Jennings is focused on strong final Vols season
KNOXVILLE — Jauan Jennings has gone through all of the highs and lows possible during his Tennessee football career. Game-winning catches. Injuries.
Being dismissed from the team. Everything in between.
It’s shaped him, and it appears he’s grown from all of it as he enters his senior season with the Volunteers.
But it hasn’t necessarily changed the core of who he is, when he recently told a group of reporters, “I’m the alpha male anywhere I go.”
It’s that confidence with which he’ll always carry himself. It’s that confidence that led him to coming down with Josh Dobbs’ Hail Mary pass that beat Georgia in 2016.
That confidence has led to 87 career pass receptions, 1,184 receiving yards and 10 career touchdowns despite battling injuries the past two seasons. He was banged up some this summer and reportedly suffered a knee injury that required surgery, but he has been back and seems to be up to full speed in preseason camp.
But it’s not the confidence that the coaching staff is expecting from the 6-foot-3, 205-pounder heading into his fifth and final season. It’s leadership.
“Lead by example, in a positive way,” receivers coach Tee Martin said when asked what he expects from Jennings this season. “He’s turning the corner, and it’s something he focused on in spring. He was one of those receivers that really wanted to get the ball and was a little emotional at times. You saw him really grow toward that at the end of spring and went hard on every play. We are going to need him to do that.
“We are going to need to move him around, because he is one of our best guys. He has had a really positive attitude and has taken Ramel (Keyton) under his wing a little bit in the summer and they have gotten closer. Jauan has changed a little bit for the positive. He’s doing everything that we are asking him to do. It’s his last year and I think he understands the importance of him having a good season.”
Jennings is the most experienced — and the most emotional — member of a veteran receiver corps. Marquez Callaway has 62 career catches. Brandon Johnson has 58. Tyler Byrd is a senior with 19 catches and a pair of scores. Juniors Josh Palmer (23 catches, two touchdowns) and Jordan Murphy (225 career yards, touchdown) have shown promise.
But that position starts with Jennings, whose focus is on restoring the Vols to a level of respectability that leads to at least a bowl game after a two-year hiatus. And it appears that he’ll enter the season healthy — and confident in his coaching staff, led by Jeremy Pruitt. When asked if he was comfortable understanding what the latest Vols head coach wants, Jennings shook his head no.
“I’m even more uncomfortable,” he said. “You can’t ever be comfortable. Being satisfied is a downfall, and having Coach Pruitt here a second year makes me even more hungry. I know what he expects as a coach. This whole coaching staff is nothing but winners, and we need that mentality to carry through the entire team. I can’t wait to see how this season is going to go.
“As for my motivation, it’s always been the same — to win games. I’m very competitive as you all know, and this year having the team we have, they’re always being competitive as well. We’re just going to try to put the pieces together working day in and day out during this year’s camp.”