There are several Tennessee football players who took unique routes to join Josh Heupel’s Volunteers.
Former quarterback Gaston Moore followed Heupel to Knoxville from the University of Central Florida. Current fifth-year senior tight end Miles Kitselman has played on both sides of the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry, competing against Heupel’s Vols in 2023, while redshirt sophomore defensive end Emmanuel Okoye came to the Vols all the way from Nigeria.
Redshirt junior defensive tackle Josh Schell will attempt to become the first player under Heupel to compete for Tennessee directly from the Division II ranks, having spent the past three seasons at Grand Valley State in Allendale, Michigan, which is a suburb of Grand Rapids.
“This is just a lot higher level of football, but it’s been really good down here,” Schell said in a news conference after Saturday’s third preseason practice. “Everybody is just a little bit bigger and a little bit faster, so you’ve got to be a lot more technical now. It was still football at Grand Valley, but you have to be more technical.
“You can’t just outphysical people and outathletic people. Everybody is a really good athlete here, and everybody is a good player.”
The Vols held their fourth preseason workout Sunday morning and will have Monday off.
Schell is plenty athletic, having played both football and baseball at Grand Valley State. The 6-foot-4, 265-pounder was a relief pitcher for the Lakers and threw as hard as 93 mph, but there were never any plans to contribute to Tony Vitello’s Vols when he signed with Tennessee in late April as the 1,746th-ranked football player in the NCAA transfer portal.
“They’re a national powerhouse, and I was definitely aware of them,” a smiling Schell said of Vitello’s Vols. “I could maybe give them an inning, but I’m done with baseball.”
Schell redshirted during the 2022 football season but played baseball in the spring of 2023, earning a spot on the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference all-tournament team. His football talents then began to take over, with Schell collecting 11 tackles and breaking up a pass during the 2023 season before amassing 35 tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks last year.
Recognizing he is quite undersized at 265 pounds, Schell felt like Tennessee’s defensive scheme offered his best chance to thrive.
“We’re a super vertical defense,” Schell said. “We really get up the field and use our explosiveness. We don’t have huge, gigantic, 350-pound defensive linemen. We have really athletic guys, and that fits me well.
“I’m not 330 pounds, but I’m pretty athletic and can get up the field.”
There may be no bigger underdog story on this year’s Tennessee roster than Schell, who was once a zero-star prospect in the 247Sports.com composite rankings out of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, and is now in a defensive line room that contains the proven likes of Dominic Bailey, Bryson Eason, Joshua Josephs and Jaxson Moi. Yet veteran defensive line coach Rodney Garner loves to use as many players as possible throughout a game, provided they have earned that right.
Schell is hoping that’s the case for him, and he already seems to be handling what Garner dishes out on the practice field.
“It sucks for like two seconds,” Schell said. “Then you’re like, ‘This is what he wants me to do. Let’s go get it done.’ He just wants the best for you.”
Receiver dearth
Sophomore receiver Mike Matthews was sidelined during the portion of Sunday’s practice that was open to the media.
Redshirt junior Chris Brazzell II continues to be hampered by an undisclosed injury, so the Vols have redshirt freshman Braylon Staley healthy at receiver and four others who have yet to play for the Vols: redshirt freshman and Alabama transfer Amari Jefferson, and freshmen Joakim Dodson, Radarious Jackson and Travis Smith Jr.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.