Seven members of the Tennessee Vols were at new positions at Tuesday's practice.
Tyler Byrd and Alontae Taylor headline the list of the Vols' continued experiments in spring ball.
Byrd, who played wide receiver for Tennessee in 2016 and 2017, started the spring at safety. The junior was back running drills with the receivers Tuesday.
Taylor made the switch from offense to defense, playing at the cornerback position Tuesday. Taylor is a four-star prospect from Manchester, Tennessee who was set on playing wide receiver at the college level.
First-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt said Taylor will switch positions at least one more time this spring.
"We’re trying to develop depth and competition and the secondary," Pruitt said. "There may be a point sometimes in the season, we had it this past year, you lose five guys at one position. We still play on Saturdays so we have to find a way.
"So, if you’re going to do that type of stuff, right now is the time to do it," Pruitt continued. "I told Alontae before we went out there, I said, ‘I realize you have no idea what you’re doing. Coach [Terry] Fair is going to tell you every snap. You do it to the best of your ability.’ I said that I can tell whether or not you can play at that position one day just by your movements."
Princeton Fant, a sophomore who played wide receiver and tight end in 2017, started the spring at running back and has now moved to inside linebacker.
LaTrell Bumphus, a sophomore tight end, is now at defensive line.
Meanwhile, all of Greg Emerson, Eric Crosby and Matthew Butler have moved from the defensive line to the offensive line to create depth at that position.
"When it comes down to the last two minutes, I’d like to have the best players on the field," Pruitt said. "If we lose two or three guys at a certain position, and we need to make some moves to figure out the best way and maybe have to change who we are, then we want to be able to do that. We don’t want October or November to be the first time they’ve ever done it. We want to give them a little bit of background.
"We’ll have an idea of if they can do it, plus it will help us when we get new guys that come in," Pruitt said. "I mean, there’s people out there that are grad transfers that may be looking to leave, and we need to know what we need and what we don’t need. So, move some guys around.”