University of Tennessee Athletics
Competition Awaits Team 119
August 03, 2015 | Football
By Brian Rice
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
UTSports.com
"This is the exciting time because you are really building your identity and forming your habits, everything about your football team, your chemistry and your toughness," Jones said. "Everything that goes into building a football team really starts in training camp because now your entire team is here.
"As I have said it, we can't just be a year older; we have to be a year better. We have to learn from past experiences. We have to be a year wiser. What do I mean by that? It's total understanding of situational football."
The only position move announced on Monday was made in the name of promoting competition at wide receiver. With the ranks thinner than Jones would like for a system that rotates wideouts at a furious pace, mid-term enrollee Jauan Jennings will start the fall at receiver after working exclusively at quarterback in the spring. Malik Foreman will begin at his customary defensive back spot, but remains a candidate to make a move if the situation warrants.
Jones said Jennings would still get work at QB, a position that is settled at the top for the first time in Jones' three seasons at Tennessee with Joshua Dobbs as the unquestioned leader on the field and in the locker room. Behind the junior, things are more unsettled than perhaps at any other position on the team.
"As we found out, you can never have one quarterback or two quarterbacks, you have to have as many as possible to compete at this level, so again the repetitions will be at a premium," Jones said. "Jauan Jennings is going to start off gaining valuable repetitions at the wide receiver position. We'll continue to move him around, he'll still get some repetitions at quarterback. I think Quinten Dormady has had a very productive summer. Obviously the reps that he gained in the spring were extremely invaluable, but we have to give them a number of opportunities to be able to provide confidence that and see what they can do, but I'm excited about Quinten and I'm excited about Sheriron Jones as well."
Competition is also expected to boost production in areas that return plenty of experience. Jalen Hurd's top competition in the offseason may have been between the weight room and the nutrition bar in the Anderson Training Center, where he bulked up to 242 pounds without sacrificing speed. Redshirt sophomore Alvin Kamara has pushed Hurd since his arrival in January, giving the Vols a 1-2 punch at the position.
"Jalen Hurd has had a very good offseason," Jones said. "He's really developed into a leader. Alvin Kamara continues to impress [with] the way he's changed his body. Those two kind of feed off of each other. Alvin is another individual who's really elevated his game in terms of leadership with this football team."
Who will block in front of that 1-2 punch is another area where competition is at a higher level than in any time in Jones' tenure at UT.
"We have to find the best five that are going to play winning football for Tennessee," Jones said of the offensive line. "Not only the best five, but number six, number seven and number and also continuing to develop youth in that spot."
The competition even extends to punter, where a three-way competition between freshman Tommy Townsend, graduate transfer Nate Renfro and redshirt sophomore Trevor Daniel is underway to replace Matt Darr.
"We have to do a great job of putting our punters in competitive situations in a competitive environment each and every day," said Jones. "From Tommy Townsend to Trevor Daniel, across the board, we're going to be competing every day."
Key in the competition will be leadership, something that Dobbs and Curt Maggitt have taken by the horns.
"Their leadership continues to be born," Jones said of Dobbs and Maggitt. "That's part of our welfare and development program, something we take very seriously here. And we spend an inordinate amount of time on leadership. It's also creating leadership opportunities for them.
"All leadership is influence."
