Tennessee may have added “Smokey Gray” to the color scheme in its jersey repertoire, but there’s one dark portion of uniform attire that newcomers in the football program cannot wait to get rid of.
All freshmen and transfers on the team are required to wear a black stripe down the center of their helmets at practice until their “big brother,” an upperclassmen at their position, on the team deems them worthy of removing it.
It is a reminder of what they have yet to accomplish, and the only way to have it removed is through a considerable display of work and improvement on the practice field as well as mental development.
“It’s what we started years ago, and we’ll keep it until as long as we’re together. It’s special,” said UT offensive line coach Don Mahoney, who has coached with Vols head coach Butch Jones previously at Central Michigan and Cincinnati.
On Aug. 8, redshirt sophomore safety Brian Randolph removed freshman cornerback Cameron Sutton‘s stripe, making Sutton the first Vol to achieve the feat under Jones.
Although fall camp has wrapped up, just eight players have had their stripes removed and undergone the initiation of sorts that follows. With stripe removal comes special recognition in a team meeting and a chance to address the team.
“It’s really exciting when the players get up there and it’s really emotional, because guys come into this program and they get the helmet, get the uniform, and then you say ‘whoa, you’ve got to earn their stripe,'” Mahoney said. “So when that stripe comes off the helmet, you can see the pride those kids have when that happens in the team meeting.”
Freshman defensive end Corey Vereen might have provided Sutton with some competition to be the first stripe-less freshman if he had not suffered a sprained MCL in practice. The explosive Vereen is not expected to play in UT’s season opener against Austin Peay.
Nevertheless, he had his stripe removed on Aug. 11 in what defensive line coach Steve Stripling said was an emotional moment.
“Well, he had a big smile on his face,” Stripling said of Vereen. “And I will say this, like every other coach, I would’ve bet one hundred dollars that he would have got his stripe off first, and he would have if he hadn’t gotten injured.”
With the Vols slated to play between 13 and 17 freshmen in 2013, there’s plenty of incentive for the “big brothers” in the program to prod along the newcomers who they’ll soon be playing aside.
“It’s put the seniors in a position where ‘hey, we’ve got to look out for these guys.’ And it’s still a work in progress,” Mahoney said. “There’s guys that are doing a better job leading, but we can’t assume it. You’ve got to keep continuing to encourage it with the guys that are doing it. But they’re the ones who, when they see a helmet with a stripe on (it), have got to say, ‘hey, I’ve got to get after this guy.'”
The players who have shed their stripes are: cornerback Cameron Sutton, offensive lineman Dylan Wiesman, running back Justus Pickett, wide receiver Marquez North, defensive end Corey Vereen, wide receiver Jonathan Johnson, defensive lineman Jaylen Miller, quarterback Riley Ferguson and quarterback Joshua Dobbs.
