SI article on Vols Growing Up

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For perhaps the first time in his Tennessee career, Bray actually looks like he’s carrying the 213 pounds he’s credited with in the media guide without including his cleats and helmet. While we waited our turn to speak with the players this spring, Bray horsed around with Antonio Richardson, his new starting left tackle, and a young child who’d been taking in practice. The two took turns autographing a ball for the boy, and Richardson tossed him his gloves, with Bray cheekily instructing him on the finer points of selling the gloves on the open market. When the cameras came up, Bray snapped to, all business — another first. Whether it’s his impending eligibility for the NFL draft, the weight of keeping the merry Bray-Hunter-Rogers band together for what may be its final season or that he’s just gotten better at putting his game face on for the press, something or someone has gotten to Bray, and the “throw to randomly selected open receiver first, ask questions later” quarterback we’ve known is no longer in evidence. “We tended to get lackadaisical” in the past, Bray said, “and kinda go all over the place. It’s fun to watch, but it’s not good.”

Bray missed the direst four games of that midseason horrorshow last season — LSU, Alabama, South Carolina and Arkansas — and turned in performances against Vanderbilt and Kentucky that displayed with painful clarity how far he was from fully recovered. It was quite the comedown from a freshman campaign that had brimmed with promise and broken records, and Dooley, for his part, credited Bray’s sophomore tribulations for his work ethic entering his junior year.

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Bray’s second year under center for Tennessee began with a 5-for-30 outing in the spring game and ended with the streak-snapping loss to Kentucky. “Completing a few more passes, that’d help,” Bray deadpanned when asked how he was treating this year’s Orange and White game. He improved against the first team defense, going 14-for-26 for 156 yards and a touchdown. But Bray will be the first to pipe up (well, maybe the second after Dooley) and tick off everything he still has to work on before September: Decision-making process. Footwork. Mechanics.

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Meanwhile Hunter, no bruiser to begin with, estimated he’s still down seven pounds or so from his pre-ACL surgery weight, and will focus on regaining size and strength in summer workouts. Cloaked in a protective non-contact jersey, he candidly admitted his knee “doesn’t feel normal at all.” Defenders gave him a spun-glass berth on the field this spring, but he took a few licks and reacted well, according to his coaches. “He’s taken a lot of snaps, and he has been knocked down,” said Dooley. ”He’s been on the ground, he’s jumped, he’s blocked. So he’s ready to go. The only thing he’s missing are his strength levels.”

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