Tennessee running backs coach De'Rail Sims updates his group ahead of the spring game

Tennessee running backs coach De’Rail Sims has settled in to his new job in leading the Vol tailbacks. Sims met with the media on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s Orange and White game.

Here’s everything Tennessee’s first year tailbacks coach said following Thursday’s workout.

When we talked to you at the start of spring, you, you kind of wanted to see what you had, do your and evaluate those guys on their own merits. I know you’d watched film of them As you close out spring, what do you think you have in your room? 

Hard workers, guys that come to work every day. I think we got a good collective group from top to bottom. So I’m excited to see kind of how we finish off this spring. How we finish off this meeting today is critical as well. But then how we finish off on Saturday is gonna be big.

I know Peyton Lewis has been limited. He is not been able to do everything, but what has he been able to get out of this spring? From an observing standpoint?

 I think understanding, learning from his teammates. I tell the guys all the time, the best teacher in the room is the guy next to you. So learning and watching them, learning in meetings, being able to go through and see and walk throughs how guys are operate. Being able to see in the team setting how guys are operating. Like the best teacher that you’ve had is the guys in front of you. He’s done a really good job of asking questions and the guys in the room have done a phenomenal job of being able to come in and help him out as well. 

Like a lot of times in meetings when I’m getting ready to correct someone, you got questions they jump right on and answer. 

I know you weren’t here last year before you got injured but what, what have you found with Deshaun Bishop this spring? What have you liked about what he’s done and kind of just the progression from maybe first practice?

Now I call him the spark plug. He’s done a really good job from practice one to where we are today in terms of getting better every single practice. He’s intentional coming in the meetings, asking questions. He’s intentional about taking notes in the meeting room and then when he gets out here on the field, he does a really good job of just executing at a high level. Even if he makes a mistake, he does it going a hundred miles an hour and then he’ll come over to the sideline and ask the question ‘Coach, what did I do wrong?’ He never makes the same mistake twice in that situation in team period. So he’s done a good job. 

Deshaun’s obviously been getting more time now because of the injuries. If he needs to play a whole lot this season, especially early in the year, because those injuries, like what does he need to work on between now and then to be to be game ready? 

Just continue to work on pass protection, continue to work on a whole game holistically to be honest with you. From seeing the running game and also in the pass protection game in terms of just all that comes down to is fundamentals, making sure my eyes are in the right places. 

Dylan Sampson obviously took a huge step forward last season. What have you seen from him during spring practice where maybe he’s taking another step forward or improving other aspects of his game? 

I think with Dylan, you look at him from the mental aspect of the game in terms of growing from a pass protection standpoint and then also just being a leader. I think that’s a tremendous step for him now in terms of in this room where he is, some young guys in the room, he’s taking a really good step in terms of bringing them along being the leader of the room. But I think holistically in this game being detailed, he’s a lot further along from a detailed standpoint right now than he was at the beginning of the spring.

Where have you seen Khalifa Keith make the biggest jump this spring? 

I think with Khalifa, I think every day with him is another step to take forward. I think right now the biggest jump with him is just having the confidence in himself. You know, the confidence in himself to be out here and execute even if he makes a mistake. To not get down and let it wreck the next play. I think that portion of it has been good. I think also just continue to learn how to run that’s the biggest key. Understanding what your size is and understand how to use that as a weapon. 

Coach, obviously with the sort of young group, not a lot of guys have done a lot of pass protection. how much of an emphasis has that been and have you seen growth from guys like DeSean, Khalifa and other guys? 

It is been huge priority. The majority of our time in individual has been spent on pass protection this spring and every day is the day to get better at it. Some days it’s rougher than others, but you gotta learn from days like we do a really good job from a practice standpoint of structure in our time going one-on-ones versus linebackers because they need those live reps. So the more that we able to do that, the better we’re going to be. So they taking steps with it, but we still got miles to go from that standpoint as well. 

With Dylan being a veteran, when you get into teams period and scrimmage stuff, has he gotten the bulk of the work or do you limit his work beause you wanna see more of those young guys to see where they are. How do you manage the workload from a guy who’s a veteran but maybe is not the most experienced veteran out there? 

You give him work in in terms of the situations that he needs. It’s not like he’s going out there taking days off. We put him in there. He gets his work in the situational aspect of it that he needs any specific play that he needs as well, but he has to get in the rhythm and the flow so he has gotten his reps and then also you put in just like you said, the younger guys that need the majority of the reps as well. So we’ve been able to maintain that.

Going back to Deshaun, what would you say his his strength is right now as a running back? 

What I think right now is his vision. Honestly, his eyes and his feet are able to match together. He doesn’t allow his feet to play ahead of his eyes. He understands where a hole is gonna be from anticipation standpoint and now he’s able to make that cut and be able to go. So his patience, his vision, and then his eyes and his feet are married up together. 

How would you assess your group’s ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and do you think that could be a strength? 

It is good, but that’s something that we always gonna continue to work on to get better at. I think right now you see guys able to catch the ball out the back field and make some plays on the perimeter, but that’s one of the games like that we’re gonna continue to work at. We’re never ever gonna sit up there and feel like we arrive, so it’s always a weakness that we gotta get better at.