Tennessee coaches still believe Wiggins can boost secondary

KNOXVILLE — A preseason hip injury has kept cornerback Shaq Wiggins from making the immediate impact Tennessee coaches hoped for from the Louisville graduate transfer.

They are optimistic he will be making up for lost time soon.

“I think he’s going to help us win football games here,” head coach Butch Jones said on the Southeastern Conference’s weekly teleconference.

Wiggins made his Tennessee debut late in last week’s 42-7 home win over Indiana State and could get on the field again when the No. 23 Volunteers (2-0) play at No. 25 Florida (0-1) Saturday afternoon.

“Now he’s getting back to where he’s getting his health back,” Jones said. “Really like what we’ve seen out of him this week in practice. I think it’s just the practice repetitions, I think it’s him getting his health back. He wants to do it.”

Tennessee’s secondary will get its toughest challenge to date from an offense likely to pass more than either of the first two opponents.

Wiggins remains listed as a third-team cornerback on the depth chart, but that appears to be primarily a byproduct of his injury recovery rather a reflection of his ability. Wiggins led Louisville with 11 pass breakups in

“Really like what we’ve seen out of him this week in practice. I think it’s just the practice repetitions, I think it’s him getting his health back. He wants to do it.”

– COACH BUTCH JONES

2015 while earning honorable mention on the All-Atlantic Coast Conference team.

The peculiarity of the schemes run by Tennessee’s first two opponents have also played a role in keeping Wiggins off the field.

“These last two offenses have been very, very different,” Tennessee secondary coach Charlton Warren said this week. “If you don’t practice because you’re injured, it’s hard to get the details of what they do correct. I think Shaq is well on the way to playing a lot for us.”

Wiggins, who started his career at Georgia in 2013 before transferring to Louisville, was challenged by Tennessee’s coaches in preseason practice to embrace the Vols’ way of doing things.

“I love Shaq, but Shaq’s got a long way to go in terms of the intangibles, our practice habits, our style of play, working through some things,” Jones said in late July.

Warren said this week that Wiggins has made progress in that regard.

“I think now that the injury bug is behind him, and he can practice fully and not miss any time, look for him taking the next step,” Warren said.

“He’s started to answer to that a little bit. I do see going forward, now that he’s healthy, a lot of things holding him back from an injury standpoint are behind him. Now he can really focus on getting the reps he needs to go out and play on Saturdays.”

Game captains

Tennessee announced late Thursday afternoon the four players who will represent the team as captains in Gainesville: redshirt senior defensive tackle Kendal Vickers, senior cornerback Emmanuel Moseley, senior center Jashon Robertson and senior tight end Jakob Johnson.