There is a common theme running through the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team’s spring practices, and it certainly fits the Mocs’ wide receivers.
While Bryce Nunnelly is clearly UTC’s go-to target after a season in which he caught 79 passes for 1,247 yards and seven touchdowns, there are few knowns around him. It hasn’t helped that several guys competing for the second and third receiver positions have been limited in drills due to injury.
“The biggest thing is we’ve got to find that No. 2 and No. 3 receiver to take the bulk off Bryce,” receivers coach Adam Mims said. “A lot of teams are going to be keying on him, so we are going to need guys to step up and take ownership of those positions.
“We’ve got some young guys coming in that are going to be able to help, and they are going to have to be ready, but we need these guys out here right now to step up. With a lot of these guys it’s like they are all drinking through a fire hose, but we are going to slow it down some and get them right.”
Nunnelly, who missed last week’s drills, including Saturday’s Fan Fest scrimmage, due to a hamstring pull, is hoping to build on an All-Southern Conference first-team season that included four consecutive 100-yard games, 11 catches of 40 or more yards and a national player of the week honor for a 10-catch, 268-yard performance against The Citadel.
The Walker Valley High School graduate, however, is more concerned about wins than individual accomplishments.
“I’m just working as hard as I can to get ready for the season,” he said. “Whatever these coaches want me to do. If teams want to double-team me, that just leaves other people open. I really don’t care as long as we win – whether I catch one pass or 10.”
The Mocs graduated the next three leading receivers from 2018 – Wil Young, Joseph Parker and Bingo Morton. The staff is well aware extra defensive attention is coming this fall for Nunnelly, making the competition to start alongside him even more important. Freshman Lameric Tucker from Bradley Central, one of the fastest players on the team, and junior Demarcus Williams, a transfer from Minnesota, are the front-runners for the second and third receiver spots.
Mims and head coach Rusty Wright, though, also hope a group that includes 6-foot-4, 220-pound former tight end Juwan Tyus, Ooltewah’s Andrew Manning, former high school quarterback Zach Pfeifer and Logan Pitts, another converted tight end, will show some progress.
“Bryce is everything that’s advertised,” Wright said. “Demarcus has had a good first week. He’s light years from where we were in January. Lameric has an injury, so we haven’t seen what he can do yet. Andrew Manning and Zach Pfeifer have been fighting. It’s a learning curve, and Mims is on them. We know we’ll get there.”
A pair of recruits – 6-3, 200-pound Kanore McKinnon from Georgia Military College and two-star prospect Avery Williams from Brentwood High School – will join the competition this summer. It will be a camp, the energetic Mims believes, with a lot on the line.
“My philosophy is the best players are going to play, so we are going to bring them in and see how they progress,” he said. “I don’t care how old you are, what your background is or where you are from, the best players are going to play.”
Mims also has made it clear his receivers won’t be bystanders when the ball isn’t in their hands.
“I told them the other day, ‘No block, no rock,'” he said. “I believe blocking is nothing but effort. I want to see guys who are working without the ball, because that shows me you are a great teammate and that football matters to you and your teammates matter to you. I want my guys to have a mean streak out wide.
“I can promise you, if I know a guy will block out wide, he’s going to find his way onto the field.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.