Tennessee won six straight football games late last season before COVID-19 made an impact on sports, and during the pandemic the Volunteers have produced a recruiting surge over the spring and summer that has yielded a top-10 class for the 2021 cycle.
Vols players insist they won’t be defeated by the coronavirus now, even though 44 players missed last Saturday’s practice, with most of the absences due to either positive tests or contact tracing.
“I would say that the team morale has been high, and I don’t think it’s really hurt what we have going,” fifth-year senior receiver Brandon Johnson said Friday afternoon during a Zoom call. “We kind of knew what we were getting into during this pandemic, and we knew that at certain periods of time there may be people out for X reasons. I just think we were ready for the things that may happen.”
Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt said Thursday that he’s lost count of who’s available and not available as the Vols reach the two-week mark before their Sept. 26 opener at South Carolina, but the players don’t seem fazed. Johnson has not detected any timing trouble in the passing game when components have been missing, adding, “I think we’ve done a great job of filling in where we need to fill in.”
A scratched scrimmage last Saturday and a shortened scrimmage Wednesday night inside Neyland Stadium do not seem to be concerning factors either.