Lucas Panzica talks about Tennessee Vols spring practice, as the Orange and White game approaches, focusing in one one key element of the offense that has been outstanding so far.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00As the orange and white game fast approaches for Tennessee football, there have already been two spring scrimmages where one key element of the offense has really stuck out early on.
00:12Hey, Lucas Panzeca here from 104.5 The Zone and A to Z Sports.
00:16So Tennessee will wrap up spring practice on Saturday, April 12th in Neyland Stadium for the orange and white game.
00:23But the football team has already been on the field in Neyland for two different spring scrimmages.
00:27Now, I was not on hand for either of those, but I've talked to multiple people that were able to take some of that action in and covering it up close.
00:35People like Eric Cain of VolQuest, Ramon Foster, my colleague over at The Zone, who now, of course, is the new analyst for the Vol Network.
00:43And Josh Heupel, of course, has met with the media after each of these two scrimmages.
00:47And it sounds like the first scrimmage went to the offense, the second scrimmage going to the defense.
00:52But I want to talk about one key element of the offense that stuck out in that first scrimmage.
00:57And that sounds like it was team speed and explosiveness, especially at the wide receiver position.
01:04We've talked about it here.
01:05Tennessee is completely rebooting the wide receiver spot in 2025.
01:10Chris Brazel is your lead returning receiver.
01:12And we understand Mike Matthews has got to take a big year two leap after coming on as a five-star freshman last year, but not really getting enough snaps to make a major impact.
01:22You look at this Tennessee wide receiver core, and they may have to get some help from some young faces.
01:28Travis Smith reportedly popped in that first spring scrimmage.
01:32A four-star freshman, if Travis Smith is to have a big role on this Tennessee team in 2025, then it would kind of buck a trend in the Josh Heupel years of Tennessee football.
01:42And that would be a true freshman having a big impact at the wide receiver position.
01:47But it may happen this season strictly out of necessity.
01:51Another player that has flashed in spring ball is incoming sophomore Braylon Staley, who certainly turned some heads last year during his first spring practice as a Tennessee volunteer.
02:02Again, he may be called on in 2025 because Tennessee has got to have multiple bodies stepping up at the wide receiver spot.
02:10Now, the good news is all of these guys seem to have an explosive nature to their game that maybe Tennessee was lacking a little bit last year with the exception of Dante Thornton.
02:21Now, another question is how big of a year two leap will quarterback Nico Iamaliava take in his ownership of the offense?
02:27And will Tennessee truly be able to harness the talent of these wide receivers to be able to raise that level of offensive explosiveness and efficiency to the level that we saw in 2022?
02:39There are a lot of unproven faces, so we don't know the answer to that question yet.
02:44But it does seem like if early spring scrimmages are any indication, Tennessee has the potential to be a more explosive and a faster team on the outside this season at the wide receiver spot.