Tee Martin: Vols Freshman Playing 'Hybrid Role' to Start Fall Camp

Tee Martin: Vols Freshman Playing 'Hybrid Role' to Start Fall Camp

Tennessee recruited Dee Beckwith out of high school as a two-sport athlete. The Florence, Ala., star played wildcat quarterback and was highly successful, but he was always going to be moved to receiver at the college level.

Today, during a media availability, Tee Martin, shared insight on how the coveted freshman is fitting in.

Today, Martin mentioned that Beckwith has been working back and forth with the tight ends and wide receivers.

Martin said on Beckwith, “Dee bounces back and forth between the wide receiver room and the tight end room. He’s kind of a hybrid receiver/tight end type of body type. He hasn’t been around for a few days, but when he was there, he was progressing quickly.

Martin continued on Beckwith, "He’s fast, he’s big, he’s physical, a young man who the nuances of the game and the feel from when he’s outside versus when he’s inside, when he’s in the core, possibly putting his hands down – we haven’t decided yet if we’re going to actually progress him that far at that position yet – but, he has the skillset. He has the want to. He’s a young man that’s always around asking questions, always trying to watch extra film and improve himself. That’s what you want from a young guy. He just needs a lot of reps.”

The tight ends position is a bit of wild card for the Vols heading into 2020, so Beckwith could be a welcome addition to depth in the room.

Jim Chaney said on the position group last week, "Well Austin (Pope) is that, he's a stabilizing force. He's a good kid, been around football a long time. We like what he brings to the table. He will always be that consistent kid that we like. Behind him, we have Princeton Fant, who is a young man who bounced around a lot early in his career. We feel real comfortable where we have him right now doing what he needs to be doing. Jacob Warren is doing a fine job. There is a lot of competition in the room. They all have a little different skill set it seems like, it's interesting to me. Behind him, you have Jordan Allen and you got Sean Brown.  You got some other guys that are just mixing around. There's a lot of competition there, waiting on someone to jump above the other ones and emerge as a solid football player. They're just continually learning. You're talking about guys that haven't played a lot of football for us in those five. That is a position that we are trying to force-feed real fast on development and we are doing it, hopefully, through competition."