KNOXVILLE – Quart’e Sapp needed one question answered before his first offseason at Tennessee began.
The reply came quickly.
After starting his career as a linebacker, Sapp briefly spent time last fall practicing at safety before his freshman season was cut short by foot surgery.
With new coordinator Bob Shoop coming in to run Tennessee’s defense, Sapp thought safety might be his future position.
“I asked Coach Shoop the second day he was here, and he cut that out right away,” Sapp said with a smile after Saturday’s Orange & White Game. “He cut that out pretty quick.”
It appears that was the correct move.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pound former four-star recruit from the Atlanta area thrived as the outside linebacker for Tennessee’s second-team defense this spring and finished Saturday’s showcase with a game-best nine tackles.
In seemingly every scrimmage setting, Sapp was around the ball – either making the tackle or assisting a teammate with one – and he was a consistent standout the latter half of spring.
“It’s been fun to watch, just to see him take steps every day,” linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin said Saturday. “He made a lot of plays out there today. I think he might have led the team in tackles, but he’s still got to get better and still got to improve and still got to work on just becoming a linebacker with all the small details.
“Just seeing him grow, he’s got a long way to go, but he definitely made a lot of progress.”
The luxury for the Vols is they probably won’t have to throw Sapp into the heat of a Southeastern Conference game this fall if Reeves-Maybin and Cortez McDowell are healthy.
Sapp immediately carved out a role on special teams as a freshman and made three tackles in four games prior to his injury, and special teams may be his primary contribution as a sophomore. Still, ruling out a defensive role after the spring he had may be premature.
“With about a week and a half left of spring, the game started to slow down for him,” Vols coach Butch Jones said. “He was able to use his speed, his size, his strength. I’ve been very pleased with his development.”
The key to his spring surge, Sapp believes, was simply getting more chances to play.
His workload increased when Reeves-Maybin suffered a spring-ending shoulder injury in the third practice, which allowed Sapp to improve his play recognition and let his instincts and natural talent replace overthinking the game.
“Last year I had trouble dissecting plays,” Sapp said. “I maybe thought a little bit too much and I couldn’t play (freely). Being in the film room, watching film, watching plays repeatedly, seeing them more often and getting more reps helped me a lot.”
Sapp is versatile enough Shoop occasionally put him in Tennessee’s dime package as the defense’s sixth defensive back. He’s rangy and athletic enough to play like a safety, and his abilities really show on plays in open space. Taking on 300-plus-pound offensive linemen in the box, however, is where Sapp’s biggest challenges remain.
Adding weight and strength should help, and Sapp wants to put on five to 10 pounds this summer.
“I’ve dedicated myself this spring,” he said. “That’s one of my goals that I really wanted to do better in. Coming in from high school, I played outside of the box a lot. I didn’t really have any control of playing in the box, but this spring I really prided myself on being a better block disruptor and playing in the box.”
Sapp also flashed the upside that has the Vols excited about his future.
“He has the measurables that you’re looking for in the Will (weakside) linebacker position,” Shoop said last week. “He’s tall, he’s long and he’s athletic. He needs to continue to make strides in the weight room.
“He considered himself more of an athletic linebacker than a tough guy, but he’s improved in his block disruption, he’s improved in his tackling and he’s improved in his blitzing. I think really he’s put himself in the discussion to be a backup this fall and learn from Jalen.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.