Thursday night had the feel of Tennessee facing Kentucky on Halloween weekend.
Instead, temperatures in the upper 40s accompanied the second spring football scrimmage for the Volunteers inside Neyland Stadium. Tennessee fourth-year coach Josh Heupel didn't mind the late October or early November weather in early April.
"It was an atypical spring night for here in Knoxville, but it's an opportunity to get out and play in an environment that at some point we're going to be in," Heupel said in a news conference. "It was a lot of fun tonight. Just the way the schedule unfolded, we decided to do a night scrimmage, and it was great to be under the lights at Neyland. The guys had a lot of energy and put in a lot of good work.
"Defensively, I think we started really fast. We were violent and disruptive and got off the field on third down, and our offense settled in the second half of the scrimmage."
Thursday's closed scrimmage was the middle one of the spring, with the Orange & White Game on April 13 serving as the finale. The Vols are off Friday and will resume practices Saturday.
The deep and experienced defensive line was expected to be a team strength, and Heupel said that's been the case to this point.
"Our defensive line has brought great energy and consistency every single day we've been our on the practice field," Heupel said. "It's a veteran group, especially on the interior, and they've kind of led the way. Our edge group continues to get better."
Heupel said that sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava "operated and functioned extremely well" and that freshman quarterback Jake Merklinger looked noticeably better compared to the opening scrimmage. He added that receivers Chris Brazzell, Mike Matthews and Dont'e Thornton each made nice plays.
When asked about the secondary, Heupel singled out Will Brooks, Jermod McCoy and Andre Turrentine.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.