Where will he line up?
Spring practice is now in full swing in Knoxville, as Tennessee enters year three under Josh Heupel. Heupel’s offense has lit a fire under the football program, which has spilled over to the recruiting trail.
Tennessee landed top overall player Nico Iamaleava last cycle, along with four-star weapons like Nathan Leacock and Ethan Davis. They also pulled in four-star athlete Cameron Seldon, a player that Heupel sounds pretty excited about. Heupel gushed about his tape back on signing day — now he finally gets a chance to get him out on grass.
The question with Seldon was where he would land within the offense. We still don’t have a final answer, but we do have a starting point.
“We’ll start him in the backfield,” Heupel said this week. “That’s where he’s going to get the majority of his work. His skillset allows for him to do different things. We’ll increase his exposure out on the perimeter intentionally throughout the course of spring. We’ll start it spoon-fed, and then he’ll grow from there.”
Plenty of analysts believed that Seldon would land at receiver at the next level, which still may be a possibility down the road. However, Tennessee has plenty of numbers at receiver for now, and they could use another dynamic threat in the backfield.
Seldon will spend the next few weeks learning the offense and how to do the little things as a back.
“The thing that’s important for him is all the things that take place at the running back position, obviously your run game, run schemes, he’s going to understand some pop-pass concepts because of them being involved in it,” Heupel said. “With the protection part of it, I think it’s important that he starts there and is able to grow from that starting point.”
Seldon ranked 141st in the class of 2023, per On3. According to Tennessee’s official roster, Seldon stands in at 6-2, 215 pounds, so he adds some size to the room. Despite the frame, Seldon offers plenty of explosiveness and speed, even serving as a return man in high school.
Oh, and On3’s player comparison for Seldon? Cordarrelle Patterson.
Safety, linebacker, edge rusher, return man, running back and wide receiver — Seldon truly did a little bit of everything in high school. The Tennessee staff sees his long term projection as a running back, and it’ll be interesting to see if he can work his way into any amount of snaps as a freshman.
Tennessee returns Jabari Small, Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson to the running back depth chart this year. However, as we saw last year with Squirrel White and then late with Dylan Sampson, true freshmen can find the field, even through some crowded depth charts.
We’ll get our first live look at Seldon during the Orange and White Game on April 15th.