KNOXVILLE — Jim Chaney enters his seventh season as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator.
He held the position under UT head coaches Lane Kiffin (2009), Derek Dooley (2010-12) and Jeremy Pruitt (2019-present).
During the second week of fall training camp, Chaney discussed how the incoming wide receivers are learning the offense.
“We’ll get to that game-week situation where we finally hone it down to game plans and making sure they’re fitting in the pieces where we think they can help us at within the structure of what we are trying to do to win that game,” Chaney said on a Zoom call with reporters. “I see them doing that. Forcing the overall learning curve, it’s tough. Tee (Martin) is on their butt constantly, just about learning. I think some of these kids have just been given the ball a lot of times, but there is so much learning, it’s like you’re teaching them how to learn an offense.
“It’s a whole different way of doing business, a whole different language they have to learn, and it is tough on them sometimes. These kids are having to learn a lot. Tee is doing a good job of getting the boys to figure out what they’re doing.”
Vols’ newcomers at wide receiver
- Dee Beckwith (freshman)
- Jimmy Calloway (freshman)
- Jimmy Holiday (freshman)
- Jalin Hyatt (freshman)
- Velus Jones Jr. (redshirt senior transfer)
- Malachi Wideman (freshman)
Chaney discussed if there is a comparison with the Vols’ freshmen receiving class to that of a decade ago and getting them involved this season, much like he did under Dooley with Justin Hunter, Cordarrelle Patterson and Da’Rick Rogers.
“I speculate that’ll it be similar to like Justin,” Chaney said. “They’ll eventually learn and get on the field more and more just like Da’Rick did. CP (Cordarrelle Patterson) was a different story. He was a junior college kid when he got here, but the other two that you mentioned would be similar to that.
“We feed them in. They have skill sets that we can definitely utilize. They will play specific things, I’m certain, as the season comes along. But I sure like what we are seeing right now.”