Tennessee Football: Jerrod Means will play corner for fall camp

Freshman wide receiver Jerrod Means has been practicing receiver since joining the Vols, but Pruitt wants to switch things up and put him in at cornerback.

When it comes to players switching positions, Tennessee football seen this a lot in the past ten years or so under Butch Jones and now Jeremy Pruitt.

Jones was well known for moving players to different positions, and that could be part of the reason why he failed at Tennessee.

A lot of those position changes were unnecessary, but Jones and his staff did it anyways. Pruitt has also made some position changes but not near as many as Jones and most of Pruitt’s can be justified.

The most recent move within the football program comes at Jerrod Means‘ expense. Means who is well known for his dominance at the wide receiver position will be tried out at cornerback for fall camp.

It’s weird how this move comes just a day after I post about how good Means will be in 2019 with the new and improved offense. This position change doesn’t mean Means is stuck at corner for good, but Pruitt is a good DB coach so he probably won’t be moving back to receiver.

This is kind of disappointing because now my article on Means is kind of ruined, but there’s still a lot you can take from it. If you want to read about how fast he is and how well he can fit in with the Tennessee coaches, you can read that here.

I think Means has star potential and if Pruitt thinks he can get that out of him on defense instead of offense, I’m all for it. Pruitt hasn’t proved to me he can’t get the job done yet when it comes to things like this, so I am going to trust him until he does.

Pruitt gave his explanation, and it’s clear depth is not a problem at the wide receiver position, and it very well could be at corner. Alontae Taylor and Bryce Thompson are really all we know at corner the backups are pretty much unknown.

"“We’re just making sure we can get the best players on the field,” Pruitt said after Tennessee’s first preseason practice. “We have guys with experience on the offensive side at wide receiver. We have four senior wide receivers, and (Josh) Palmer and (Jordan) Murphy’s played a pretty good bit of ball, so you’re talking about six guys there. We think Jerrod’s a really good athlete, and we want to make sure that we have the best 22 guys on the field, so we’re just giving him a look."

The Vols currently have a ton of wide receivers, and if Pruitt can turn one of those guys into a dominant cornerback, then I’m all for it. The defense will be a big talking point this season as people will see if the defensive mastermind in Pruitt will be able to get the job done.

If Means stays at corner for the entirety of the season, I will be excited to see what he can do out there on defense. His experience at receiver will help him some at corner, and that’s something Pruitt also pointed out.

If it works out it could end up being a great thing for the Vols defense, if not maybe Means will be able to find a spot in the middle of the receiving rotation.