The CheckerBoard

Beast!

Dooley at the podium now.

Dooley: Four newcomers on roster — Cordarrelle Patterson, Davante Bourque, Quenshaun Watson and Dante Phillips — since the first summer session.

Nigel Mitchell-Thornton has graduated and decided not to play this season.

Dooley said the team will have split-squad workouts the first few days of camp, with first-year players once again holding separate practices from the returning players.

Dooley: "I think this is more the norm," or what UT hopes the norm will be every year, in terms of freshmen getting to play right away. Not many guys will have to contribute right away out of necessity.

Dooley: "I feel like this group is showing more signs of chemistry and leadership than any group since I've been here."

Dooley on first few days of preseason camp: "The biggest thing we're looking for is, A, have we picked up where we left off? ... And then, B, evaluating our newcomers."

Dooley on Darrington Sentimore: "He didn't disappoint us at all (in the spring). I do think he came in at a different level of weight and conditioning" than what he needed to. "It was really a matter of conditioning, a matter of knowing what to do."

Dooley again said he thinks Justin Hunter's knee is completely healthy. It's just a matter of getting him out there and seeing what he can do.

Dooley said he should have repped James Stone at center during the second half of the spring. He said the Vols "are going to look at them both" at center, referring to Stone and Alex Bullard, this fall.

Dooley said Prentiss Waggner is "settling in at corner."

Dooley on VFL coordinator: "Andre, he's not working for us now, but he's still a part of the family. ... I think it's a great opportunity to reshape it a little bit. We started this thing two years ago from scratch — I did." Dooley said it's an opportunity to "reshape it and make it better" and move it in another direction, to another level.