A rebuilding running back room has become temporarily thinner at Tennessee.
Sophomore Cameron Seldon will miss the rest of spring practice, which leaves the Volunteers with junior Dylan Sampson and very little experience. Seldon, a 6-foot-2, 222-pounder from Browns Store, Virginia, rushed 25 times for 106 yards last season.
Seldon had 13 carries for 55 yards as Sampson's backup during the 35-0 thrashing of Iowa in the Citrus Bowl, which followed decisions by Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small to opt out of that contest to focus on their NFL prospects. Fourth-year coach Josh Heupel was asked Wednesday if he might look into the transfer portal for help at that spot.
"It's unfortunate that in the early part of spring ball he had an injury to his shoulder and had surgery on it," Heupel said in a news conference. "We'll kind of evaluate where we're at as far as the rehab process once that gets started and base our decisions off of that and where we project he's going to be."
The Vols conducted their first spring scrimmage Wednesday morning inside Neyland Stadium. They are scheduled to watch video of the scrimmage Thursday and will have Easter weekend off.
Seldon's setback will provide more opportunities for Kalifa Keith, DeSean Bishop, Patrick Wilk and Hunter Barnes, who combined for only 17 carries last season.
"D-Samp has been awesome with his energy, leadership and maturity," Heupel said. "The young guys continue to take steps forward. Kalifa has done a really nice job and has been extremely physical. DeSean Bishop is a young guy who got nicked up last year who has had a lot of growth inside of our program after handling the rehab process extremely well.
"Wilks and Barnes have done a really nice job."
Heupel said sophomore starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava did a nice job of controlling the huddle during the scrimmage, as well as understanding the four-minute situation at the end.
Wednesday marked the first Neyland Stadium performance for Tennessee's transfer portal acquisitions and midyear enrollees. Heupel said five-star freshman receiver Mike Matthews had some nice plays, and the coach was complimentary of the much more youthful secondary compared to a year ago.
"I thought some of our young DBs showed up today as far as tackling in space," Heupel said. "Boo Carter did a great job of making plays in space, and those fundamentals are extremely important. Some of those guys are consistently showing up day to day as they go through this experience and grow.
"John Slaughter did a good job today defending a deep ball down the sideline, and Edrees Farooq is a young guy who has consistently shown up in the early part of spring ball, too."
Heupel offered praise essentially for the entire freshman class, adding that the newcomers have done a great job competing in all three phases and operating well in their respective systems.
"Those young guys don't take a back seat to anybody," Heupel said. "They have a competitive spirit out there on the practice field. In individual drills, they're up at the front of the line, and they're constantly pushing to get reps. They've been great inside of the meeting room in the early part of spring ball, and they expect themselves to do the right things and be mature.
"They're almost like vets as far as their understanding of the game."
Tennessee Athletics photo / Following Wednesday's first spring scrimmage, Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel gave his well wishes to Dalton Knecht and the basketball Volunteers before they traveled to Detroit.Pro day staged
There were 15 former Vols who went through pro day activities Wednesday afternoon inside the Anderson Training Center, including the three — Wright, cornerback Kamal Hadden and quarterback Joe Milton III — who recently took part at the NFL combine in Indianapolis.
"Ultimately, at the end of it, it's about them getting to a franchise and putting the helmet and shoulder pads on and getting a chance to compete for a job," Heupel said. "It's the next part of their journey, and I've liked the maturity that they've had based off some of the feedback we've gotten from NFL personnel at postseason bowl games and how they handled the combine process.
"I'm really excited for all those guys. There are those who didn't get to go to the combine who had the opportunity today to put their next foot forward and put themselves in position to go where they want to go."
All 32 NFL teams had representatives at Tennessee's pro day.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.