Jason McManus

Every day Justin Buckhalter quietly goes about his business in the weight room at McKenzie Arena, a look of equal parts concentration and determination on his face.

Come August, the football field will be his office. But for now, this is it.

“I’m just trying to work hard,” said the junior wide receiver, who transferred to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in January from Jones County (Miss.) Community College, where he had 27 receptions for 322 yards last season.

Buckhalter has the added motivation of trying to put behind him a frustrating spring practice. He struggled to learn the Mocs’ offense, he dropped passes and missed most of the final week because of a bad hamstring.

All in all, it wasn’t the on-the-field debut he was hoping to make.

“When I first got here I was new to the system, bouncing around everywhere, didn’t know where anything was. Now I know what I need to improve on, so that’s a big improvement for me,” he said. “I feel a little bit more comfortable in the system, and I feel that I can produce a lot more.

“It’s like a process of relearning (an offense), so it was pretty tough. You got coaches yelling at you and you got to learn one thing, but then they might adjust it and you got to learn another.”

Wide receivers coach Jason McManus was among those yelling from time to time, but he never questioned the potential of the speedy, 6-foot-3 wideout.

“He’s got unlimited potential, and we want to see him reach it,” McManus said. “He’s a big kid that can really run, and he’s got all the physical tools.

“He struggled mentally in the spring; he struggled to pick up the offense, and a confused football player isn’t an aggressive player. Then, just as he started to make some good progress, the hamstring injury set him back even further.”

McManus said he has high expectations for Buckhalter because of that potential and because he knows that Buckhalter can be a “difference-maker” in the Mocs’ offense. Wide receiver might be UTC’s deepest position, with about a half-dozen players capable of being a starter, but only Buckhalter has the mix of size and down-field speed that coaches covet.

“I put a lot of pressure on him to come in and be a difference-maker for us,” McManus said. “When you have a guy that can get vertical, that can really open up the running game. A guy like Justin can put a lot of pressure on the defensive secondary.”

The pressure of high expectations is something Buckhalter is used to feeling; he has faced scrutiny for years as the younger brother of an NFL player — Correll Buckhalter, a running back with the Philadelphia Eagles for the past seven seasons.

“It’s a lot of pressure on me because everyone’s looking at me and wondering if I’m going to make it (to the NFL),” he said.

Later this summer Buckhalter will get to experience some of his brother’s NFL-level training when he visits Correll in Philadelphia. He said the trip was going to be the highlight of his summer, but he didn’t know how much fun the intense training was going to be.

“I don’t know if that’s fun,” he said, “but it’s going to be good working out with him. The intensity level, the pressure, it’s a lot different at that level. It’s a good learning experience for me.”