Notes and Observations from Tennessee's 9th Spring Practice

Tennessee returned to the practice field for the ninth time this spring on Tuesday afternoon. The Vols will practice again on Thursday and will hold a closed scrimmage on Saturday before starting preparations for the Orange and White game on April 24th. The VR2 on SI team discusses their takeaways from the practice below.

For starters, there were several key guys returning to action. Jabari Small and Omari Thomas both made it out today after missing Saturday's open practice, with Jalin Hyatt returning to individual drills, while Tiyon Evans returned to group work and looked to be at full speed. We did not see Velus Jones Jr. during the open portion of practice today. (Update Jones was dressed out today, as the Football Twitter Account Posted a photo of him later in the day.) Elsewhere, Tyler Baron and Jay Blakely both were available today, as they spent the majority of Saturday's open practice on the sideline.

Tennessee's defensive line struggled on Saturday, but Rodney Garner's unit, usually coupled with the outside linebackers had a good outing today. Mike Ekeler could be heard telling them, "Let's go, keep going, this is the best we have looked yet." So the position group looks to be rebounding.

Not much change to report on the quarterback position from the limited viewing opportunities today. Again, Tennessee continues to emphasize the mesh point to start the day, and they also routinely work in the screen game. It is still early on, so each guy's reps are continuing to change daily as Josh Heupel has alluded to.

Brian Jean-Mary was hands-on with the linebackers today, as he was actively involved with the drill and coaching them up.

Alex Golesh continues to show why he is one of the best developers in the country at the tight end position. Once again he was very intense and hands-on, while making veteran Warren Jacob repeat a drill after he did not like the way he placed his hands during a blocking drill.

Kodi Burns was another coach actively involved in the drill today, as the wide receivers worked stemming their curl route to perfection. Burns did not like the way Cedric Tillman performed the drill, so he jumped in and ran the route himself.

Josh Heupel once again hovered over multiple positions during the open portion of practice today. Before the practice, Heupel went through a message with the team, and you could see the intensity pick up as the team started the day.