VOLS SCHEDULE SATELLITE CAMP IN JACKSON
Head coach Butch Jones announced Wednesday afternoon on Twitter that Tennessee will host another satellite camp next month, and the Vols are being strategic with this one. Tennessee will conduct a camp for high school offensive and defensive lineman June 8 at the University School of Jackson in west Tennessee. The significance in having the camp there is that one of the students at USJ, which includes pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, is Trey Smith, a highly touted offensive tackle and one of Tennessee’s top 2017 recruiting targets. Tennessee already scheduled camps at Tennessee State in Nashville (June 5) and Georgia State in Atlanta (June 13), and the Vols also plan to send assistant coaches to other camps across the country, including one in Texas hosted by Oklahoma State.
BRISTOL, Tenn. - Tennessee figures to have a handful of players land on the numerous preseason watch lists for college football's major awards between now and the start of the season in September.
The first of those selections for the Volunteers came Tuesday, when the spring watch list for the Rimington Award, handed out to the nation's top center, included Coleman Thomas. The junior from Virginia had a bounce-back season in 2015 and is poised to anchor Tennessee's offensive line this year.
Butch Jones believes the recognition is warranted by the improvement Thomas has made in his career.
"Coleman's made great progress and taken tremendous strides," Tennessee's head coach said Tuesday night ahead of the Big Orange Caravan stop at Bristol Motor Speedway. "We expect a big summer out of him. He's really committed himself in the strength and conditioning area in getting stronger.
"He's an individual now who's played a number of snaps for us, has been in a lot of battles, so to speak, and understands what it takes now to prepare at this level. I think it's a testament to his work as he continues to grow and elevate his game."
Thomas started five games at right tackle as a freshman in 2014. After playing center in high school, that position was unfamiliar and it was no surprise he struggled. A midseason ankle injury caused him to miss two games and knocked him out of the starting lineup.
In 2015, however, Thomas started all 13 games in the middle of the line after winning the starting job in the preseason.
It quickly became clear he was more at home at center, where he was able to show his athleticism and mobility when pulling on run plays to the outside. He had some key blocks on big runs for backs Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara, who combined for nearly 2,000 rushing yards, with Hurd's 1,288 total fourth among Southeastern Conference runners and Kamara's 6.52 yards per carry third in the league.
Getting stronger and more fundamentally sound are points of emphasis for Thomas this offseason.
"Here's a young man that came in and starts at right tackle in the SEC (in) a position he had never played before and did a very, very good job," Jones said. "He's very athletic and very, very instinctive, but to ask a true freshman to come in and do that and play a position he had never played before - that's really kind of where we were at that point in our football program. And he handled it remarkably well.
"To be able to move him back to his natural position at center, he's obviously much more comfortable there, but because of the athleticism that he has, he's able to play a number of positions. Center is where he belongs."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.