Tennessee football coaches plan to rotate wide receivers this season.
Their reasoning makes a bold statement about the Vols’ expectations, but it’s delivered in a subtle way. They plan to make the College Football Playoff.
First, wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope said it when mulling a substitution plan for slot receiver Squirrel White.
“With his frame, maybe you want to make sure that kid holds up, especially with a 16- (or) 17-week season this year,” Pope said.
Then offensive coordinator Joey Halzle also referenced a longer season as a reason he wants to rotate all receivers.
“The new season (with the expanded College Football Playoff), which you’re anticipating playing, is a completely different animal,” Halzle said. “You’ve got to play more guys. You’ve got to play guys to keep them healthy (because) 17 weeks is a lot of weeks to play football.”
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UT has no guarantee of playing more games than recent seasons.
There are 12 regular-season games on the schedule, beginning with the opener against Chattanooga on Saturday (12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network). And the Vols should at least make a bowl game.
Anything beyond that would require a magical run.
If UT played in the SEC championship game and advanced through the 12-team playoff to the national title game, it would play 16 or 17 games — depending on whether it got a CFP first-round bye as the SEC champion.
So that’s why UT coaches are referencing a 16- or 17-week season.
That preseason mindset is pretty typical, perhaps admirable, for teams that have a shot at the CFP. They set lofty goals and approach the season with confidence.
Whether UT actually expands its receiver rotation to prepare for a long season is a more interesting question. The Vols haven’t done that during coach…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/tennessee-football-preparing-receivers-college-135320460.html
Author : Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Publish date : 2024-08-28 13:53:20
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