KNOXVILLE – Zach Azzanni and Tennessee’s wide receivers thought the injury-riddled season was behind them.
Then 2015 happened.
This year has provided a bit of déj vu for the wideouts and their position coach as the Volunteers have dealt with a string of injuries that have sapped the depth of a position group that entered the season hopeful it could count on 10 players.
Instead, Tennessee has operated with five or six healthy wide receivers for the past few weeks.
“Physically, I think it’s certainly tougher on them, and mentally on me,” Azzanni said after Tuesday’s practice. “They’ve done a great job. We’ve got to be smart in how we practice them. We have to adapt as coaches. We can’t go out there and do the same thing every week. We have five guys, it’s what it is, and a couple of those guys are dinged up.
“They’ve been warriors, absolute warriors, and the last two games guys are out there banged up and beat up and you wouldn’t know it by how they’re playing. I’m proud of them, and guess what, we’ve got five more weeks. No one’s feeling sorry for us. No one cares. We’ve got to find a way to go complete passes.”
Despite the injuries, Tennessee’s receivers registered their two best games of the season against Georgia and Alabama.
In the win against the Bulldogs, wide receivers had 12 catches for 179 yards; the unit turned eight receptions into 122 yards at Alabama last week. Those performances were a far cry from the two-catch, 7-yard performance they had at Florida last month.
“We were frustrated,” said Josh Malone, who leads Tennessee’s receivers with 19 catches for 212 yards this season. “We’re all competitors. We all want the ball. It was frustrating, but we want to do anything we can to get a win, and if that’s blocking, we’re fine with that.
“They said just be patient, and that we were going to get our time soon and keep working. That’s what we’ve been doing. We just keep working, keep grinding and just focusing on getting better.”
Tennessee’s passing game has managed to perform better recently despite the rash of injuries that have had players bouncing in and out of the lineup.
Jason Croom, who caught 21 passes for 305 yards and four touchdowns in 2014, hasn’t played this season after having to undergo surgery right before the season on the knee he injured in bowl practice last December. Freshman Vincent Perry had a promising preseason, but he also hasn’t played after hurting his knee.
Pig Howard, the team’s leading receiver the past two seasons, was suspended for the opener and dismissed a few weeks later after playing in just two games. Marquez North took a big hit in the second quarter at Florida and missed two games. Johnathon Johnson essentially missed four games with a hamstring injury. Freshman Preston Williams hurt his hamstring on Oct. 20, missed the Alabama game and appears doubtful to play at Kentucky on Saturday night.
That has left Malone, Josh Smith, Von Pearson and freshman Jauan Jennings to carry the majority of the workload in the smaller rotation.
Malone called the situation “a mixed blessing.”
“It’s a time to focus,” Malone said. “We know that as a unit, because our offense is high-paced, that we like to use a lot of wide receivers, but as a group we’ve just been working on getting our conditioning level up and just focusing on the task at hand and just grinding it out.”
The Vols have five completions of 20-plus yards to wide receivers in the past two games after having just seven in the season’s first five games – and three of those were by Williams against Western Carolina.
Smith has a catch of 20 or more yards in four games this season and has scored a touchdown in the past two.
“I feel like we’re really coming together,” quarterback Josh Dobbs said. “We had big gains and big passes in both of the last couple of games, and as I’ve said all season, it’s a constant work in progress and constant improvement. We’re continuing to improve each day.
“All of the guys have really elevated their play. I have confidence in all my receivers. They continue to improve, and it’s great to see that out of that group entirely.”
Bouncing back from the early-season rough patch impressed Azzanni.
“I’ve loved their mentality,” he said. “I thought Georgia and this (Alabama) game, that’s what I’ve been most proud of, is how they’ve approached it. Again, receivers want the ball. You want receivers who want the ball. Of course they do.
“That’s how they are by nature, but the past two games the ball’s come their way, they’ve made some plays and that makes coming to work for them a little bit more fun, when they’re productive.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.