Tennessee practiced for the eighth time during spring Tuesday at Haslam Field.
Following practice, Tennessee linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary discussed early enrollee freshman Elijah Herring.
Jean-Mary discussed how difficult it is for a freshman to come in and learn the linebacker position.
“It is difficult,” Jean-Mary said. “Not only do you have to come in and learn a college system, which is always tough for a high school player and he is coming in — in the spring, so he didn’t have the benefit of a summer scouting report where he has a chance to get his feet under him. Then, you are going against one of the top offenses in the country that plays with tempo and you have to defend sideline-to-sideline against these guys. It is a challenge, but it is one of those things that, when he can weather it and it starts to slow down for him, his best days are going to be ahead of him.
“We told him, its going to be rough. You have coaches yelling at you. You’ve got teammates yelling at you when you’re trying to get lined up and they are going at warp speed. It can be overwhelming, but he is a super mature kid, and even when he makes mistakes, he is one of those kids that comes to the sideline and before you can correct him, he tells you what he did wrong. When kids do that, you know that it means something to them and there is a really good chance he is going to catch on sooner than later.”
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