REACTION: What We've Learned About The 2024 Tennessee Football Roster...

we're talking SEC football with Southeastern 14 I'm Chase Robinson thanks for watching this today we're going to dive into the Tennessee v as following their spring game from uh this past Saturday we're gonna break it down with Ryan Sylvia of vp.com but before we do that I want to remind you about bet online our channel is brought to you by bet online your number one source for all your summer Sports this season MLB golf NBA NHL all the latest stats news and scores available for your favorite teams so get the latest odds and lines including the latest team matchups player props and odds on just about every sport out there head over to their website or use your Mobile advice uh device to get in on the action bet online where the game starts so for the uh Tennessee Volunteers heading into uh year four with Josh hyle leading the charge there in Knoxville some new faces all over the field we'll dive into that again Ryan Sylvia with vp.com covers the Tennessee Vs Ryan first of all thanks uh thanks for coming on talking some vs football with us yeah I appreciate the invite always a fun time talking football season so spring game last Saturday uh you got the uh you got the Orange versus white talk to us a little bit uh kind of how how Tennesse how the how the coaching staff approaches the the spring game every year there at Knoxville yeah under this staff it's been kind of on the boring side I guess especially if you compare it to what Old Miss was doing out in Oxford it's definitely not maybe as fun as that over Knoxville uh they don't show much no one really does it's a pretty straightforward we're just gonna alternate uh possessions do punts against the air they don't really separate anyone into teams it's kind of all right offense your orange this possession and maybe the same guys or white the next possession so there's not really a cohesive scoring system or anything like that so kind of the the main overall goal of the spring game under Hyo has just been get some fans in the building it was limited due to rations to nean Stadium but you still got about 10K people in there and then maybe get some eyes on some new faces whether it's transfers or freshman and see how Nico is doing which is what everyone wants to talk about yeah and that's where I want to start uh Nico Amala coming in at quarterback and um there's been a lot of talk about him really since he was in high school and then when he committed to Tennessee and and uh just from from what you've seen what you've heard just with his his time so far in Knoxville how's it going and and uh what's kind of the future look like for him everyone you talk to talks about how he's the real deal and he's all five stars that he's been given if you go to rivals.com he was the number two overall player in the class so that's kind of been the consensus is he's lived up to the hype so far obviously he has only one start under his belt it was against Iowa and the Citrus Bowl so you put as much kind of credence to that as you want in those those bowl games where there's opt outs on both sides and you kind of can't necessarily put your full finger on how good that performance was but he goes out there he hangs a bunch of points the defense backs him up and tennessy walks away with the blowout win so one start down you feel pretty good you go into the offseason now as a a red shirt freshman and you still kind of hear the buzz around guys and you talk to wide receivers or other offensive pieces and everyone's really complimentary of what he's been able to do I always tell this story uh which I think kind of sum up what his teammates think of him at least last season he throws for his first touchdown pass uh I believe it was in that Yukon game it was later in the season kind of mop up Duty work he hits tight end mcco and castles and the next week we talk to castles about it and he he starts grin he's like yeah I got my gloves that I caught the ball with I got Nico to sign them those are GNA be worth a lot one day I want to put them on my wall in my living room so having a a fifth year senior guy who's seen a lot of football catch a pass from a freshman and it's not like it's his first touchdown pass or or touchdown catch he was really involved in the offense for him to kind of already say like hey this guy's going to be legit I I needed to get those gloves signed I think that says a lot about kind of where this program thinks Nico stands going forward and Josh Hy is an offensive guy uh do you see uh Nico just fitting into his system already or they have kind of changed things to to make it fit his his strengths there's not really much changes we've seen it's really been the the same offense but obviously that offense is really quarterback friendly uh it it puts your offense in positions to succeed so there's going to be things here and there where maybe you play to the strengths of Nico a little bit more than what you did with the Joe Milton or henden hooker but the overall system the overall Concepts they're all going to be the same uh and that's kind of on each player to personally when they come into this system to to get a grasp of it and you talk to guys and they all say that it takes a minute but once you start to get used to it it's really not that bad and Nico now his second off season with Tennessee because he was in an early and rly last year he has a start under his belt and he's going in as that unquestion starter he he seems to have a pretty good grasp of what hyp and that whole staff wants to do as far as pieces around him I know again like you said everybody likes to talk about Nico and what he's bringing but as far as guys maybe uh in the in the skill positions around him what have you seen this spring and and what are you hearing uh kind of some of the skill guys that we could look forward to for the Falls I I think to start a running back because really the leader of this team at least vocally is Junior running back Dylan Samson uh before the scrimmages he's the one that's addressing the team as a whole if you go to practice he he's that vocal leader that's kind of corralling the locker room and and giving the message from the player perspective to the team and he had a really good season last year where he started as probably running back three behind Jabari small and Jaylen Wright and by the end of the year Jaylen Wright was still that running back one but Dylan Samson was getting a lot more touches than Jabari small and it's not like Jabari small wasn't a bad back for Tennessee it was just more how good Dylan Samson was as a sophomore and now he comes into this year as running back one uh not only does he have those leadership traits but he's an explosive athlete he's really quick with the ball in his hands he has kind of that home run hitting ability where if he gets a little bit of grass in front of him he could go all the way and he also understands kind of that plus two mentality where you get your shoulder down and you you get those couple extra yards so at running back even though maybe behind him is a little bit sketchy at the moment due to some injuries cam seldon's missing a good amount of time true freshman pton Lewis missed this spring at the top of that you feel really good at the wide receiver position they they bring in a guy Chris Brazzle II from Tain and we'll have to see where he kind of fits in he's on the younger side has multiple years of Eligibility but he has been kind of the storyline at wide receiver throughout spring he he's caught a lot of eyes he he has a lot of attention he caught a big touchdown pass in the second half of the orange and white game down the sideline where where he goes all the way he's kind of showing that he could be a factor this year but man that that wide receiver room is really crowded you have brw McCoy coming back on the outside Chaz Nimrod he's versatile he he can play in the slaughter on the outside Caleb Webb comes back Mike Matthews a five-star freshman who's also going to be on the outside he's gonna get on the field somewhere or the other and then in the slot scir White's coming back for his junior year he missed the spring game due to some some Family Matters and then brillan Staley another true freshman who he's in the slot but he's also been kind of one of the storylines of the spring as far as uh defense goes I'm hearing a lot reading a lot about the defensive line talk to me about that is it just is it size numbers uh what what are folks liking about the defensive line I think it's the depth Rodney Garner defensive line coach with UT he he really likes to get a big rotation in there especially with how often that defense is on the field with the nature of what the offense to do in the pace they play with he he feels like they need to be able to go three deep sometimes four deep on that depth chart and get guys snaps in just to get some of your your more star players uh rest that they need to to make an impact late in the game and this year tasy boasts a lot of depth and that's on the interior that's on the Edge Leo in defensive end so you have the Stars like a James Pierce Jr who's projected to be one of if not the best defenders in the SEC next year and Amari Thomas on the inside returning for his final year of Eligibility but when you look behind him there's not that big of a drop off and when you look behind that guy there still doesn't seem to be that big of a drop off so I think that's why they're getting so much praise why defensive coordinator Tim Banks maybe walked it back a little bit right when he said it but talked about them being one of the best units in the country and why there's such a high expectation for that unit to kind of maybe not carry the defense but make up for some possible mistakes with the young secondary yeah so and that's what I was going to go to next is is what's the rest of Defense look like because looking at the depth chart and everything it it does look like uh there is some youth especially in that secondary there there's youth in the secondary but the talent is really apparent right when you watch them the the athleticism the the physical abilities of the group they have now I think is a step above where they've been at under Josh hpel and there is a lot that you can say about kind of being a veteran and playing a lot of college football that that definitely helps but when you have the younger guys come in who are super athletic football players and just maybe more kind of top tier SEC talented football players even though they're young and there's going to be those those young player mistakes on the field I think that that's the direction Josh HPA wants to go in eventually they're going to get that experience whether it's pretty or not but it's gonna be young but the upside I think is what people are trying to focus on right now is there's like like I said you're GNA have Stakes but in the long term I I think they feel good about guys like Ricky Gibson freshman bu Carter Jordan Matthews Jordan Thomas and you can kind of go gerod McCoy you can go on the list of guys that they feel good for the future of as far as the transfer portal goes uh open right now do you see Tennessee being a team that's going to be aggressive and bringing some guys in uh over the the next couple of weeks the portals open I don't really think so there there was rumors about talking to the Oregon State running back but but that it isn't going to be a thing just because that's kind of the position of not like I mentioned cam Seldon misses the spring and then true freshman pton Lewis also misses the spring so there was a hole maybe a running back two running back three tassy I think feels confident with the guys they still have left and and they do feel like cam seldon's probably G to be good to go for this season so that was the position if they were going to do anything that I think they would look to but I would be surprised if they make any sort of Big Splash really the only movement so far was Elijah Herring leted the team in tackles last year as the starting middle linebacker and every game but the first one because of Keenan pe's injury and and he's going to enter the Portal district I believe he's taking a visit to to Colorado pretty soon so that's a probably the most significant loss you'll get as well but there there's a lot of guys in the linebacker room which uh we haven't been able to say under Josh hles ten years so far but they actually have guys there now so I feel like that's also not too big of a loss vp.com where you can find all things Tennessee Ryan Sylvia appreciate you for coming on talking some Tennessee football with us today yeah thanks Chase thanks for having me on absolutely subscribe like this video subscribe to our page and we'll have more great college football content coming your way here on sou Eastern 14