KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee football held its first scrimmage of 2025 on Monday night in Neyland Stadium to kick off its third week of spring practice.
The Volunteers completed some special teams work and did both live tackling and thud periods that saw ones against ones, twos versus twos and threes versus threes.
Quarterback Nico Iamaleava was sharp and connected multiple times with second-year receivers Mike Matthews, Braylon Staley and Chris Brazzell II.
Iamaleava is going through his third spring on campus and his second as the starter. Head coach Josh Heupel said he continues to master the offense at a high level.
“Command and control,” Heupel said. “(He has a) complete understanding. Some of that is with checks, it’s controlling your protections, understanding hot (routes), and then within the scope of that, being able to put him in different positions because you have that trust in him. This is a time of growth, for him and for everybody that we have on our roster.”
Quarterback Jake Merklinger found true freshman Travis Smith Jr. for a touchdown, and sophomore DeSean Bishop had multiple explosive runs.
“He did a great job in the offseason continuing to grow his body, and then for a young player, has handled what we’ve installed already in the early part (of spring), which is a lot,” Heupel said of Smith. “He has handled it extremely well. And so, when you understand what you are doing, now you can attack how you need to play from snap to whistle. He’s got great size, great length, competitive to the catch, and you saw that tonight.”
The Vols will review scrimmage video on Tuesday before returning to the practice field Wednesday morning.
Tickets for the Orange & White Game presented by Cherokee Resorts & Entertainment are on sale now at AllVols.com. Start time is 2 p.m. ET on April 12 in Neyland Stadium.
Opening statement…
“It was a good night of work, first scrimmage of the spring. All-in-all, I thought the operation, coaches and players on both sides of the ball, was really good. There are some thing pre-snap that we have to clean up on both sides of the ball, but other than that, pretty clean night. Really good special teams work at the beginning of the scrimmage and in the middle as well. It was a good night of work.”
On if he saw any explosive plays on offense during the scrimmage…
“Yeah, I saw some big plays down the football field tonight. Our young wide receivers, I thought they did a good job in their first opportunity in a scrimmage environment. They went and made plays, so I liked what I saw on that tonight, but during the early part of spring, too.”
On what has allowed freshman WR Travis Smith Jr. to have success as an early enrollee…
“He, like our freshman class, the midyear guys (that got here) in January, just really mature. He has handled himself extremely well, accountable in his competitive makeup and how he approaches every single day. He did a great job in the offseason continuing to grow his body, and then for a young player, has handled what we’ve installed already in the early part (of spring), which is a lot. He has handled it extremely well. And so, when you understand what you are doing, now you can attack how you need to play from snap to whistle. He’s got great size, great length, competitive to the catch, and you saw that tonight.”
On the sense of urgency for freshman receivers Travis Smith Jr. and Radarious Jackson…
“That’s just the landscape of college football. As your roster turns over, your young guys have to be ready to learn it, earn it and go take a job. Once they prove that, then it’s our job to put them in a place where they can go have success. Those young guys have approached it the right way. We’re a long way away from where we need to be, but if they continue to chop wood every single day, we have a chance.”
On how QB Nico Iamaleava has improved since the end of the 2024 season…
“Command and control. (He has a) complete understanding. Some of that is with checks, it’s controlling your protections, understanding hot (routes), and then within the scope of that, being able to put him in different positions because you have that trust in him. This is a time of growth, for him and for everybody that we have on our roster.”
On the running backs’ performance in the scrimmage…
“I thought (DeSean Bishop) and (Peyton Lewis) did a really nice job today in the run game, but also in pass protection. I thought the young guys that are new to our football team went out and executed extremely well, popped some runs. But I liked the way they finished them, getting pad under pad and going plus-two.”
On how he feels the offensive line is coming together so far this spring…
“At this point, we don’t have just a first five. We are playing guys in multiple positions, seeing their ability to handle it, but also seeing their growth and execution within that. There is great competition every single day, and we are going to keep that going as we go through the spring.”
On what he wants to see from the tight end room this spring with the absence of Miles Kitselman…
“Miles is a great leader. He has handled himself that way even since he has been injured, and we need that from him. He has a lot of experience, maturity and great leadership traits. The other guys at that position are getting a ton of work. They were doing that before. Miles, we kind of had him in the limited role; when I say that, just because of the amount of football that he has played. It will be important that all those young guys continue to come along. (Ethan Davis) has done a really nice job. He is continuing to grow – I think I said that a couple of days ago with you guys – outside of the game, and that’s parlayed itself into how he is playing, play-in and play-out, day-in and day-out with us on the field. The young guys have to continue to take steps forward.”
On how he assessed the center position during the scrimmage…
“Tonight, I thought the guys did a really good job. There weren’t a bunch of issues as far as communication. We worked silent count tonight, had crowd noise. I thought they handled it all-in-all really well. There are a lot of young guys that are extremely talented that just have to continue to grow within the scope of what we’re doing. I thought they performed well tonight. They’ve done that the first five or six days, but we still have a lot of growth left.”
On Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley embracing their roles…
“Those guys have been really mature in the way that they’ve approached everything that we’re doing inside of our program. Year one to year two, we’ve talked about that with quarterbacks in the past, but it’s true for everybody. They have great understanding. They understand how to take care of their bodies. They’ve competed extremely hard every day in practice. They’re consistent in what we’re getting from them. Those are two young guys that have maturity—that are going to have to take a leadership role inside of that wide receiver room as well. Not just in how they play, but bringing that entire group along.”
On what the team needs to take from tonight’s scrimmage moving into the next segment of spring ball…
“The first thing is that the coaches are off the field, so you have to take ownership of it. The first thing is learning how hard you have to play from snap to whistle, then being able to reset from play to play. As we go watch the tape from tonight as a staff and tomorrow with our guys, there are going to be a lot of things that we are going to have to get better at. Playing smart football within the scope of our schemes. I wanted to see that tonight and from the sidelines, I liked what I saw. We will see a lot more when we watch the tape.”
On assessing the defensive line…
“The guys that have played a lot of football have continued to grow as players. Some young guys that got some reps last year but maybe were not getting the bulk of them, are going to have to step up. I like the length and athleticism of that group. We have young guys that are going to have to continually grow here throughout spring ball. Some guys that aren’t practicing right now, that when we get to training camp, it can’t be day one for them. They have to do a great job being a pro and growing within the scope of what we’re doing schematically.”
On what he liked about the defense in the scrimmage…
“I thought all-in-all that they played extremely hard, ran to the football and were physical at the point of contact. Had some guys that made competitive plays. That’s a starting point.”
On how we would assess quarterbacks Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre tonight…
“I thought both of them handled the mechanics of the operations pretty well throughout the course of the game. There are some things they have to get better at too, making sure all 11 are on the same page, and that we’re operating the right way. For night one inside of the scrimmage atmosphere, doing it on a silent count and crowd noise, they handled themselves pretty well.”
