Scrimmages, in Butch Jones’ mind, are rewards for his Tennessee football players.

Tennessee rising sophomore wide receiver Josh Malone

After being pushed to the brink from a physical and mental standpoint throughout the week, players are allowed to just go play football in weekend scrimmages. It’s a time to show what you’ve work on and separate yourself from your peers.

Plenty of Tennessee defenders did that Saturday, according to Jones, but few of the Vols’ offensive players did.

“This is your time of the week to be rewarded, and I really wanted to see how we would respond,” Jones said after Saturday’s scrimmage in Neyland Stadium. “I thought our defense came out, and I liked their mental approach. I did not like our offense’s approach. I thought we were stale. I thought we had no mental effort. I thought we had no intensity about ourselves, and I think it showed.”

Jones said the scrimmage was still a “productive” one because of the specific-situation experience he and his staff were able to give their players, but it might be a struggle to find fun-to-watch film from the offense’s perspective.

“For our young players — which, really, that’s most of our football team —Â it’s just an overall consistency issue,” Jones said. “It’s their consistency in approach, it’s the intensity that it takes to perform at a high, high level every time you step onto the football field or step into the meeting room, and they’re still learning that process. And, to me, the focus, the concentration, we have to get much better there as a football team.

“Again, I was disappointed in the play of the offense. We had way too many dropped balls on the perimeter. As we know, a dropped ball in our offense is equivalent to a turnover. I just didn’t think we executed very well. We did some better things when we went through some thud situations, and we were able to get Jalen Hurd in there. But we have to get better as a football team in a hurry, and I say that every time we step off the football field. But, again, it’s just the intensity that it takes to perform at a high level.

“I didn’t think our offensive line played the way they’ve played all throughout spring, and that was good. We needed to see that defensively. I thought we did some good things on defense.”

Jones, who typically tries to find the silver lining in any situation, then conceded that his offense has been hurt by injuries at the running back and wide receiver positions, and that those absences seemed to really bother that group Saturday.

Tennessee football coach Butch Jones

With Jalen Hurd (shoulder) relegated to a green, limited-contact jersey and Alvin Kamara (thigh contusion) on the sideline, the Vols didn’t have a single scholarship running back wearing a normal, free-for-all jersey.

Hurd galloped for a 20-yard touchdown run during one of his few Saturday reps. That play led credence to Jones’ comments. Tennessee’s offense is a much different unit with Hurd and Kamara — and green-jerseyed receiver Marquez North (shoulder) and out-for-spring wideout Jason Croom (knee) —Â on the field.

Senior wide receiver Pig Howard, who has led the Vols in catches each of the past two seasons, also wore a green jersey Saturday to protect some bruised ribs. And junior wideout Cody Blanc (broken ribs) was in street clothes all day.

“I think it’s a byproduct right now of depth at running back,” Jones said when asked whether Saturday was a one-time struggle or a culmination of some poor practices. “You take Jalen Hurd out of your offense, you take Alvin Kamara out of your offense, you’re a little bit different football team. We’re also banged up a little bit at wide receiver. Alton Howard has some bruised ribs, so he was in green today, and I thought he let that affect him. Normally he’s been a very, very consistent performer for us.

“On offense, everything is about execution. It’s being assignment-sound, it’s owning your technique, it’s owning your conditioning and everything that goes into it. We’ve been pretty good offensively throughout the course of spring, but today I thought the defense just had much more intensity. They had more leadership, I thought, in this type of environment.”

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