Tennessee scrimmaged for a second time at Neyland Stadium during spring football. The Vols scrimmaged for two hours under the lights on Thursday.
Fourth-year Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel recapped the Vols’ scrimmage.
“It was a lot of fun tonight,” Heupel said. “Just the way the schedule unfolded, we decided to do a night scrimmage. Great to be under the lights inside of Neyland. The guys had a ton of energy and a lot of really good work.
“Defensively, I thought they started extremely fast and violent and destructive, got off the field on third downs and did a great job offensively and settled in on the second half of the scrimmage. A lot of good work here for just being over the midpoint of spring ball and obviously have a huge week next week before we get a chance to see Vol Nation out here at the spring “I mean some of it, absolutely. Our defensive line has brought great energy and consistency every single day that we’ve been on the practice field. Veteran group especially on the interior that has kind of led the way. Our edge group continues to get better and the young guys, the new guys have really grown inside of it really quickly. They’re playing with great pad level. They’re using their hands better than they ever have, and I’m not just talking in pass rush, in the run game, too. Really like what that group’s done.”Yeah, if you want to be really good as a football team it starts with your defensive line. Just how we got here, the circumstances that were here when we first got here, it’s taken a little time to go work the group up. Certainly, just the athleticism across the entire group. I really like what Coach (Tim) Banks, and coach (Rodney) Garner, and coach (Mike) Ekeler have done with that group. We still have a lot of room to grow before we’re where we need to be when we open up.”They’re a lot better today than they were when we started spring ball, and it won’t just be on the back end of it. It’s a group that I like their athleticism. They have to continue to mature physically. Those guys, a lot of them are doubling up their reps right now with a lot of our vets just from the end of the season, being banged up and not repping here in spring ball. With everything that we see on the other side of the line of scrimmage, communication, understanding what we’re doing, fundamentally getting better. They’re playing so much harder than they were at the beginning of spring ball, too. I think we just have to continue to grow, but I really do like the group as a whole.”game.”
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