Tennessee football is less than 80 days away
Look at that through whichever lens you prefer, glass half full or glass half empty. Regardless, Tennessee football is gearing up. Preseason camp is less than two months away and players are getting ready for it with offseason workouts.
Might as well pop the question: Who is the strongest player on the team?
“Elijah Simmons, he’s gotta be the strongest guy,” junior center Cooper Mays told Off The Hook Sports on The Vol Report. “He’s over here just throwing around crazy weight, I don’t think anybody can compete with that.”
Every vol fan remembers their introduction to now-junior defensive lineman Elijah Simmons. He made national headlines by dunking a basketball at 325 pounds before wheeling around and draining a full-court shot 10 seconds later.
So it really shouldn’t be a surprise that both Mays and redshirt senior tight end Jacob Warren feel he is the strongest player on the team.
“The kid’s a freak,” Warren said on Monday’s Vol Report. “He has done a good job recently of trimming down and he looks a lot better, he was real big coming in. He looks so much more fit and athletic, but he’s still so strong. I’m excited for him.”
Simmons is even making coaches mad in the process.
“I’ve seen him take 405 and he just took it off the rack, we have a 25 rep max, if you can do a 25 reps at 405 squat, they make you stop,” Mays said. “Big E went to like 30 with no issue. He was going strong, no fatigue there at all. Our coach got mad at him and made him rack it.”
Simmons is a defensive lineman, though. Those guys are expected to be strong, it’s part of their job description after all.
It’s all relative, anyway. All football players are strong. Warren spoke on two Vols who would surprise with how strong they actually are for their size.
The first was New Orleans Saints draft pick Alontae Taylor, probably Tennessee’s most versatile member of a struggling secondary last season. Warren said Taylor was deceptively strong for his size, but noted one current player that could go to bat with him.
“Jimmy Holiday, pound for pound is one of the strongest people I’ve ever seen,” Warren said. “Just the way he moves the weights with so much ease. He’s got these big ole legs and his calves are real big. He just puts the weight on his back, down and up, down and up. It looks the same every single time, regardless of how much weight is on there. He’s extremely talented.”
Holiday is a receiver that could see plenty of action this season, but hasn’t gotten much run at receiver in the past. He has spent a lot of times on the special teams unit in 2021, but with the departures of Velus Jones Jr and JaVonta Payton to the NFL, a breakout year is certainly on the table for his junior campaign.
Having immense strength is a virtue for a receiver of his caliber. Holiday is listed as 6-foot, just over 200 pounds.
