“This is about as excited as I have been to get started for a spring practice. It is typical in some ways in that we have a mix of guys who have played and have some experience along with a number of youthful guys both on offense and defense. Certainly, spring practice is a time for them to make a move and see where they are.

“Our first challenge as always is to find the guys on the field who want to play with tremendous effort. The older, more experienced guys who have played in the Southeastern Conference understand that and they certainly need to lead the way. The guys who haven’t played in the SEC and against that competition, they have to learn that during the course of spring practice. Meetings are great, individual work is great, team work is great, but learning to play full speed when it is 11-on-11 is extremely important to us and we certainly will address that during the course of spring practice.

“This is Phase 2 of four phases, the third being summer workouts that always are important and the fourth being the fall, particularly the time in two-a-days. This is a time that they have to really push themselves to the front as young players to establish themselves as guys we can count on.

“One of our main goals for this spring will be to develop our leadership on our football team. We lost some outstanding individuals who were very good leaders for us, particularly when times were tough. One of our goals in spring practice will be to push those guys to the front.

“It does start up front in the offensive and defensive front. Defensive front-wise, we have some guys who have played and some who have played extremely well for us at different times in Robert Ayers, Dan Williams, Wes Brown, Demonte’ Bolden and Walter Fisher. Those guys need to lead the Chris Walkers and Ben Martins, who I think are both outstanding prospects. We are a little bit concerned about Chris Walker. He was doing the squat last week and may not be able to go full speed this week. But the veterans need to lead the way for those guys. I think Chris Walker and Ben Martin know how to practice and know how to prepare, but we’ve got another group in Donald Langley, Chase Nelson and Victor Thomas who really have to understand what it takes to play in this league and learn to play full-speed with great intensity and great effort to allow themselves the chance to be more consistent than they have been to this point.

“There is a linebacking group that has played in Ellix Wilson, Nevin McKenzie, Adam Myers-White and Rico McCoy, and even Savion Frazier and Nick Reveiz have had some opportunities to play. But replacing Ryan Karl and Jerod Mayo is going to be a tremendous challenge for those guys. Three of those guys are seniors and Rico has played, so we’re expecting those guys to step up and be leaders. I’m excited about Savion Frazier and his prospects to be a really good player. And if everybody on our team plays with the intensity and the effort that Nick Reveiz does, then we will have a fine football team. Chris Donald is kind of a mystery right now. We’ve tried him at a couple different spots and have moved him back to (middle) linebacker. This will be a very important spring for him that he kind of comes out of his shell and becomes the player we and he would like to be. Newcomer Austin Johnson is a guy we are pretty darn excited about. Austin has shown in the offseason program that he knows how to practice and work. He comes from a very fine high school program that competed for state championships and it will be an interesting spring for him.

“In the secondary, a good many of the guys have played. Last year going through all we went through to get those guys ready, certainly the experience should pay off for us. We will look at DeAngelo Willingham at safety the first five days of practice and make a decision from there as that is a position we are most concerned about going into the fall. So we are going to take a good look at him and if he can make as much progress in spring, summer and two-a-days as he made the first fall he was here, then I think he has a very good chance to make an impact on our football team at safety. Looking at the number of guys who have played in the secondary, you have Antonio Gaines and Dennis Rogan, who as a true sophomore is a good thing because we have a chance to have him around for awhile; Demetrice Morley to reestablish himself as a factor for our football team; Anthony Anderson to establish himself as a guy who can help us in the secondary and on special teams; Marsalous Johnson and Brent Vinson will not be able to participate full speed, both of them coming off surgeries, but we think we know what both of those guys can do. The guy I haven’t mentioned just yet is a special player and also a guy who I?think can be a special leader for us in Eric Berry. I’m excited about his leadership role and his opportunity to continue his development as a player in the secondary.

“Offensively, I could not have asked any more of the new coaches and Greg Adkins as they have worked to get themselves ready for spring practice. Dave Clawson has done an excellent job of leading the meetings and getting us to this point where we’re ready to go with a new system. The rules allow us to meet a couple of hours a week and we’ve taken advantage of that since recruiting has been over. The new system, a West Coast-style of offense, I’m as anxious as anybody to see it on the field and I?have every confidence in the world that we will be able to do well.

“Our spring schedule actually helps our offense because there are so many new coaches and a new system. It works in our favor because it is spread out and there are a lot of times to critique ourselves, for the players to come in a be critiqued and to spend time on their own studying and getting themselves familiar with what they are doing.?Obviously, the goal as Dave will tell you is to get the ball to the playmakers. Establishing those during the spring practice will be important. The obvious ones are the ones who have been here in Arian Foster, Josh Briscoe, Austin Rogers, and to some degree Gerald Jones. They have established themselves but we need to see what those other guys can do. Montario Hardesty, if he can stay healthy, he’s really had a good attitude from an offseason standpoint. Those young backs, Lennon Creer and Daryl Vereen, and I’m excited about seeing what Tauren Poole can do. Obviously like Austin Johnson, he’s brand new to the program but he hasn’t blinked in the offseason program and actually has established himself as a leader around here. So I’m excited about Tauren and seeing who we can get in the mix. I do expect some growing pains early as we go from one system to another.

“It starts up front. We are very fortunate to have a group of offensive linemen who have played together. Anthony Parker will move to center in Josh McNeil’s absence this spring since Josh is coming off a knee surgery. Hopefully, we will established ourselves and pick up where we left off in the fall with Chris Scott, Vladimir Richard, Jacques McClendon and Ramon Foster being the other guys on either side of Anthony Parker. We are looking for depth there. That is a really important area for us to come out with some depth during the course of spring. There are a good number of guys who have a chance to push themselves into that depth and it will be a process.

“The tight ends will be Jeff Cottam and Luke Stocker. Both, I think, are SEC players and both can play significant roles in our offense.

“This will be a crucial spring for Gerald Jones and Ahmad Paige to see where they can put themselves, particularly in the absence of Lucas Taylor, who will miss a lot of spring practice contact overcoming his shoulder injury.

“The kicking game, just watching it in passing, I love the attitude of what Daniel Lincoln has done. He’s coming off a fantastic year and is more determined than ever to be the kind of kicker who represents Tennessee well on and off the field. He just has continued to work hard and is kicking the ball really well. Morgan Cox has taken on the leadership role Casey Woods had and that’s important because we are not able to be around those guys all the time. Obviously, it’s a very crucial time for Chad Cunningham to establish himself as a guy we can count on in the absence of Britton Colquitt the first five ballgames. Bram Cannon and Geoff Courtney both are working to be our holder and I’m anxious to see which one of those two guys, or anybody else, emerges there. That’s one of those areas that is taken for granted until something happens. We have been so blessed here for a number of years to have really quality young men playing that role for us.

“During the spring we will alternate teaching and then testing our team with our scrimmages and that will be crucial. Within the rules, we can have three full-speed, 11-on-11 scrimmages and then our individual work, group work, team work and half-scrimmages that we sprinkle through the practices.

“Our goal as we go into spring is obviously to have daily improvement and not have any wasted reps from the standpoint of how we play the game with effort, passion and desire to be a good player individually and collectively on either side of the ball. As I mentioned, most important is growing our leadership and finding the players who are going to be the starters, and then also building our depth as we go through the spring. We probably won’t get that done 100 percent because of some of the guys who are out, but the guys who aren’t able to participate, except for Josh Hawkins, have all played for us and I think we know what they can do.”

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