Ryan Callahan

First-year Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin recently called senior left tackle Chris Scott perhaps ”the most improved guy from spring” practice.

There’s a reason for that, Scott said Saturday after UT’s second preseason scrimmage at Neyland Stadium.

“I think with me, it’s been more mental. I had to get a few things down and get my mind right — you know, change how I saw life,” said Scott, one of four seniors expected to start on the Volunteers’ offensive line.

“It was just a few things here and there I had to change with my mental aspect and how I looked at things. I changed that up, and I went into summer real fresh. I took it as a fresh beginning for everything. That was Day One, and then I went from there, and it’s zoomed.”

Scott said his confidence has “skyrocketed” under Kiffin’s staff.

“These coaches, they make you feel good,” Scott said. “With their enthusiasm, you’ve got no choice but to have it rub off on you. It rubs off on me, and I just go out there and try to play as hard as I can.”

An improved Scott could provide a big boost for an offensive line Kiffin has described as the team’s most improved unit since spring practice.

The 6-foot-5, 346-pound Scott, a former Parade All-American, is responsible at left tackle for protecting the blind side of whomever emerges from UT’s quarterback competition between Jonathan Crompton and Nick Stephens.

And he’s getting better every day, he said, from going head-to-head with junior defensive end Chris Walker, who was chosen by coaches as the team’s most improved defensive player during the spring.

“He’s really quick off the ball, and going after him every day in practice is making me better — and hopefully the other way around, too,” Scott said of Walker.

“He’s getting better, and he’s getting me better.”

The guy catching passes and wearing a blank orange jersey for the Tennessee football team isn’t a newcomer waiting to be assigned a jersey number.

He’s not a walk-on, either.

That’s just Brandon Warren, the former Class 2A Mr. Football at Alcoa High School.

So why is the Volunteers’ tight end-turned-wide receiver, who has turned a few heads this spring in his first work as a wideout since high school, no longer donning his usual No. 1 jersey?

The way Warren explains it, it’s a motivational tactic.

“I need to get my swag back,” he said Tuesday. “I’m going with the blank jersey until I feel like I’m back to No. 1. We kind of sat down, me and (receivers) Coach (Frank) Wilson and Coach Kiffin. I went to them about it, because there’s just some things I need to work on. When I work them out and feel comfortable, Coach (Kiffin) said he’ll make sure I get my number back.”

Warren spoke to reporters after finding himself as the target of several fade passes during UT’s red-zone work Tuesday in the team’s first practice after a 10-day layoff for spring break.

He addressed why he approached new coach Lane Kiffin earlier in the offseason about moving to wide receiver, a position that seems to suit him well based on his size.

At 6 feet 2 inches and 216 pounds, he was a bit undersized at tight end. He could translate, however, into a big wide receiver with adequate speed.

“I knew from watching (Southern Cal) film that (Kiffin) liked big receivers. … I can play tight end, but I felt like I could be a better wide receiver in this offense than I would a tight end,” Warren said. “It’s easier to cut weight than put on for me.”

Junior receiver Gerald Jones is among the teammates who have raved about Warren’s progress. He already has high hopes for Warren.

Once he gets his number back, that is.

“He’s a big receiver who can move, and he’s shifty,” Jones said of Warren. “We use him in a lot of ways. He runs pretty good routes. … He’s going to be a big part of this offense.”

KNOXVILLE — Fans seemed to pass along the same words of encouragement to Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl everywhere he went after his team ended last season with a loss to Louisville in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.

“Well, don’t worry about it, Coach,” they told Pearl, as he recalled earlier this week. “We’ll do better than the Sweet 16 next year.”

That didn’t really make Pearl feel any better at the time. He knew the reality of the situation.

This year, those widespread, high expectations helped him appreciate even more that the Volunteers (21-12) were able to make the NCAA tournament again without Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith, the team’s two leading scorers from a year ago.

Those optimistic fans also made Pearl realize that the unprecedented postseason runs of the past three years — when UT went to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2006 and the Sweet 16 in 2007 and 2008 — probably have been taken for granted.

“This year, for the first time, I think the expectations were too high,” Pearl said.

Even with newcomers Scotty Hopson and Bobby Maze penciled into the starting lineup and at least two other freshmen being counted on as regular contributors, the Vols were picked as the preseason favorites to repeat their first SEC regular-season title in 41 years.

They won the SEC East but watched LSU run away with the overall league title. UT then made a run at its first conference tournament championship in 30 years before falling to Mississippi State, 64-61, in Sunday’s title game.

Pearl said his team, which felt slighted by its No. 9 seed for the NCAA tournament’s East Region, was fortunate to accomplish what it did this season. Plenty of other good teams, he explained, were left at home for the postseason.

The Vols, on the other hand, will play their NCAA opener at 12:25 p.m. Friday against eighth-seeded Oklahoma State (22-11) in Dayton, Ohio.

“You don’t appreciate it,” Pearl said. “We just don’t. We don’t appreciate what it is.

“I appreciate this basketball team for what they’ve accomplished, and I appreciate the fact that we’re still playing in March and all that they’ve had to overcome. So enjoy the run, because I’d hate to be at some of those other places.”

But Pearl also went so far as to suggest he didn’t take full advantage of his team’s potential throughout an up-and-down season.

“My job every year is to get the most out of my team,” Pearl said. “I think for three years we came really close to getting the most out of them. I don’t think this year we got the most out of them.

“We got a lot. It could have been a little bit better. It could have been a lot worse. But I don’t know that this year I could say we got the most out of them.”

Tennessee fans apparently aren’t the only ones with lofty expectations.

KNOXVILLE — Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl didn’t push his players much in a nearly two-and-a-half-hour workout Tuesday afternoon at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The ninth-seeded Volunteers spent most of their time walking through their scouting report for No. 8 seed Oklahoma State, their opponent in the opening round of the NCAA tournament’s East Region at 12:25 p.m. Friday in Dayton, Ohio.

It only made sense to have a light practice Tuesday after an off day Monday, Pearl explained, considering that UT played three straight days over the weekend at the SEC tournament in Tampa, Fla.

After all, that’s what legendary UT women’s coach Pat Summitt would have done.

“I think the kids were surprised,” Pearl said. “I think they thought we were going to have a hard practice today. I just didn’t think it was in our best interest. Coach Summitt has always talked about keeping (players) fresh and keeping them furious, so today was one of those days.”

The Vols will hold a more physical workout Wednesday before going through their scheduled open practice at UD Arena at noon Thursday.

Pearl called Oklahoma State “a tough scout.”

The Cowboys have no starter taller than 6 feet 6 inches and rank among the nation’s top scoring and 3-point-shooting offenses under first-year coach Travis Ford, a former Kentucky guard under Rick Pitino.

“They do good stuff, and they’ve got counters to what they do,” he said. “It’s also a tough thing to walk through, because everything they do is so much faster.”