Baylor’s Daniel Monroe tries to bring down MBA’s Ty Chandler in a game Friday, Oct. 23, 2015 at Baylor.
Nigel Warrior is among the players who could contribute at safety this season for Tennessee.2016 Schedule
9/01/16 vs. Appalachian State 9/10/16 vs. Virginia Tech 9/17/16 vs. Ohio TV 9/24/16 vs. Florida * 10/1/16 at Georgia * 10/8/16 at Texas A&M * 10/15/16 vs. Alabama * 10/29/16 at South Carolina * 11/5/16 vs. Tennessee Tech 11/12/16 vs. Kentucky * 11/19/16 vs. Missouri * 11/26/16 at Vanderbilt * * Southeastern Conference game
KNOXVILLE – Between practices in the morning and evening on Monday, Tennessee picked up a commitment from one of its top 2017 recruiting targets.
Running back Ty Chandler, out of Nashville’s Montgomery Bell Academy, announced his pledge to the Volunteers in the afternoon.
“Blessed to say I’m officially committed to the University of Tennessee,” Chandler posted on Twitter along with two photos of him wearing an orange Tennessee cap.
He’s a top-flight in-state prospect at a position of major need. During his junior season in 2015, the 5-foot-11, 195-pound Chandler ran 347 times for 2,585 yards and 34 touchdowns in winning the large private school division’s Mr. Football award and helping MBA reach the state championship game.
In the double-overtime defeat to Brentwood Academy in the state final, Chandler burst for 258 rushing yards and scored five total touchdowns – three rushing, one receiving and a 99-yard kickoff return.
He’s ranked the No. 56 player and the No. 5 running back in the 2017 class by 247Sports, and in May he announced a final eight of Tennessee, Georgia, Ole Miss, Ohio State, Southern California, Florida, Auburn and Duke.
With junior Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara expected to leave for the NFL after this season, the Vols have a huge void to fill in their backfield with only sophomore John Kelly and freshmen Carlin Fils-aime and Jeremy Lewis set to return.
Tennessee’s other primary backfield target is Cam Akers, but the Vols face stiff competition from the likes of LSU, Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama and Ole Miss in pursuit of the five-star prospect out of Mississippi.
Louisiana running back Trey Coleman remains committed to Tennessee after pledging in June.
Scrimmage recap
Saturday’s scrimmage gave coach Butch Jones and his staff a “great indication” of where their team stands less than three weeks before the opener, he said before Monday’s second practice. After what he called a “typical” scrimmage with positives and negatives, the Vols are where Jones thought they would be at this stage of August.
Jones, who said Monday morning’s closed practice was one of his team’s best of the preseason, called scrimmages the college equivalent of NFL preseason games, which often feature turnovers, errors on special teams and big plays.
The offense gave up a safety Saturday but did not turn the ball over and hit some big plays due to misalignments by some younger defensive players.
“We need to take the football away on defense,” Jones said. “That’s been one of the criteria of playing defense here at Tennessee is doing a better job of taking the football away. We didn’t have enough turnovers generated defensively.”
Tennessee’s offensive line has struggled at times throughout this month with pass protection against a disruptive defensive line, but Jones characterized the daily competition between those two units as a “healthy battle.”
Safety surge
In an interesting development in the secondary, the competition for the starting nickel cornerback position is now between Rashaan Gaulden and Malik Foreman.
Gaulden appeared set to play safety and is still working there some, but the preseason performances of Micah Abernathy and freshman Nigel Warrior have prompted the Vols to look at Gaulden at his former position.
Jones said Warrior is “doing great things” this month.
“Nigel’s a young man who just continues to get better and better each and every day,” he added. “He has great football instincts. He’s added to the competitive component back in the back end of our secondary, and we’re going to need him on special teams as well.
“We thought Nigel was one of those individuals who kind of stood out on Saturday.”
On the line
Jones said Tennessee still must settle at some positions and begin building continuity, and nowhere do the Vols value chemistry more than on the offensive line.
Yet the competition, particularly at both tackle positions, appear to be ongoing.
“I’ve never believed in setting timetables,” Jones said, “because those positions will be set when they take those positions over. In the offensive line you don’t have a starting five. We need a starting six, seven, eight.”
Status updates
Safety Evan Berry and freshman wide receivers Brandon Johnson and Latrell Williams are expected to return to practice “at the end of the week,” according to Jones.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.