was reinstated from a six-month suspension, Tennessee defensive tackle Alexis Johnson could play in the Volunteers' season opener Thursday night.

If he does play, though, it sounds like it will be in very limited fashion.

Coach Butch Jones on Monday said Johnson, along with defensive tackle Shy Tuttle (leg) and wide receiver Jauan Jennings (knee), would be available to play in the opener against Appalachian State.

"He has to go earn his way into our football program," Jones said of Johnson. "He continues to be work in progress, still taking it one day at a time. He still has a little bit more work to do to be completely game-ready, but I've liked his attitude and I've liked everything that we've seen so far from him."

Johnson, a 6-foot-4, 295-pound junior college transfer, was away from the team during his suspension stemming from a February incident. He began practicing earlier this month after he was cleared legally and by the university.

He spent some time in practice this week on the scout team but was in a white defensive jersey Sunday.

"Today's a huge day for him, as is every day when you haven't been around that much," defensive line coach Steve Stripling said. "He's big and powerful, and he can be disruptive. That's one of our mottos this yeat, being disruptive up front. He fits that bill."

Johnson at times also has looked like a player coming back from a long layoff from football.

"Absolutely, as would be the case with anybody that has sat out of football that long," Stripling said. "For him, he was a little frustrated the other day in practice and I said, 'How many days have you been out here, like six or eight?' You can't expect miracles."

It's not quite miraculous Tuttle will be available to play in the opener, but it's nonetheless impressive given how rusty he looked when preseason practices began.

"We had a plan and we've been hitting those benchmarks," Stripling said. "It's been very mapped out. Mentally, he wants to play. The toughest part has been putting him in situations and letting him test it and let progress and let him mature on (his leg) and not overdoing it."

The song is over

Every defensive third down at Tennessee's home games the past two years was met with the familiar refrain of "Third Down for What," the altered chorus of a popular rap song designed to fire up the Neyland Stadium crowd.

It's now run its course.

Jones confirmed the Vols will go a different direction with the hype music playlist.

"Every season you're looking to enhance your game-day environment," he said. "If you look in the age of television now, and we all know every single one of our games are on some type or form of national television, you have to work get your fans in the stands and you have to work to get your student body in the stands.

"You have to create that type of environment, but we're going to do some things a little bit different on third down. We'll mix up some different songs. We won't have 'Third Down for What,' but we'll have some different songs to get our crowd energized, and obviously we have the Pride of the Southland Band as well.

"We have to continue to make Neyland Stadium a home-field advantage for us."

Tennessee finished 16th and second nationally in third-down defense the past two seasons.

Tackle talk

Marcus Tatum is listed as the backup to Drew Richmond at left tackle on the program's official depth chart, but Jones indicated the freshman may not quite be ready yet.

In practice this week left guard Jashon Robertson has worked at left tackle, and starting right tackle Brett Kendrick can play there, too, if necessary.

"He's not quite game-ready, but he's getting closer and closer and closer," Jones said of Tatum. "There's a number of individuals that could step up and play that spot. Coleman Thomas is another young man that has great versatility that could also go play tackle, possibly right tackle, to free Brett up.

"We'll have Chance (Hall) back here in a few weeks as well, so we have to make sure we're ready to go in all those contingency plans."

Monitoring Medley

Jones said kicker Aaron Medley had a strong preseason in which he's improved his consistency on field goals of 40-plus yards and the location and distance of his kickoffs.

"He's been very consistent," Jones said.

Medley will be Tennessee's No. 2 punter behind Trevor Daniel, and former Ooltewah High School standout Laszlo Toser is listed as Medley's backup.

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.

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