KNOXVILLE – For months Drew Richmond has envisioned himself as Tennessee’s starting left tackle.
Thursday night those visions will become a reality.
Almost 19 months after he flipped from a longtime commitment to Ole Miss and signed with the Volunteers, the redshirt freshman will make his college football debut when No. 9 Tennessee opens the season against Appalachian State.
“That’s what you come to school to play for,” Richmond said earlier this month, “to be a starter and go to the NFL. It’s a good program. We’ve got the chance to do some special things here, and I can’t wait to see what we’re all going to do.
“I think we’ve all got a chance to be special.”
As a five-star recruit out of Memphis, Richmond was viewed as a special talent when he stepped on campus last summer, but the 6-foot-5, 301-pounder wasn’t ready to contribute and redshirted his first year on campus.
It wasn’t easy for Richmond to go from an all-everything prospect courted by nearly the entire Southeastern Conference to the anonymity of a redshirt season, but it allowed him to make the necessary improvement and target this season as his opportunity to seize a starting job.
“One year of training and developing can do a lot for a person,” said Jashon Robertson, the junior left guard who will line up to Richmond’s right. “I think Drew is a guy who from the first year he’s been here to now, he’s a lot stronger. He understands what’s demanded of him and demanded out of our group.
“Drew also is a guy who has increased his overall football knowledge and football IQ. He’s a guy who I’ve worked with throughout the summer, watched extra film, a guy who will hit me up every day and every night about questions as far as schemes and different things. I think Drew has just developed and become a better player overall.”
During spring practice Richmond took all of the first-team reps at left tackle, where fifth-year senior Kyler Kerbyson quietly was Tennessee’s most consistent offensive lineman a year ago.
When preseason training camp rolled around the Vols had three players – Richmond, Brett Kendrick and Chance Hall – battling for two tackle spots. Richmond was the only one of those working at just one position. Two weeks into camp the competition shifted to the right side between Kendrick and Hall, who eventually hurt his knee and underwent surgery.
“You’ve got to be focused and locked in every day,” Richmond said. “Everybody on our team is competing for jobs. That’s what the summer is, but it’s all going to help the betterment of the team and it’s all to grow the team, so hopefully we can win a national championship.”
Offensive line coach Don Mahoney earlier this month said Richmond surprised the coaching staff by how much progress he had made with the mental aspect of his game.
“He’s recognizing things,” Mahoney said. “He’s talking our language a lot more in terms of calls up front and different things that the defense shows. He’s getting to see the whole picture a whole lot better, and that’s been a real positive.”
Richmond leaned on veterans Kendrick and Robertson and Hall, an All-SEC freshman team selection in 2015, to help him become more comfortable with the offense and adjust to various defenses.
“He definitely has a grasp on it as far as different schemes and different plays and football IQ, but Drew, he’s a guy who’s always inquiring and is always wanting more,” Robertson said. “He’s a guy who looks to me as an older (adviser) to feed him knowledge and feed him nuggets of gold. He tries to get everything out of me.
“The questions don’t stop. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t know as much or knows more or knows less. He inquires and wants to know as much as he can about his job.”
The Vols aren’t sure how Richmond will handle his job, but he believes he’s prepared to succeed.
“We’ve got the best defensive line in the country. That’s point-blank period,” he said. “We’ve got the best defensive line, and some days it’s tough going against those guys, but when we’re battling out there, it’s going to make the game so much easier.”
Richmond’s long wait for the spotlight is over, and he has a chance to run with his chance.
“I know initially that redshirt year was very, very difficult for him, but I think now he realizes that was a necessity,” Vols coach Butch Jones said. “He’s night and day from where he was last year, but there’s still so much constant growth and improvement he needs to make each and every day. He understands that, but Drew has worked very, very hard.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.