Tennessee Vols true freshman is a player to watch for a potential position switch in spring practice
The Tennessee Vols have a true freshman that could be a candidate to change positions.
Some of the best players in Tennessee Vols history switched positions early in their careers on Rocky Top.
Jason Witten moved from defensive end to tight end as a freshman at Tennessee.
Jauan Jennings signed with Tennessee as a four-star quarterback recruit before moving to wide receiver as a freshman.
Alontae Taylor started his college career as a wide receiver before quickly moving to cornerback.
Not everyone position switch works out, but those are a couple of position switches that worked out better than anyone could’ve imagined.
Tennessee Vols true freshman could be a candidate to change positions
Vols true freshman safety Joel Wyatt is an early candidate to potentially change positions.
Wyatt, a former four-star recruit, signed with the Vols in large part because Tennessee agreed to let him start his career at safety.
The Tennessee native was initially recruited by the Vols as an outside linebacker.
Wyatt is listed at 6-foot-4/210 pounds, but reporters who saw him up close at spring practice believe he’s bigger than listed.
“I’d like to see him step on a scale to see if he’s really 210 (pounds), or if he might be a little bit bigger than that — because he certainly looked it,” said VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs this week on WNML’s SportsTalk. “When you walked by him yesterday and you saw him, you saw number 31 and you thought that was Caleb Herring (who transferred to South Carolina) to be honest with you. And then you’re like, wait a minute, that’s a defensive back.
“I think it’s going to be interesting to see how Joel Wyatt plays in space laterally. I think he’s like a 10.5 100 meter guy — he can run. But how does he run side to side? How does he read the field? Where is he most effective? He’s certainly going to get every opportunity to play in the backfield at safety throughout spring (practice). But as he adds weight and strength, what does that become? Does he move closer to the line of scrimmage? A lot of people certainly projected him to be a guy [that] maybe even [comes] off the edge at the college level. And then he went out to that Rivals camp in the five-star challenge and performed well in seven-on-seven work as a safety. And some one-on-one work as well, which opened people’s eyes to maybe he can play further away from the ball. So we’ll see. I mean, he certainly jumps out at as a unique prospect because of the size and the the group he’s trying to play with. So what he looks like a week from now, 10 days from now, we’ll have a better gauge of it. But there’s a lot of intrigue there, for sure.”
It’ll be interesting to watch Wyatt’s journey as he adjusts to the college game. There’s no doubt that he’s a dynamic athlete with a high ceiling. The most important thing for him will be to trust the coaching staff as they find the best fit for him in defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ defense.
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