With each passing year, more and more college football coaches express the desire to make their players uncomfortable as soon as they arrive on campus.
Tee Martin, who is in his second season as Tennessee's receivers coach, certainly has a method once his new players enter the practice field.
"I put them in the hardest situation first, and that's playing inside," Martin said this week on a Zoom call. "Playing inside is the hardest receiver position that you can play, because there is so much action there. You see people crossing your face on blitzes. You will see linebackers, safeties, nickelbacks - there are a lot of things that happen inside - so I placed all of them inside when they first got here, so that adjustment to move outside becomes clearer.
"It's a bigger field out there. There is more grass, and you can see and anticipate coverages and disguises and things of that nature."
Given the haul of new receivers Tennessee has added in 2020 and the amount of practices missed this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, discomfort has been the norm so far in preseason camp, yet so has improvement.
Martin has the toughest task of any Volunteers assistant, having to replace the veteran duo of Marquez Callaway and Jauan Jennings, but he also has the most reinforcements. Tennessee signed three four-star receivers earlier this year - Jimmy Calloway, Jalin Hyatt and Malachi Wideman - and athlete prospect signees Dee Beckwith and Jimmy Holiday are working at receiver as well.
Beckwith, a 6-foot-5, 220-pounder from Florence, Alabama, is bouncing back and forth between receiver and tight end.
Tennessee Athletics photo by Andrew Ferguson / Malachi Wideman has the largest upside of Tennessee's freshman receivers, according to Vols receivers coach Tee Martin.Also new to Martin's receiver room is Velus Jones Jr., the graduate transfer from Southern California. The 6-foot, 200-pound Jones is working under Martin for a second time, with Martin having assisted the Trojans from 2012-18, and is coming off a 2019 season in which he only had six catches for 35 yards but was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection as a return specialist
"He definitely will be a threat in the kick-return game, both as a kickoff returner and a punt returner," Martin said. "Even though he's new to our system, he's played college football at a major level, and he's played in some big moments and been called on in some big moments. He's new, just like the true freshmen are, but he has a leg up in that he's been in college football for a few years.
"He's able to plug and play at different positions without panicking because he's been there before. I like what he's doing. He's playing outside. He's playing inside. We're doing things very creative with him as far as motions and putting him in the backfield."
Martin cited speed as the biggest upgrade in terms of what the freshmen provide to the position. He pointed out Calloway (6-0, 190), Holiday (6-0, 203) and Hyatt (6-0, 175) as guys who can "absolutely run," and he added that Wideman (6-4, 200) might have the biggest upside in the group.
"He's coming in probably the most raw of them all," Martin said. "For three years, Malachi played in kind of a wing-T offense and was a basketball player during the offseason, so he rarely went through spring practice and wasn't on a big-time 7-on-7 circuit. He would just show up and play football and just kind of go off natural skills.
"You can see basketball transfer to his football game where he plays above the rim. He's tough. He's physical, and he knows how to body people up."
Josh Palmer (6-2, 210) and Brandon Johnson (6-2, 203) are Tennessee's senior leaders at receiver, while Ramel Keyton (6-3, 195) and Cedric Tillman (6-3, 215) represent the sophomores in between the veterans and the overflow of new faces. It's an interesting mix of ingredients that Martin must assemble to help second-year offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and fifth-year senior quarterback Jarrett Guarantano.
Obstacles will always present themselves, but Martin believes his young receivers can move past the uncomfortable stage and contribute to a more consistent aerial attack compared to last season, when the Vols had a 415-yard passing eruption at Missouri but also had multiple showings of fewer than 200 yards.
"It's the second year with the same play caller, and that hasn't happened in a long time around here," Martin said. "I'm excited about that. I'm just happy for our quarterbacks. When language carries over and when ideas carry over, there is a cohesion there and there is a chemistry there.
"I know in my room that we're a lot more comfortable with language, with expectation and why are we doing what we're doing."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.