Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel had rave reviews for a very young backfield that manned the Vols’ offense in UT’s first scrimmage of preseason camp on Friday night.
Of course, redshirt freshman Nico Iamaleava was the first-team quarterback. When asked about the California signal-caller, Heupel said, “I thought he looked good throughout the course of the night with his decision-making, body position. I know there are some throws that he’s going to want back, but he played really well.”
Iamaleava was joined by redshirt freshman DeSean Bishop with the first-team offense for much of the scrimmage. The 5-foot-10, 200-pound tailback from Karns High School did not play last season. He took the first-team role in place of junior Dylan Sampson, who is expected to be the Vols’ starter this season, but was held out of the scrimmage on Saturday for what is thought to be just preseason practice load management. That gave Bishop a chance to shine.
“A year ago before he got hurt, really liked how he was flashing at practice and at early scrimmages,” Heupel said of Bishop. “He is very consistent. Really proud of how he has rebounded from the injury, just his continued growth as a person, just the way he approaches every day and how he comes into the building. He has great vision and great pace. Does a really good job of using the blockers in front of him and setting those blockers up. He ran with great pad level tonight.”
With Sampson sidelined, the Vols also were able to divvy more snaps to freshman Peyton Lewis, the highly touted prospect who is overcoming a pelvic and shoulder injury that slowed him for about three months during the offseason. He was recently cleared for contact last month.
”First time for contact since coming back off the injury,” Heupel said. “Young player you would expect it, but it’s happened for him. He has gotten better, more comfortable, absolutely every single day. Tonight, a lot of really good things. Playing with great pad level. There are some runs that he’ll have an opportunity to grow from as well.”
Tennessee has even more young talent in the backfield with freshman quarterback Jake Merklinger, who was a former four-star prospect. There’s also some experience behind center with senior Gaston Moore.
“Both of them did a great job operating the offense but they really have all training camp,” Heupel said. “Merklinger is a young guy that continues to get better every single day. He has great confidence and works extremely hard at it. He has a really good energy in the huddle. His demeanor is really positive.
“Gaston has done a really fantastic job. Tonight he made some really nice throws out on the run. He has done that all of training camp. He has taken pretty good care of the football throughout the course of training camp too. So, pleased with the development of both of those guys.”
Tennessee may have looked promising in the offensive backfield during its first scrimmage of fall camp. Since practice is closed, it’s hard to know. However, there’s no question that the offensive backfield was certainly young.
