KNOXVILLE – It has become an unofficial weekly tradition at Tennessee football news conferences.
The phrasing changes, and it might be a different reporter asking, but it’s almost guaranteed that either head coach Butch Jones or offensive coordinator Larry Scott will field a question about sophomore wide receiver Tyler Byrd.
“Was there more of an effort to get Tyler Byrd involved last week, and has he responded in some ways you guys wanted to see?”
That was the delivery of the question this week after Byrd caught one pass for 6 yards in Tennessee’s 24-10 win over Southern Mississippi last Saturday.
A single reception by Byrd and at least one more targeting of him by Tennessee’s quarterbacks constituted a noteworthy blip on his production radar this season.
Nine games into his sophomore season, Byrd remains an enigma. He showed promise as a freshman, catching 15 passes for 209 yards and running eight times for 63 yards. Those stats created an assumption outside the program that Byrd’s role would continue increasing, especially on a team that lost playmakers Josh Malone and Alvin Kamara to the NFL draft from last year’s explosive offensive unit.
Instead, the 6-foot speedster has found himself receiving more coaching than passes.
“We have to get Tyler more and involved and want to get Tyler more involved,” Scott said in response to this week’s question about Byrd. “Just like everything else, you want to also teach guys that you’re not just going to be given anything. The whole deal is you’ve got to go out and earn your time. You’ve got to practice well and do things well, and those type of things will come and you’ll get more and more time to play and more opportunities to help the team.”
Whether he practices well or not this week, the Vols (4-5, 0-5 SEC) might need Byrd to play his biggest role of the year Saturday night at Missouri (4-5, 1-4). With sophomore receiver Marquez Callaway questionable because of an apparent leg injury, Byrd is one of a dwindling number of healthy Tennessee receivers.
Redshirt senior Josh Smith remains out with an injury, and freshmen Latrell Williams and Jacquez Jones are out for the year with injuries. That’s on top of a season-ending injury that leading returning receiver Jauan Jennings suffered in the season opener.
Still relatively healthy at receiver are sophomore Brandon Johnson, redshirt senior Jeff George, freshman Josh Palmer, freshman Jordan Murphy and Byrd. Entering the season, Byrd had more career production than the other four combined.
“I think Tyler, just consistency in performance,” Jones said on Oct. 18. “Him and I talk all the time, and it’s being able to do it on a consistent basis on the practice field, and he’s come out this week and has worked very hard. It’s just going through that stage of his career right now, the stage of just the small details, and he’s working very hard to correct some of those.
“We need Tyler Byrd. We need Tyler Byrd to step up and make plays for us. He has played in some meaningful games for us last year, and the one thing that is invaluable is experience, so he’s working very hard.”
Tennessee’s roster has been updated to show that redshirt junior D.J. Henderson has moved from defensive back to receiver. True freshman Princeton Fant appears in line for a redshirt at receiver.
Meanwhile, the ambiguity around Byrd continues.
“He has to continue to show a level of consistency to be able to do that,” Scott said in October when asked about getting Byrd more involved. “Tyler understands that with straightforward conversations with him about where he is and what he needs to do. We need him to. We need him to be able to come do that, but he has to demonstrate that to us.”
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.