Sights and sounds from Tennessee football's closed scrimmage at Neyland Stadium

Tennessee football’s scrimmage on Thursday, the first of fall camp, was held behind closed doors, but the Vols did put out both photos and video from the practice inside a soggy Neyland Stadium:

Back in our happy place

Scrimmage 1 in Neyland on deck 🏟️ pic.twitter.com/jEA3MMagxE

— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) August 10, 2023

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tennessee Football (@vol_football)

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel after Thursday’s scrimmage: “Really good day out there. Great energy. We got some special teams work, some live work for those guys, which I think is really important at this point in training camp. Really like what our specialists have done up until this point, but really good for the guys that are covering, are blocking, to get some live work.

“Offensively and defensively, really good day. I think we got out relatively clean today too, which is important. I thought defensively great energy, great effort, in particular, really early in the scrimmage. Did a great job against the run early too, and got off the field on some third downs. And offensively, created some plays on the back half of the scrimmage (in the) run game and a couple plays in the pass game too.

“So all in all, really good day. We got a lot, lot ahead of us. We gotta grow, and that starts this afternoon when they come back to us too. But all in all, really excited about what happened today.” 

Josh Heupel on Nico Iamaleava:  “You gotta grow. You gotta be pushed. We install it. He’s running everything, man. You know, you’ve heard me say that when they finish spring ball, when they come back beginning training camp, they should be a different player. He’s a different player. We’ve got great command in understanding what we’re doing, understands protections, understands how he’s gotta get us out of could be run-run checks, pass-run checks, whatever it might be. And he’s been perfect, but he’s grown. One of the things that we talked about is not making the same mistake twice. He doesn’t make the same mistake twice. He learns from it. There’s a rep yesterday, as he’s going through his reading progression, tight window on the inside, throws the ball while he’s standing in the pocket. You can see him visually like, hey man, I should have got out to the next one outside. He’s intentional and has great work habits.”

Josh Heupel on Tennessee’s running backs in the scrimmage: “I talked about the defensive line, I thought as the scrimmage went on, the running back group did a really nice job. Jaylen Wright had some really nice runs reading what’s happening up with up front with our blocking schemes, doing a great job of pressing. Nice big run. I thought Jabari played really well. It was important for him to get some live work too, (after) missing the spring. Dylan Sampson did a great job on run game, pass game too. The young guys inside of our program, all three young guys, have been really promising and (I’m) excited about that group.  Coach Mac has done a great job with it.” 

Josh Heupel on Tamarion McDonald and Wesley Walker in the Tennessee secondary: “Yeah, those guys are in a good spot. We’ve held ’em here the last couple of days. Nothing long term, just based on loads and what they’ve been doing. Wanting to protect them today. Those guys will be with us as we move forward. Those guys have played really well in the secondary and I anticipate them playing at a really high level of pushing forward.”

Josh Heupel on Tennessee’s defensive front seven: “The run game part of it, the defensive line, interior and guys on the edge, but I thought our backers did a great job fitting gaps and our safeties were involved in it too. And for a first scrimmage, I thought there was a positive sign of just our tackling in space. So I thought that was a real positive. Defensively as a whole, you guys have heard me say it before, when we got here, a lot of the kids that had left the program, not all of ’em, but a lot of ’em were on the defensive side of the football and, you know, we’ve been, within the first couple of years, we added some depth last year that helped us take a step, in particular in the run defense. I feel like we are continuing to add some real depth and competition. And that leads itself to real competition in practice. Who’s gonna be the first one running out? How many snaps each guy’s gonna play. But the competition on the practice field in the meeting room is a coach’s best friend. And we have that. That’s in the interior, it’s out on the edges too. The athleticism, the ability to rush the passer and not just defend the run, it’s also showing up here in training camp too. I like some of the strides that we’ve taken.”

Josh Heupel on the value of Gerald Mincey and Jeremiah Crawford on the offensive line: “We’ve rotated our tackles a bunch, guys that have played on left side, right side. Their experience, their understanding of what we’re doing, but their experience just in general and the ability to flip everything, from fundamentals of technique to scheme give us flexibility that you don’t always have. And from JJ to John and the rest of the group, been excited about where we’re at, but how we’re trending too at those positions. They compete really hard every single day. They compete with each other, but they do it in a really positive way. That O-line group is extremely tight. And I think you guys have seen that here, the three years of Coach Elarbee has been here.”

Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner: “Omari Thomas is a good leader. I think his leadership is continuing to grow. I think Tyler Baron has had the best offseason he’s had since we’ve been here. I’ve seen maturity come from him. I think Elijah Simmons and Dominic Bailey are growing. You’re starting to see some growth from multiple people. Roman Harrison has had a good camp and is starting to do things the Tennessee way, and not so much things his way. I think it’s becoming contagious. They’re not being afraid to call one another out. That’s what real leadership is, it’s just being willing to be different, be out front and be able to take a stand.

Josh Heupel on Tennessee’s young receivers: “Some of our young guys continue to grow and make some real strides to — Chas Nimrod, Kaleb Webb. The four older guys continue to push and compete. I like what they’ve been doing. They’ve operated really efficiently in what we’re doing offensively and within the scheme of what we’re doing. I think they’re playing with great fundamentals and techniques, so all in all, like what they’re doing. The back half the training camp — we’re essentially at the halfway point as far as pure training camp before we get into school — back half of it will be really important too.”

Josh Heupel on how much the offensive line can benefit from injury adversity during training camp: “I think having to move some pieces around a little bit, guys working at guard at center it’s tough because you’re in multiple situations. It’s not like you’re just going into a day depending on the period. We kind of cycle through. So, they get a little bit of that throughout every single practice. You want practice to be more difficult than it is on game day. And so, as we try to put the pieces together and how guys are going to play in the long run. It’s going to make us a lot stronger unit. There’s times you’re really fortunate at every position or on the O line and D line where you stay healthy for most of the season. But a lot of times it, it isn’t that way. You can go back to year one and I don’t know two or three players in the game. We lose the tackle and you know, the next guy has got to be ready to play. We’ve gotten a lot of work where I feel like they’ll be cohesive when you have your five starters. But at the same time, we’ve gotten some rotational stuff that I think will pay dividends as the year unfolds.”