We begin this edition of the War Room as we always do. The War Room is a collective effort of notes and news gathered throughout the week by the Volquest staff that is located only on the General's Quarters. And now, it's on with the news.
Saturday officially starts game week for the Vols as it’s go time for the 2022 season. For Josh Heupel, his staff and his team, they are ready for a game week. There always comes a point during fall camp where a team is ready to play someone else and a coaching staff is ready to prepare for someone else and not just go against each other everyday — Tennessee is to that point which is why Saturday kicks off a normal game week for a Thursday night game.
As the team shifts into game week mode, the waiting game continues on Bru McCoy as he awaits an NCAA ruling on his eligibility after USC wouldn’t give him a simple sign off.
With McCoy’s status in limbo the question becomes what does the receiver rotation look like next week. You would anticipate Kelsey Pope playing a lot of guys but does he move some guys around. Could Jalin Hyatt get some work as an outside receiver to create some depth there and ultimately who are the best three receivers if McCoy is not eligible.
The theme for next week is to play a lot of bodies to further build depth and to truly figure out who’s going to be able to help and who’s not ready to help early in the season. Now, how many guys are above the ‘can help line’ should increase as the year goes along but it’s important to find out who can help in the critical first month of the season which has the road trip to Pittsburgh and Florida in Knoxville.
One of the guys to play next Thursday night is Jaylen Wright. The sophomore tailback has been limited up until this week and will head into the opener with no real contact work which is why playing him in Week One is important. You need to see where he is health-wise, and where is he in the development of pass protection.
Remember Pitt likes to get pretty crazy on third downs with exotic pressures which means blitz pick up and pass pro by the tailbacks and tight ends will be vital. You would think Tennessee would be more comfortable with Wright as the back up to Jabari Small than Dylan Sampson or Justin Williams-Thomas who are freshmen and would be playing their first college game on the road.
As we said, we expect a lot of guys to get on the field Thursday night. And for the most part this is a healthy team. At left tackle, look for them to rotate early and often with Gerald Mincey and JJ Crawford. It will be interesting to see where their trust lies with a third tight end. Miles Campbell is the most talented but where is their trust factor with him vs. transfer Charlie Browder who has improved throughout fall camp.
The same thing can be said for Jimmy Calloway at slot receiver. Talent isn’t the question, but do the coaches trust his consistency?
Then in the secondary, we expect a good number of combinations to be looked at as it sorts itself out before heading to Pittsburgh. What we do expect is Tamarion McDonald to start at the star/nickel position. McDonald has taken that opportunity and ran with it. He hasn’t given anyone a crack at taking that job from him this month. As someone in the program said, he’s been as consistent as anyone on this roster this camp. As Rob noted in the podcast this week, that was a position battle we had all circled in the off-season and McDonald has never let it become one.
Thursday night will also unveil the renovations to Neyland Stadium with the north end zone party deck and the west side club seats. Both areas are going to be completed as Thursday was ‘seat day’ in the west side club area and the north end zone area has been in clean up mode the last several days. The area underneath the west club is not finalized and has plenty of details to be finished out which was always the plan, but in speaking with Danny White earlier this week, there was little to no stress about the project being completed to the level everyone expected it to be when it started last December, which frankly is a pretty significant achievement given the supply chain issues that construction crews face.
We will have much more on the new projects next week, the new NIL section that will be a part of the Volshop as well as an improved footprint for beer sales in the stadium. Something that White and his staff identified last year and became a priority to improve on for this season.
Saturday officially starts game week for the Vols as it’s go time for the 2022 season. For Josh Heupel, his staff and his team, they are ready for a game week. There always comes a point during fall camp where a team is ready to play someone else and a coaching staff is ready to prepare for someone else and not just go against each other everyday — Tennessee is to that point which is why Saturday kicks off a normal game week for a Thursday night game.
As the team shifts into game week mode, the waiting game continues on Bru McCoy as he awaits an NCAA ruling on his eligibility after USC wouldn’t give him a simple sign off.
With McCoy’s status in limbo the question becomes what does the receiver rotation look like next week. You would anticipate Kelsey Pope playing a lot of guys but does he move some guys around. Could Jalin Hyatt get some work as an outside receiver to create some depth there and ultimately who are the best three receivers if McCoy is not eligible.
The theme for next week is to play a lot of bodies to further build depth and to truly figure out who’s going to be able to help and who’s not ready to help early in the season. Now, how many guys are above the ‘can help line’ should increase as the year goes along but it’s important to find out who can help in the critical first month of the season which has the road trip to Pittsburgh and Florida in Knoxville.
One of the guys to play next Thursday night is Jaylen Wright. The sophomore tailback has been limited up until this week and will head into the opener with no real contact work which is why playing him in Week One is important. You need to see where he is health-wise, and where is he in the development of pass protection.
Remember Pitt likes to get pretty crazy on third downs with exotic pressures which means blitz pick up and pass pro by the tailbacks and tight ends will be vital. You would think Tennessee would be more comfortable with Wright as the back up to Jabari Small than Dylan Sampson or Justin Williams-Thomas who are freshmen and would be playing their first college game on the road.
As we said, we expect a lot of guys to get on the field Thursday night. And for the most part this is a healthy team. At left tackle, look for them to rotate early and often with Gerald Mincey and JJ Crawford. It will be interesting to see where their trust lies with a third tight end. Miles Campbell is the most talented but where is their trust factor with him vs. transfer Charlie Browder who has improved throughout fall camp.
The same thing can be said for Jimmy Calloway at slot receiver. Talent isn’t the question, but do the coaches trust his consistency?
Then in the secondary, we expect a good number of combinations to be looked at as it sorts itself out before heading to Pittsburgh. What we do expect is Tamarion McDonald to start at the star/nickel position. McDonald has taken that opportunity and ran with it. He hasn’t given anyone a crack at taking that job from him this month. As someone in the program said, he’s been as consistent as anyone on this roster this camp. As Rob noted in the podcast this week, that was a position battle we had all circled in the off-season and McDonald has never let it become one.
Thursday night will also unveil the renovations to Neyland Stadium with the north end zone party deck and the west side club seats. Both areas are going to be completed as Thursday was ‘seat day’ in the west side club area and the north end zone area has been in clean up mode the last several days. The area underneath the west club is not finalized and has plenty of details to be finished out which was always the plan, but in speaking with Danny White earlier this week, there was little to no stress about the project being completed to the level everyone expected it to be when it started last December, which frankly is a pretty significant achievement given the supply chain issues that construction crews face.
We will have much more on the new projects next week, the new NIL section that will be a part of the Volshop as well as an improved footprint for beer sales in the stadium. Something that White and his staff identified last year and became a priority to improve on for this season.
