KNOXVILLE – Tennessee returns to the practice field Tuesday, kicking off spring football.
In January, offensive lineman Trey Smith announced his decision to return to Tennessee for his senior season.
Smith started 12 games at left guard in 2019. He started the first seven games at left tackle in 2018 before being shut down for the rest of the season due to blood clots. As a freshman in 2017, Smith started the first eight games at right guard, three contests at left tackle and the season-finale at left guard.
Smith still has an aspiration of starting at left tackle, something he discussed last November during media availability.
“I love playing guard, but I know I’m capable of playing tackle if I need to,” Smith said ahead of playing Missouri last November. “Just a little proper practice of stuff I needed, just getting ready to actually play the position and understand it.
“Also, to play tackle I need to lose a lot of weight. That’s one thing I’m going to do next time.”
Smith’s measurements as a guard last season was 6-foot-6, 325-pounds after being 6-foot-6, 320-pounds in 2018 playing left tackle.
Wanya Morris started alongside Smith on the Vols’ offensive line last season. Morris made 12 starts at left tackle in his freshman campaign, but will miss spring practices due to a hip injury. His absence leaves a door open for Smith to fulfill an aspiration to play left tackle again and receiving reps at the position during spring practices.
Grace Christian head coach Rusty Bradley coached Smith at University School of Jackson, serving in the same capacity during the 2016 season.
Bradley discussed his time coaching Smith and his ability to play any position on the offensive line with Vols Wire.
“He played left tackle for us at USJ,” Bradley said of Smith. “When we were running to the left, I put him at left tackle, and if we were doing anything to the right, I put him at right tackle. So everyone kind of knew where the ball was going, but Trey was a dominant player in high school.”
Bradley mentioned that Smith became accustomed with the guard position at the Under Armour All-America Game ahead of enrolling at Tennessee.
“What happened and kind of the way he started playing guard was at the Under Armour All-America Game,” Bradley said of Smith. “They had a kid cancel on the team that he was playing on and they needed someone to move to guard.
“Trey said I’ll try it and fell in love with it. He actually could play all five positions and played three-technique for us defensively, so we kept Trey on the field as much as we could.”
Bradley also discussed Smith’s recruiting process and him being humble in the amount school’s who were interested in him.
“The thing that I was most impressed with, a lot of guys today are about the attention on social media and all of the hype, recruiting and the stars,” Bradley said. “Trey was as low-profile and down-to-earth as a kid that I have ever experienced. He was humble, a team guy and just wanted to be part of the program and did not talk about recruiting. We never really talked about recruiting, but it was definitely a circus.
“There was one day in particular when Butch Jones, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer all came to school on the same day. It was a three-ring circus, but he was just so humble. He worked hard and was a really good player.”
The entire interview with Bradley can listened to here or below on the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days.” The Grace Christian Academy head coach discussed his career that included time at Colorado under Gary Barnett.
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