Six months ago, Justin Williams-Thomas was a running back at East Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia.
The Raiders employed a deliberate offense that highlighted Williams-Thomas, who used his 6-foot, 210-pound frame to pound out 1,896 yards and 14 touchdowns. The four-star prospect signed with Tennessee as a midyear enrollee and now finds himself in a very different world as the Volunteers start winding down their second spring practice of the Josh Heupel era.
“It’s a little bit more difficult, because you have a lot more responsibilities,” Williams-Thomas said Monday in a news conference. “Getting here early helped me a lot as far as understanding protections – there are a lot more assignments than you have in high school. It’s a bit more challenging, but every week, the game starts slowing down.
“When I first got here, bullets were flying.”
Monday marked the 12th spring practice for the Vols and for Williams-Thomas, who is looking to earn his keep in a running back room that is headed by junior Jabari Small, sophomore Jaylen Wright and redshirt sophomore Len’Neth Whitehead.
The Vols ranked an impressive 12th nationally in rushing offense last season, averaging 217.3 yards per game, and second-year running backs coach Jerry Mack is impressed with what Williams-Thomas has shown during his infancy in Knoxville.
“Justin is a physical player when he understands what’s going on,” Mack said Monday. “Everything is moving extremely fast for him right now as a true freshman, but he shows flashes of what we really want to see – the physicality, the big body, the ability to get those tough one or two yards.
“He has that, and I think you’ll see a different player when we get into the season.”
Williams-Thomas wouldn’t mind being Tennessee’s top short-yardage option, adding, “I love hitting the hole and running hard. I feel like that’s one of the biggest pointers of my game. We’re lowering our pads as a room, and I think all of us are going to do a lot better on that this year.”
Tennessee began last season with Small and Tiyon Evans as the top rushing tandem and ended it with Small and Wright after Evans entered the NCAA transfer portal in November and is now at Louisville. Whitehead struggled to stay healthy, so Mack is seeking as many options as possible, which includes Williams-Thomas.
“I would never imagine in a million years last year that a guy like Jaylen Wright would have been thrown in there in some of those situations,” Mack said. “The last play of the season we had a true freshman in there. You never know what’s going to happen, and our job is to have Justin prepared to play to the best of his ability.”
Not so Small
Small led Tennessee in rushing last season with 792 yards and 5.7 yards per carry, and he did so as a 199-pounder.
Mack said the 5-11 Small has been working at 213 this spring.
“The body weight and the mass and the armor that he has put on his body is just tremendous,” Mack said. “I think you’re going to see a different body type than you saw last year.”
Robinson commits
The Vols received their sixth commitment and third in-state commitment for the 2023 signing cycle Monday, receiving a nonbinding pledge from Greenbrier High defensive lineman Nathan Robinson. The 6-5, 268-pounder is rated the No. 459 overall prospect on the 247Sports.com composite rankings, the No. 38 edge rusher and the No. 15 recruit from the Volunteer State.
Robinson, according to 247Sports, also received scholarship offers from Kentucky, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.
No. 1 five times over
Tennessee’s No. 1 ranking in baseball makes the Vols just one of two college athletic programs ever to ascend to the top spot in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball.
The first to turn that five-sport trick? Texas.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.