After stepping onto campus last year with sky-high expectations based simply on his last name, Evan Berry is starting to come into his own during spring practice.
Berry is the son of former Tennessee running back James Berry, and brother of All-American safety Eric Berry, and the younger Berry is starting to make his own name.
The rising sophomore safety didn’t see the field much on defense last season, but said his comfort level has risen after a year in the system.
“When I came in the summer, things were going fast,” Evan Berry said. “I was nervous. I knew (the playbook), but I didn’t know it how I was supposed to. Now that I do, it’s time to make plays.”
The coaching staff experimented with the athletic Evan Berry at running back as well as defensive back before he finally settled in at the safety.
With seniors Brian Randolph and LaDarrell McNeil cemented in the starting safety positions, the coaching staff is able to use spring practice to build depth, and Berry has taken advantage of the extra reps.
“He’s playing with a high level of consistency right now,” head coach Butch Jones said. “He’s playing fast. He’s making split-second decisions. He’s breaking and driving on the football … We really challenged him with his open-field tackling, and so far to date he’s done a very good job with that.”
The Fairburn, Georgia, native saw the field in all 13 games last season, recording five tackles. Where he really made a name for himself, though, is on special teams.
Not only was he part of the kick-off coverage unit, but he also stepped into the kick return role after Devrin Young went down and was forced to miss the latter part of the season with broken ribs.
The speedy Berry thrived in that role, returning 14 kicks for an average of over 29 yards per return, quickly becoming a special teams weapon for the Vols.
“I wouldn’t say I didn’t have a part in it,” Berry said. “But really it was my return team that really kind of sprung me forward and got those yards … Special teams is one-third of the game, so I felt like if I can go out there and do that, I can do the same thing on defense.”
While Berry has always excelled at the physical part of the game, it was the mental side that he admittedly struggled with. After a full season under his belt, and a successful off-season, his coaches can see that starting to change.
“When he first got here, it was tougher like it is for a lot of guys,” defensive backs coach Willie Martinez said. “But now he’s starting to understand what’s expected of him, and he’s feeling more comfortable in processing.”
While many freshmen come into their first year nervous, Berry had an advantage, his twin brother Elliot.
After a bad day of practice or a bad day off the field, Berry knows he can turn to Elliot whenever he needs to.
“It’s great,” Berry said. “We’re roommates. We just sit down and talk and ask how each other’s day was. If we have a problem then we solve it. We just talk it out.”
While already dealing with the struggles of a playing football in the SEC as a freshman, it was announced in December that his brother, Eric, had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Eric was forced to miss the rest of the season with the Kansas City Chiefs and is still undergoing treatment, but Evan said his brother is progressing well.
“It was obviously scary,” Berry said. “But when I talked to him, he wasn’t worried so I wasn’t worried.”
Berry had two interceptions in Saturday’s scrimmage work, and afterwards Jones referred to him as one of the players who has stood out thus far in practice.
While that complement was nice to hear, complacency is not an option, and Berry will have to fight for every minute he gets on the field in Tennessee’s loaded defensive backfield.
“We definitely have the competition going at safety,” Martinez said. “We’ve created a competition and a very healthy competition of competing with guys who wanna play. That’s really good because it just makes you better as a team.”
