KNOXVILLE — Game week ahead of the Sept. 26 season opener is approaching for Tennessee.
Tennessee practiced for the 16th time Thursday during fall training camp. Following practice, Jeremy Pruitt addressed the Vols’ tight end unit. It is a unit that saw redshirt freshman Jackson Lowe enter the transfer portal this week.
“The tight end position we are working several guys there,” Pruitt said on a Zoom call with reporters. “It is a competitive spot. There’s not much difference in the guys. How they go about their business every day, how they practice, how they compete, what kind of habits they’ve created. They control it. We want to play the best players, and we’ve got some guys who are competing hard there to do that.”
The tight end group is coached by Joe Osovet this season. The unit consists of Austin Pope, Princeton Fant, Sean Brown, Jordan Allen and Jacob Warren.
Pope underwent back surgery in July. Pruitt mentioned that Pope “is not going to play right now.”
“We’re working Princeton Fant, Sean Brown, Jordan Allen, Jacob Warren, so we’ve got a lot of guys that are getting reps in there,” Pruitt said. “Most of those guys have played very little football for us, so they’ve got to work on their consistency, they’ve got to be able to block the C-area, they’ve got to play fast, they’ve got to be good communicators.
“That’s one position that you really need to be instinctive to have a feel because we ask the tight ends to do a lot. It’s a position where there’s lots of competition. I have confidence in all of those guys, but somebody’s got to separate themselves.”
