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Why Tennessee freshmen Kaleb Beasley, Edwin Spillman enrolled on first day of spring football
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- Why Tennessee freshmen Kaleb Beasley, Edwin Spillman enrolled on first day of spring football
Kaleb Beasley and Edwin Spillman finished their high school credits a couple of weeks ago and enrolled at Tennessee on Monday in the middle of the spring semester and just in time for spring practice.
But the Tennessee football freshmen will return to Lipscomb Academy for their graduation ceremony in May.
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It's an unorthodox path to early enrollment for a college football player. But that's how the two prized prospects from Nashville got on the field for the start of UT spring practice.
"We were in the library every day getting our school work done," Beasley, a four-star cornerback, said Tuesday. "It was definitely a grind. We put in a lot of hard work to get here."
Typically, freshman football players enroll early in December. They graduate high school a semester early, sign a national letter of intent with a university and then begin college classes in January.
Twelve UT players who signed in the 2024 class did that.
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But Beasley and Spillman had to find a different route. Lipscomb, like most private schools in Tennessee, didn't permit early graduation. But a creative exception was made.
They took online courses the past few months to complete their high school credits. And Lipscomb will allow them to receive a diploma in May, when they're well into the offseason program with the Vols.
"I think me and Ed are the first ones to do this (from private schools) from the whole region," Beasley said. "So it's definitely big. I was excited to get here when I figured out that I could come. It's an advantage for sure."
How they enrolled in the middle of Tennessee's spring semester
That's how Beasley and Spillman finished high school early. But they still needed a way to enroll in college midway through the spring semester, which UT offered.
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UT's fall and spring semesters follow the traditional calendar , spanning almost four months each.
But those semesters are divided into two sessions, giving students the option to cram a course into a condensed timeframe during a single session.
The second session of UT's spring semester runs from March 18 to May 7. So Beasley and Spillman started the second session on Monday, the same day the Vols kicked off spring practice.
"This was really just about getting that first spring under our belt," Spillman, a four-star linebacker, said. "And I just felt like it would give me an upper hand to possibly get on the field early. So if you could finish high school, then finish it and move on the next stage earlier."
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How they're making up for lost time
Tennessee defensive back Kaleb Beasley (28) during UT spring football practice on Tuesday, March 19, 2024.
Beasley and Spillman are late to campus compared to the other early enrollees. But they're early compared to the rest of the freshman class, which will arrive in June.
It put them in a unique position over the weekend. They tried to make up for lost time by learning the playbook quickly to maximize the opportunity they worked so feverishly to get.
New linebackers coach William Inge and defensive assistant Forrest Lehman worked with Spillman on Zoom video calls to catch him up. And his older brother, UT wide receiver Nate Spillman, helped him learn the defensive signals.
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Beasley said he's already learned the basic pass coverages and calls through two days of practice. He credits cornerback Rickey Gibson and two Nashville natives – safety Andre Turrentine and cornerback William Wright – with bringing him along.
"It's definitely been hectic, just trying to get the plays down," Beasley said. "But I've had some great people to help me with that."
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com . X, formerly known as Twitter @AdamSparks . Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe .
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Tennessee football freshmen enrolled on first day of spring practice
