Georgia Bulldogs begin the grind of preseason camp
KNOXVILLE — Thursday afternoon, Tennessee offensive coordinator Jim Chaney was asked if there was a way to coach around the offensive line, as that Volunteers position group has been much maligned the past couple of seasons.
“You can’t,” Chaney snapped, then added, “I don’t think it’s possible. I don’t believe it’s possible. I don’t think you can coach around your offensive line. Football’s been a game played on the line of scrimmage for a lot of years.
“At Purdue years ago, we threw it all the time and everybody says, ‘Well, you’re doing that to bypass your line.’ We had a lot of linemen go on and play in the NFL. We weren’t winning the game because of the lack of the line play; we were winning because of the line play. We were just doing it a different way.
“It’s hard to hide if you’re deficient on the offensive line — it’s difficult to do. I think it’s virtually impossible at times. My anticipation is that our kids are going to go out there and compete. We’re going to be just fine. We’re going to go get better as the season goes on and continue to develop. And hopefully everything will go our way.”
Friday afternoon, during the team’s first practice, Chaney — who doesn’t coach a position group with the Vols — was very attentive while working with the line. At one point during the periods open to the media, Chaney barked at the group to “hit something!”
Tennessee had one of the top offensive-line recruiting classes in the country this year with four new bodies. Two of those, Wanya Morris and Darnell Wright, were receiving a lot of repetitions Friday at the tackle position. In addition, the return of junior Trey Smith to the practice field — albeit on a limited basis — gave a glimmer of hope that the line will better this season.
The 6-foot-6, 325-pound Smith, who has battled recurring blood clots for the past 18 months, went through some of the drills during the sessions available to the media Friday, with doctors monitoring his every move. His return is still not a guarantee, although he has expressed an interest in playing.
“I think we all realize that one of these days football is going to be taken away from us, and
for Trey last year it happened a little sooner than he expected,” Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt said after Friday’s practice. “Our training staff and doctors have worked extremely hard to get the correct information to give Trey an opportunity, and Trey has worked probably as hard as anybody on our football program this offseason. So if he had an opportunity — he didn’t know if he was going to have an opportunity — but if he was going to have an opportunity he was going to be ready.
“We still have a ways to go with that, Trey knows that. We are just taking it one day at a time.”
But even the optimism of getting Smith back; the additions of Morris, Wright, Chris Akporoghene and Jackson Lampley; and the return of center Brandon Kennedy — who started the 2018 opener before being lost with a knee injury — give reason for Pruitt and Chaney to believe that the 2019 offense would be much improved.
And once Chaney has had a chance to evaluate his players further, he can determine what he’s going to want his offense to look like this season — although he has a good idea what style that’s going to be.
“I think my stint in the National Football League (2006-08 with the St. Louis Rams) helped me understand the importance of winning situational football,” he said. “To do that you have to win short yardage, you have to win in the tight red zone, you have to be able to run the ball out in the four-minute drill. To do that, you have to have a physical mindset.
“Philosophical change from the Purdue through the NFL years to here is that you have to be able to do a little bit of everything to be successful. You can’t be one-dimensional. I hang my hat on if you’re the most physical team on the football field, you have a chance. We’ll continue to try to do that.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.