Vols Hold First Fall Scrimmage

Tennessee held its first scrimmage of fall camp on Sunday afternoon at Neyland Stadium, running 116 total plays between regular scrimmage work as well as situational, red zone and goal line work.
 
"We played a lot of guys in a lot of different situations with a lot of different groups," Pruitt said.

"At the beginning of practice, we worked a little bit of ones versus twos, and then twos versus ones and then some threes on threes. During that period, we moved some guys around to give them opportunities.
 
"I saw a lot of guys who were competing, but we were inconsistent on both sides of the ball and had too many undisciplined penalties, but we took care of the ball when we were running the ball. We had some turnovers when we put the ball in the air (but) we did create some explosive plays."
 
Despite being almost two weeks into fall camp, Pruitt emphasized that they are still a long way from determining who will earn starting spots for the team's season opener against West Virginia on September 1.
 
"As we get into figuring out who the players are going to be at which spots, it give us an opportunity to create some consistently and rhythm, but we are not there yet," Pruitt said. "There is still a lot of competition and we have to figure it out. This will be ongoing for a lot of positions throughout fall camp and throughout the year."
 
Pruitt also said he hopes most of his players have aspirations past starting a game for the Vols.
 
"With every position I hope I have players – whether they play quarterback, defensive tackle, punter or long snapper – I hope their number one goal is to not be the starter at Tennessee. I hope that is not their goal," Pruitt said. "That is not much of a goal in my opinion. I hope their goal is to be the best player in their position out there."
 
Tennessee's young players got plenty of opportunities to display their talents in Sunday's scrimmage. The youngsters showed some promise but also still have a long way to go according to Pruitt.
 
"We have a lot of young guys who don't know what to do, but they are more than capable and we are giving them opportunities," Pruitt said. "Today was their first chance out there on the field. Just like most of the guys, as the scrimmage went on they got better. 

"That is a good thing and that is positive, which means we didn't make a mistake when we were recruiting them. We have to get them to be consistent and learn what is going on."

Pruitt said that no quarterback has separated himself through nine practices. All four played in Sunday's scrimmage.

"From a quarterback standpoint, Jarrett Guarantano and Keller Chryst have done really good things," Pruitt said. "Will McBride played with our twos a lot today. He's had a solid camp.
 
"J.T. Shrout may have the best arm out of all of them, but he has to learn what is going on. He can spin it but he has to figure some things out. If you look over the practices, no one has really separated themselves yet."
 
Guarantano (six starts in 2017) and Chryst (13 starts at Stanford) have the most experience, while McBride (1 start in 2017) and Shrout are also battling to be the Vols' signal-caller this fall.

Pruitt said that redshirt juniors Jauan Jennings and Chance Hall were held out of the scrimmage as they continue to be brought along slowly this fall camp.

Jennings, a wide receiver, missed the final 11 games of the 2017 season after totaling 40 receptions for 580 yards and seven touchdowns as a sophomore in 2016. Hall started 13 games at right tackle in 2015 and 2016, collecting Freshman All-America honors along the way. He missed all of 2017 because of injury.

The Vols took Monday off before getting back to practice at Haslam Field on Tuesday afternoon.