University of Tennessee Athletics
Inside The T Mailbag
August 26, 2015 | Football
Welcome to another season of the Inside the T Mailbag! Each week this is your opportunity to send in your questions about Tennessee Athletics or anything else to me, Brian Rice, the fan that gets the inside look on your Volunteers.
Serious questions are good, questions with a little personality are better. I take questions all week long on Twitter: @briancrice or via email: UTSportsMailbag@gmail.com.
Now that's out of the way and we're 10 days from kickoff, let's get to this week's slate:
Nate Fritz: Has the limited depth at WR earlier in the preseason become a strength with Jauan Jennings and Von Pearson now?
In the Butch Jones offense, you can never have too many wide receivers ready to play. We saw that at the end of the year last year, when Tennessee went into the Vanderbilt game with the position so limited by injury that only three players caught passes in the game, one of those being running back Marlin Lane.
The depth is still limited to a certain extent. Despite a long list of returning players, there is an injury history with all of them. Developing depth is going to be a key as the season goes on. That is where having guys out at times during camp has actually helped the situation. Fewer players in the rotation meant more reps for the guys in there.
That was especially valuable for Josh Smith coming back from his season-ending injury last year and Marquez North off of the injury that brought his season to an early close.
I wouldn't label Jennings as the surprise of training camp because I'm not shocked that someone with his athleticism would be successful at this level. But his emergence as a receiver this fall has certainly been impressive and a welcome sign for a position that could always use another breakout player. He also benefitted greatly from the increased reps that came with injuries at the position.
Pearson impressed from the day he stepped on campus in the spring of 2014, making highlight catch after highlight catch in practice. Unfortunately, injury limited his season last year (notice a trend?), but he started to show flashes once he returned. Three caches, two for touchdowns against Kentucky, started the trend and a 75-yard, seven catch performance in the TaxSlayer Bowl set the stage fro what is expected to be a big season for him.
Receiver can be a strength for this team, we just have to get them healthy and keep them that way.
Pastor Kyle: Are the Smokey Gray uniforms in the plans for any games this season?
They Smokey Gray uniforms are definitely on the table this season. The new Nike version has anthracite accents and shoulders, but the best part is the helmet.
In the interests of full disclosure, I was long opposed to an alternate helmet. I am a huge traditionalist, so different jerseys and helmets have never really been my thing. But I warmed to the idea of the Smokey Gray jerseys over the last two years and, as that happened, I realized that they could be made so much better with a matching helmet.
The helmet design more than exceeded my expectations with a graphic of the mountains behind the familiar Power T on each side and the new stripe that starts as the traditional solid orange and becomes a checkerboard. I love them and can't wait to see them on the field.
I don't have any intelligence on when they are scheduled to be worn, but we will get some notice the week of the game. It won't come as a surprise, but despite reports to the contrary, there has been no decision made as of yet. If I had to guess, I would point to one of the back-to-back home games in October or the South Carolina game in November.
David Cox: We haven't heard much about Dillon Bates. How is he progressing?
Bates has been working hard to get back on the field after the shoulder injury that forced him to redshirt last season. He missed some time in training camp as a precaution, but is back at full speed now. He is competing at linebacker and on special teams.
Tennessee will play a large rotation at linebacker and Bates is going to be a part of that. He's too talented to keep off the field. The only issue is that Tennessee (and most teams) spends a lot less time in a traditional base 4-3 defense and more in a nickel look because of spread offenses.
The negative for the position is that when you go to the nickel, that pulls a linebacker off of the field and puts in an extra defensive back. The positive is that the two linebackers that are in the game are asked to do more and have a bigger role. That is where having an effective rotation of fresh guys in the game can be even more valuable.
C. Everett McGrooves: Why are my Orioles so bad this year and will the Vols be able to ease my aching heart?
Let me ask you this. How is it possible that a team that has scored 18 runs in a game twice this season so impossibly bad the rest of the year?
It's really not all that bad, even at a game under .500 going into play on Wednesday, the O's are still only 2.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot. Although a four-game sweep at the hands of fellow Wild Card contender Minnesota did not help the cause. Nor does a potential Wild Card matchup with the Yankees.
But you're talking to a Braves fan, so I'm not exactly sending you a ton of sympathy here.
Now, the important part, will the Vols be able to ease your aching heart? I think so. The start of the season is what seems most important to me. Obviously, you want to get off to a good start against Bowling Green. You have Western Carolina in week three. Surrounding those games are matchups with Oklahoma and Florida that will really determine what the perception of the 2015 Volunteers will be.
The schedule later in the year lines up to where this team could recover if they were to get off to a slow start. But in the minds of the fans that are so excited and so starved fro success, I think those early games are important, particularly the visit to Gainesville. Win that one and you're in the thick of the SEC East race as some "experts" have predicted. It would also get the monkey off the back of the program that has existed since James Wilhoit crushed the game-winning kick against the Gators in 2004.
David Burke: Did you participate in the sleep study and do you have a sleep coach?
Though I got to write the story on the sleep study, I did not get to participate. I very much need a sleep coach or, at very least, someone to force me to go to bed at a reasonable hour. I'm a big believer in the "just one more episode" theory of binge-watching TV shows and suddenly realize that it's 2:30 a.m. and I've run through another season of Archer.
The part of the sleep study that I really need to get on board with is the blue light-blocking glasses that the players have. From what I understand, wearing the glasses actually makes their minds and bodies call for sleep earlier, rather than being artificially kept awake by staring at TV and computer screens (Guilty).
As it is, a sleep coach would have me running laps for bad behavior in between swigs of Diet Coke to keep me awake.
Ryan Davis: There are several players wearing duplicate numbers and others have changed numbers to honor teammates. What are the rules for jersey numbers in college football?
The rules are a lot less restrictive than they are in the NFL. In college, multiple players can wear the same number as long as they are not on the field at the same time. Typically, an offensive player and defensive player can wear the same number because they will never be on the field at the same time. That's why you see Jalen Hurd and Kahlil McKenzie both wearing 1 and Pig Howard and Shy Tuttle each sporting 2.
The only time that really becomes an issue is on special teams, where a coach has to be careful not to put two players with the same number out there. It's an illegal procedure penalty if they do.
It gets a little more complicated from there. The NFL has strict rules for what players can wear what numbers based on their primary position. In college, the only restriction on numbers is that offensive linemen must wear numbers from 50-79 and players wearing those numbers are never eligible receivers.
In the NFL, linemen can report as eligible, but in college they cannot. When VFL Alex Bullard used to shift over a couple of positions down the offensive line to play snaps at tight end, UT had to provide an extra jersey with an eligible number for him to wear over his usual 78. Roger Frazier and the equipment staff ended up creating a special jersey that was easy for him to slip on over his jersey with Velcro.
Brian Rice is the writer for UTSports.com. You can contact him between naps on Twitter @briancrice or by email at UTSportsMailbag@gmail.com.
