Tennessee football fans will see a slew of new offensive starters Aug. 30, when the Volunteers open Josh Heupel’s fifth season against Syracuse in Atlanta.
A new quarterback. A new center. A new running back, and new receivers.
Yet what may be new to fans isn’t new to Heupel, who didn’t implement baby steps with the offensive installations during Wednesday morning’s start to preseason camp.
“The install slows down earlier in the process than it does at this point,” Heupel said during a news conference after the first workout. “You have your winter block, which is a limited time, and your spring ball, and as you get into the summer, you’re rehashing all those installs. By this time, we have parameters of what we want to install each day by the situations that we’re going to encounter.
“There is a fairly consistent number of things that we’re installing that are new to these guys, but at night, as they get a chance to study it and digest it again, they will see that most of what we will install in this training camp they will have been exposed to at some point.”
Freshman running back Daune Morris, who starred at Red Bank and Murfreesboro Oakland, admitted his comfort level is up significantly from the spring but added that Wednesday’s workout had a different feel.
“We’ve been through spring and we’ve been through summer,” Morris said. “We’re still learning a lot, but a lot of people feel more comfortable in their positions and in their position groups. It’s going to get more urgent as we get through fall camp, and you can tell that a lot more players are hyped up because we’re going into the season.”
The media was allowed to watch roughly an hour of Wednesday’s practice and witnessed redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger being first in line during the passing drills followed by graduate transfer Joey Aguilar and true freshman George MacIntyre. The first-team offensive line in the periods open to the media consisted of left tackle Lance Heard, left guard Jesse Perry, center William Satterwhite, right guard Wendell Moe and right tackle David Sanders Jr., a five-star freshman from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Notre Dame transfer Sam Pendleton was working behind Moe at right guard.
Former Chattanooga Christian and Bradley Central standout Boo Carter stretched with the team but without his helmet, and then he did drills on his own when the rest of the team broke into position groups. When the Vols shifted practice from their indoor facility to outdoors, Carter remained inside.
Tennessee’s youth on offense is being molded by plenty of experience, as every offensive assistant has been with Heupel from the start in Knoxville. Receivers coach Kelsey Pope was an analyst in the 2021 season before joining the full-time staff in 2022, while tight ends coach Alec Abeln was an analyst during the 2021-23 seasons before being promoted.
“The continuity of our staff working through all the details while being on the same page is a huge benefit and a huge help,” Heupel said. “It allows us to break up into our position rooms and be in sync. Our players have heard a bunch that young guys don’t have time to be young, and they’ve got to continue to grow.
“When you get to the fall, nobody cares what age guys are when they’re playing.”
Tennessee’s newest offensive analyst is Landry Jones, who quarterbacked at Oklahoma when Heupel was offensive coordinator and spent the 2013-17 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“He has a familiarity with some of our staff and some of the things that we do,” Heupel said. “He has NFL experience, and he was a pro because of who he was and how he handled himself every single day and the journey he went through as a player to become that.
“I think he brings some valuable lessons to all the guys we have inside of that room.”
Getting connected
Several players this week have discussed the off-campus dinners with teammates who they are not close with or are not in their position groups.
“It’s something that we’ve done throughout our history here,” Heupel said. “We just did more of it this offseason and did a better job of accomplishing that. It’s always been super important that your team is connected and that when a lineman walks by a DB, you know who he is and what he’s about.
“You go back 20 years, and everybody was living in the same dorm or the same apartment complex, and it’s a different era now. It’s just carving out opportunities to connect as a football team outside of football, which makes us better on the football side of it.”
Putting them on
MacIntyre may be the longest shot in Tennessee’s three-man quarterback race, and that’s simply due to his physique.
The former Brentwood Academy standout arrived in Knoxville at the beginning of the year at 6-foot-6 and 180 pounds. MacIntyre said Tuesday that he has put on 16 pounds to where he’s knocking on the door of 200, and he was asked where he can see the difference.
“I’m still trying to see it,” he said with a smile. “When you’re this tall and skinny, it’s kind of hard to tell. I do think my velocity has gone up from sideline to sideline as much as we do in our offense.”
‘Completely unplanned’
Heupel was spotted Wednesday watching a lot of the secondary, and he was asked afterward how he determines which groups during individual periods will have his attention.
“It’s completely unplanned,” Heupel said jokingly. “I just fly by the seat of my pants. Actually, I think it’s important that your defensive guys see you, and it’s the same with special teams. In training camp, I’m in those special teams meetings. It just depends on the day and the flow of practice and what we have going on as far as the offense.
“Early in the day I try to get over there, and I try to get over there for some pass rush as well.”
Brotherly love
Freshman defensive tackle Isaiah Campbell, a top-50 national signee out of Durham, North Carolina, was asked Wednesday what he missed the most by choosing to enroll early.
“I have two little brothers,” he said, “so I had to get used to, ‘Wow, they’re not here,’ but I have brothers in the locker room now, so I can just bump them in the head or something.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.