50% off Annual VIP Pass first year

Kalib Perry has been part of a couple of typical freshman moments since arriving on Tennessee’s campus at the start of June. The linebacker from Kentucky already has been hit squarely in the face with the complexity of learning a college defense, he’s been chewed out by coaches a time or maybe two during his first practices with the Vols and he’s made a play that fired up his teammates – even though he didn’t exactly stick to his assignment on the particular play. That imperfect moment encapsulates how Tennessee and linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary view Perry at the outset of his development – he’s already one of the best athletes on the team who needs to be molded into an SEC linebacker.

The 6-foot-3, 228-pound Perry, out of Great Crossing High School not far from Lexington, was a camp find for Tennessee’s new staff a year ago – his physical traits, frame and long-term potential impressed the Vols into offering, and he committed a few weeks later following an official visit. Perry played all over the field in high school, lining up at safety and linebacker on defense and playing wide receiver, running back and even some quarterback on offense. As a junior, he racked up an impossible 140 tackles in eight games before he had 85 tackles and nine tackles for loss as a senior.

As a lot of freshmen do, Perry has had his moments early in Tennessee’s preseason training camp, one in particular was shared by linebacker Solon Page III after Wednesday’s practice.

“It wasn’t the best read,” revealed the sixth-year senior. “He didn’t do what he was supposed to do, but he saw the play and just ran out there and made the play. Everybody on the sideline went crazy. I think it ended up being a 2-, 3-yard tackle for a loss, so just him having that speed, it really shows up on tape.”

If that play is any indication, Perry will be a candidate to find his way onto the field via special teams as a freshman. Tennessee has a few veterans topping the depth chart at linebacker, and fellow freshman Elijah Herring is ahead physically and mentally having enrolled early and gotten a full spring practice under his belt. He could always exceed such expectations – there’s a long way to go in preseason and different players develop at different rates – but Perry has done nothing to temper the high hopes the Vols have for him.

Already Jean-Mary is calling him one of the best athletes on the team and noting he’s made some impressive plays in just his first few practices.

“Kalib, when we took him, he was more athlete than linebacker, which is what we wanted,” Jean-Mary said after Wednesday's practice. “Kalib, athletically he’s probably in the top 10% of the team already. He’s got that type of athletic ability. We’ve just got to get him fundamentally to the point where he can play stack linebacker and work within a college defense, but we’ve been thrilled with him. He flashes. Just in these three days, he does some jaw-dropping stuff.

“We’ve just got to get him to be consistent where he can go and work within the framework of our defense, but a super-smart kid, asks the right questions and I think his best football is ahead of him for sure.”

Perry, one of four freshmen to speak with reporters after Tennessee’s first preseason practice, learned quickly this summer he was making a big step up in his football career. Physically, he came in at 224 pounds and quickly got up to 228, and his goal weight is in the 230- to 235-pound range, though he has the frame to hold more. Beyond the physical changes and all the gainer shakes, Perry learned quickly the mental challenge ahead of him.

“Honestly, going from high school, you just kind of watch film and you might talk through it for about 30 minutes or so,” he said. “But going here, Coach B.J., the first day we had like 10 installs. My friend, Ben Bolton and I, after we got done, we just looked at each other like holy crap, this is so much, because he was talking to us like we’d been here for four or five years. I was like, ‘Goodness, we’ve got to meet with Coach Rob (graduate assistant/assistant linebackers coach Rob Caprice) separate.’

“It’s easy to pick up on. Honestly, we like to do it in a way of categorizing it, so that way you can see ‘ZP2,’ which is ‘Zone pressure 2,’ you can categorize that and, OK, that goes there, have a similar idea what you’re doing and go from there.”

There went any thoughts from Perry that focusing on one position as opposed to playing several would be easier. The install and coverages are many in number and they have to be learned, though opponent-specific game-plan mode during the season is less stressful mentally. But Perry’s bio in Tennessee’s media guide says he likes to build computers, considers Legos one of his hobbies and aspires to be a mechanical engineer (his brother is a chemical engineer), so he’s the kind of hands-on learner – true to his generation, he noted how you can learn to do just about anything on YouTube – who will master it over time.

During summer 7-on-7 sessions when his head was spinning alongside what he was learning in the meeting room, Perry still said he got a deflection and interception in that setting, and he’s tried to put Jean-Mary’s message of hustle to the football and if you make a mistake, make it going 110% on the play.

“It’s been really fun,” Perry said. “The way they lay it out, they allow you to be able to come in, be able to meet everybody, be able to have fun while doing it. It is a job, but it’s something that you love, so they make it where it’s fun and you’re learning a lot. The hardest adjustment, I would say for me, would be just the speed of the game and being able to pick up different keys, because it’s so much happening at once, but you just can’t catch yourself ball-watching.”

Perry described his first Tennessee practice as just football practice, “something you love, something you get to learn.” He has approached it with an open mind, viewing it as a learning experience in which he’s trying to soak up as much as he can, and had the maturity to understand he might get yelled at for mistakes. Perry knows the coaches are getting on to him and his veteran teammates are holding him to a standard because it’s in his interest to get him better, and one chewing-out in his first practice showed him how he has to be locked-in mentally at all times.

“It’s a really good humbling experience, because you get to learn from those who have been through it,” Perry said. “You can go up still and make mistakes, and I think that kind of shows where you are mentally. If you’re not focused completely, you’re going to go up there and make a mistake, even though you’ve had four guys go before you, so that’s an important thing. I think it’s just going to be good. It’s going to allow me to learn more, be able to see those ahead of me who have been through it and had the experience.”

Most freshmen want to come in and set the world ablaze right away during their first seasons, but Perry is going into his first season with the Vols with a more measured outlook – he wants to help Tennessee win football games, because he knows it isn’t an overnight process.

“It’s SEC football, it’s college football,” he said, “so just being able to get used to the game speed and be able to improve overall – in the classroom, on the field, with the coaches and all that – and just be able to be in that position to be ready whenever they need me.”

50% off Annual VIP Pass first year

© 2005-2022 CBS INTERACTIVE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc.