The Tennessee Titans put on pads for the first time in training camp on Tuesday and it resulted in a fight or two between the offense and defense, mainly between star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons and rookie offensive tackle JC Latham.

Coach Brian Callahan addressed the fighting after practice and what he wants to do about it moving forward.

“It was the first day of pads, guys are cranked up,” Callahan said via AtoZ Sports. “They understand what it is. We reined it back in and we had no problems after that. I don’t anticipate it being an issue. Fighting is not something we want to accept, it’s not part of the rules of the game. I’ve explained that before and I’ll explain it again. It’s training camp, the first day of pads, [Jeffery Simmons] is trying to set a tone. Those things don’t bother me so much as long as we know we’ve got to play within the rules and we’ve got to protect our teammates, and I think we’ve got it figured out after that.

“It is what it is, it’s football. I don’t mind guys setting the tone with the intensity ramped-up and we’ve just got to understand that we can play to the edge and we can still play within the rules. And fighting is a penalty, it’s usually an ejection, it hurts our team, we can’t have that.”

Callahan believes that the Titans will be able to move past the fighting from Tuesday’s practices. However, this is undoubtedly a setback for Tennessee, who appeared to have a strong start to training camp over the past week. The intensity has leveled up, but the two units have to come together and remind themselves that they are all Titans at the end of the day.

Perhaps some disciplinary action will take place, but for now, it seems like the Titans will try to move past this issue swiftly.

The Titans will have the chance to be more physical against another team in next Saturday’s preseason opener at home against the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.

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Darrion Smith, a 2025 defensive lineman, commits to Tennessee Volunteers.

The Tennessee Volunteers have been scorching hot on the recruiting trail and they aren’t stopping. They added another member to the 2025 recruiting class Darrion Smith announced his commitment to the Tennessee Volunteers. He chose the Volunteers over Ohio State and Maryland.

Smith is rated as a three-star prospect, the 650th-best player in the nation, the 69th-best defensive lineman and the 18th-best player in the state of Maryland. He took multiple visits to Tennessee this offseason before he officially announced his commitment.

The Volunteers are now up to 21 total commits as they also continue to climb up the recruiting ranks this summer. The program needed a massive recruiting class this cycle and Josh Heupel and his staff are certainly delivering that. Smith now becomes the third defensive lineman to join the class as the Volunteers are nearing the end to this recruiting cycle before the 2024 college football season even begins. And that’s with more big names still left on the board like offensive lineman David Sanders.

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The Tennessee Titans welcomed the first day of practice in pads on Tuesday at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.

Titans receiver Calvin Ridley admitted he’s now near his peak football conditioning but still has a ways to go before suiting up in the Titans first preseason game next weekend.

“I’m in shape. I feel like I can run now and my breathing is good. Now I gotta get used to moving in the pads,” Ridley said. “I want to move guys (off the line) a little bit better. I thought I wasn’t moving them as good as I wanted to.”

Ridley admitted it would take him about “two more days” with the pads on to fully get his movements and timing under control like the former All-Pro would like.

While there were some players like Ridley, who used the practice to help adjust to the feeling of the pads, others were using the new feeling as fuel to drive up the level of competition during the practice.

More: Will Levis stats: Every pass Tennessee Titans quarterback threw at Tuesday practice

Jeffery Simmons, the Titans Pro Bowl defensive lineman, is known for his talk on the field, which helps elevate the level of play for the entire defense. But during Tuesday’s practice his highly talkative nature spilled over a bit too much during the practice period.

Simmons got into two consecutive shoving matches and ultimately had to be separated from his teammates before being pulled by the coaches for the next few team reps to cool off. According to an on-field referee, the shoving and physicals would’ve resulted in Simmons being ejected during an official game.

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While some would call the physicality a bad thing that could waste valuable practice time or possibly even result in team-forced injuries, other players are looking at the physicality through an entirely different lens.

Titans tight end Josh Whyle welcomes the physicality and even thinks it’s an inevitable part of the game.

“I take that as just competitive spirit,” said Whyle. “We talked about it after practice. We’ve got to protect the team; we don’t want to get our own guys hurt but there’s always an edge when you’re playing professional football.”

Lawrence Goss is The Tennessean’s sports intern with the Sports Journalism Institute. Contact Lawrence at lgoss@gannett.com. Follow Lawrence on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @iamlgoss