KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Everything about the 2016 season was uncharacteristic for Tennessee.

Turnovers, giving up big plays, injuries and unexpected losses summed up Team 120’s season, but the offseason and spring practices are here to correct the mishaps.

Senior tight end Ethan Wolf came to Tennessee in the heralded 2014 signing class, a class that has seen many already depart, but the Minister, Ohio, native is still on Rocky Top and looking to end his college career on a good note.

Wolf has reeled in 67 catches for 752 yards and has scored four touchdowns in 38 games. His three seasons parallel former tight end and Pro Bowler Jason Witten. Witten recorded 68 receptions for 797 yards and scored seven touchdowns in his Tennessee career from 2000-2002.

It’s telling how Wolf’s production has been nearly identical to Witten’s.

Witten set a UT single-season record for tight ends for receptions (39) and receiving yards (493) in 2002, now Wolf is closing in on his career numbers. Wolf also has a chance to reach Witten’s single-season mark of receptions and receiving yards this season. His single-season highs are 23 receptions and 301 receiving yards in 2015.

But Wolf contributed to some of the uncharacteristic moments for Team 120 with dropped passes. Wolf realizes he needs to correct that.

“The offseason, other than getting bigger, stronger and faster, that was one thing that just ate me alive for those few months, from the game to now,” Wolf said. “It’s uncharacteristic for me to drop footballs like that, and I feel like everybody knows that.”

The goals this spring are to be better in the passing game and help whichever quarterback wins the job. So far, after the first week of spring practices, Wolf is pleased with the results, but realizes there’s a lot more work to be done.

“I’m going to come out this spring, and my goal is to not have one ball on the ground that’s thrown to me,” he said. “And so far I think I’m perfect, but we’re going to try to keep that to 15 practices and all the way through camp and have a perfect catch rate.”

Wolf’s senior season comes at a time when Butch Jones has promoted Larry Scott to offensive coordinator from tight ends coach. Having Scott as offensive coordinator will benefit the tight end position – a position Scott has coached at South Florida, Miami and Tennessee.

“I know he does like to throw the ball to the tight end, based on his track record,” Wolf said of his new offensive coordinator. “We’re going to do whatever we can if he throws us the ball.

“We’re doing a good job of executing plays when they’re called and we’re going to continue to do that through the spring and hopefully build up some confidence in the position.”

While Wolf is working on individual improvement, he joins his teammates in a self-evaluating offseason to make Team 121 better as a whole. The goal is to be a team on the same page, one that is ready to compete for championships.

“I think there were a lot of guys that needed to self-evaluate their work ethic in the weight room, and a lot of guys have,” Wolf said. “We just realized that winning nine games isn’t what we want to do. We want to do everything, we want to win them all.”