Why Tennessee football defensive commits Kaleb Beasley, Edwin Spillman would love offensive snaps

\Lipscomb Academy wasn't about to tip its hand during Friday's scrimmage against Pearl-Cohn, less than four weeks before the season opener against IMG Academy. The Mustangs pared down their offense and ran their base defense en route to a 12-0 scrimmage win over the Firebirds. Tennessee football commit and Mustangs star defensive back Kaleb Beasley is champing at the bit to play offense this season.

Beasley hasn't played on that side of the ball since his middle school days. "And I was a demon," Beasley said after collecting a couple of tackles and picking off a Pearl-Cohn pass to end the scrimmage. "I was scoring all over the place in middle school.

It was a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to getting in the end zone on offense. " 2023 DANDY DOZEN: No. 12 | No.

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2 Beasley didn't see any offensive snaps during Friday's scrimmage, but expects to play some wide receiver this season to give the two-time defending Division II-AA state champs an added weapon on offense. The senior has been a defender almost exclusively, except for a few snaps in last year's state title game. "I never got the ball, though," Beasley said.

"They ran some plays to the other side of the field. " Beasley is the No. 1 college prospect in Tennessee for the 2024 Class, according to the 247Sports Composite.

The 6-foot, 185-pound star had six defensive touchdowns in 2022 and intercepted nine passes but is envisioning a scenario in which he surpasses 1,000 yard receiving with 30 combined touchdowns on offense and defense. "That would be big time," he said. "I don't know how much I'll play on offense but I'm trying to do the most when I'm out there.

I want to be great at all facets of my game. " Another Tennessee commit, Edwin Spillman, also isn't shy about his desire to play some offense, although that may take some convincing from Spillman to first-year coach Kevin Mawae. TRANSFER TRACKER Tennessee high school football transfer tracker for TSSAA 2023 season "I've played running back as a younger kid," Spillman said.

"Never played it at Lipscomb but I've been talking with the coaches to let me play some snaps when the season starts. We'll see how it goes. " The 6-1, 216-pound linebacker committed to Tennessee, over Ohio State, last week.

He's the No. 8 recruit in Tennessee according 247sports Composite who had 129 tackles, 14. 5 of them for loss last season.

He had two tackles behind the line of scrimmage Friday against Pearl-Cohn. "It was a good night for us and we made some good plays," Spillman said. "But we also had some mistakes that we have to fix before (we play) IMG Academy.

My role is linebacker so that's my focus, but I'll be ready if they need me at running back. " .