Plenty of runners required
KNOXVILLE — Much like its quarterback competition, Tennessee’s running backs race features two returning sophomores who participated in spring practices and two newcomers — a freshman and a graduate transfer.
One major difference is all four running backs, and maybe more, might play this season as the Volunteers look to bounce back under first-year coach Jeremy Pruitt after finishing
4-8 last season.
“I think if you’re going to be a running the football in this league, you probably have to have four to six guys,” Pruitt said last week in Atlanta at SEC Media Days.
“It’s a physical guy. When you turn around and hand the ball, there’s 11 guys on the other side who are usually big, fast and angry trying to hit you.”
Headlining the running backs group as the Vols prepare to begin preseason practice next Friday is speedy sophomore Ty Chandler and bruising Michigan State graduate transfer Madre London. Sophomore Tim Jordan and freshman Jeremy Banks also appear poised to compete for carries, while sophomore Trey Coleman and redshirt freshman Princeton Fant will add depth.
One intriguing storyline involving Tennessee’s running backs is about the man coaching them. Former Heisman Trophy-winning Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke has never been a running backs coach before, but that’s his assignment this season as he joins Pruitt’s staff after the two worked together last year at Alabama, where Weinke was an offensive analyst.
“For me, a guy that’s a football coach is a football coach,” Pruitt said in the spring. “I think a running back has to look at the game through the eyes of a quarterback. What keeps all the great young running backs from playing? (An inability to provide pass) protection.”
Weinke may be new to coaching running backs, but his résumé includes a two-year stint as quarterbacks coach of the NFL’s Rams. After a seven-year playing career in the NFL, Weinke’s break into coaching came when he spent five years as head coach at IMG Academy, a preparatory school in Bradenton, Florida, that has funneled prospects to major college football programs.
There, he coached numerous future Division I stars at various positions, including Arkansas offensive lineman Hjalte Froholdt, who was voted to the preseason AllSoutheastern Conference second team last week.
“Coach Weinke was a really cool coach,” Froholdt said at SEC Media Days. “Super calm and collected. Very — how to explain it — a very positive person.”
Pruitt’s words indicate proficiency in pass protection will be a key criteria in evaluating the play of Tennessee’s running backs. That’s where Weinke’s experience playing and coaching quarterbacks could help the running backs.
“He’s got to see it the same way the quarterback sees it, because he’s going to be changing protections and things like that,” Pruitt said. “Most of the time those great runners, you just make sure they know what time the bus is going to leave. It’s going to be good for our guys to have a guy like Chris, that has done that and done that at the highest level, to be in the room.”
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook. com/volsupdate.