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Watch: Tennessee holds spring practice No. 3 as the Vols don pads

On3 imageby:Brent Hubbs•about 12 hours•

Brent_Hubbs

Tennessee football. Credit: Volquest
Tennessee football. Credit: Volquest

Tennessee was back on the practice field on Wednesday for the second of three practices this week in their first full work of work. I also meant the Vols were in shells moving closer to full padded full contact work. 

Tennessee will wrap up the week on Friday before players head off campus for a week for spring break. 

Here are a few highlights from the Vols third workout. 

For defensive coordinator Tim Banks spring practice is about resetting everything and rebuilding a defense that’s coming off the best year Tennessee has had under Banks. 

“We’re just really working on our core identity right now,” Banks said. “And we got a lot of new faces out there, you can’t take anything for granted. So we’re just starting from the bottom up, everybody’s starting from scratch and we’re just building, laying the foundation.”

The foundation also includes figuring out what your players do best and building around that.

“Obviously you always try to figure out how you can play better in some of the games that you weren’t quite successful in,” Banks offered. “And then obviously some things you did well, why did you do them well? So we’re trying to learn, we’re trying to grow. And that’s what the cut-ups are for. As we get used to our new personnel, we’re defining right now what it is that they do well, what are some of their strengths, obviously their weaknesses, and how can we make them better within the framework of our defense. And all that information is really based on what we saw coming out of last season and how we can get better.”

Defensively, it starts with the defensive front. A year ago last spring, Banks said he thought the defensive front would be the best in the country. That front lost four players to graduation this off-season. Banks still likes the talent in the line of scrimmage that is still developing. 

“I think it’s a work in progress, but in a good way,” Banks said. “Those guys obviously were really productive for us and some guys that have played some football. But I think these young guys will be fine. You mentioned (Daevin) Hobbs. Hobbs played a lot of football over the last couple years and we’re super excited about his growth and his development. Jackson Moi, (Bryson) Eason, those guys who played some football. So they really worked during winter conditioning about leadership, working on their leadership skills and I think we’re going to see some dividends being paid as we get further and further during camp.”

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