Relocating from UT to UT wasn’t exactly seamless.
With the transfer portal having ravaged Tennessee’s football program a year ago, one of the arrivals last summer that instilled a little optimism for the Volunteers faithful was former Texas inside linebacker Juwan Mitchell. The Vols had lost their leading tackler from the 2020 season when Henry To’o To’o departed for longtime rival Alabama, but Mitchell had led the 2020 Longhorns with 62 tackles before deciding to give the Southeastern Conference a try.
Mitchell had seven tackles and a pass breakup in last September’s second game against Pittsburgh, but he underwent shoulder surgery following the third contest at Florida and is working back from that this spring. He is doing so with an attitude that is much more pleasing to linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary.
“You can tell he’s buying into the team concept here,” Jean-Mary said Tuesday in a news conference. “It’s always tough when you get a kid out of the portal who is going into a different program and may have different expectations and different rules. That was a struggle early, but he’s been great, and he’s been a great teammate as far as helping others out.”
Mitchell is wearing a yellow, noncontact jersey this spring for the Vols, who passed the halfway mark with Tuesday’s eighth workout.