Tennessee’s Marcus Tatum (68) warms up with Darrell Taylor (19). The Ohio University Bobcats visited the University of Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium in a non-conference NCAA football game on Saturday September 17, 2016. KNOXVILLE – When he took his official recruiting visit to Tennessee in January, Marcus Tatum weighed less than 250 pounds and was the very definition of a multi-year offensive line project.
Two Saturdays ago he was playing right tackle for the Volunteers against the No. 1 team in the country.
At minimum Tatum needed a year to live in the weight room and near the buffet line, but injuries to starting tackles Chance Hall and Brett Kendrick in the first quarter against Alabama forced Tennessee’s hand, and off came the redshirt.
It may not be the last time the Vols have to count on the 6-foot-6, 265-pound freshman.
“Everything is building upon the experiences that you have and being better for it, and I think he’ll be better for it,” Tennessee coach Butch Jones said Wednesday. “He takes great pride in his performance. He works very hard. He’s eating around the clock. He’s very, very athletic and very, very talented. I’ve been really proud of him and his maturation process.”
Tatum’s debut was a surprise, though oddly it shouldn’t have been.
He’d been working with Tennessee’s second-team offensive line, and days before the Alabama game guard Jashon Robertson told him to be ready because he was going to play.
“I don’t know why he thought that,” offensive coordinator Mike DeBord quipped. “I wish he would have told me that. I thought that was interesting that he told him ahead of time to get ready mentally because you’re going to be playing. That happened and he stepped up.”
Injuries forced the Vols to insert freshmen Hall and Jack Jones into the starting lineup against Alabama last season, and though all of the injured linemen were back at practice Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s trip to South Carolina, it’s not a lock they all play or finish the game against the Gamecocks.
Tennessee played three quarters against Alabama with four backups and three freshmen up front, and it essentially gave the Vols no chance. DeBord admitted he was “searching” for what he could call and trust his offense to execute with who was in the game. He didn’t find much.
“You practice with those guys and you kind of are on the same page with communication and all the ins and outs of it,” tight end Ethan Wolf said, “but we talk about it all the time: An injury to any position on the team doesn’t change the standard and expectation for that position group. With those guys going down, we still have a high standard that the next player up has to be held accountable too.
“It is nice to have that level of consistency to know that, hey, I’m going to go there and he’s going to be there and so forth. You can’t get reps with everybody, so it’s big to have that consistency, but I trust those guys are going to step up in the future if we happen to have another (injury), that there will be somebody there to take his spot.”
Hall looks to be the most limited on the knee he underwent surgery on in August. Provided Dylan Wiesman is good to go, Tennessee could play Coleman Thomas at right tackle, or flip Kendrick from the left side and insert Drew Richmond at left tackle. Tatum might be a snap or two away from playing in multiple scenarios.
DeBord said the stage of his debut didn’t faze the freshman because of his maturity.
“We have confidence in him,” DeBord said. “We’ve had it all the way through. He’s a great athlete. He’s smart. He’s tough. The thing he lacks right now is experience and size, and when I say size I’m talking about weight basically and strength.
“He’s a guy we may have to continue to use down the road here, too. We had confidence, and he did some good things and he did some things that he looks back at and says, ‘Gosh, I wish I would have done this or that.’ That’s just part of playing, especially when you’re young.”
Tennessee’s plan was not to play Tatum this season. The Vols loved his potential, his long arms and tall frame and his athleticism. It didn’t take him long in preseason practices to show he was ahead of fellow rookies Ryan Johnson and Nathan Niehaus.
His future, though, arrived sooner than expected.
“We knew he was very talented, because with his size he’s very, very athletic, and his length,” Jones said. “Sometimes your length can make you right when you’re wrong in blocking the edge. I showed him a picture of myself and him during the recruiting process, and it’s amazing the development that he’s made in a very short period of time, but that’s because of his commitment level.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.