Tennessee Volunteers College Football Pregame Quote, 09/04/2023

“First off, a happy belated birthday to [Tennessee beat writer] Wes [Rucker], and obviously, everybody here and inside of our program is thinking about his son, as well. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. Saturday is a unique opportunity, celebrating the 51-year anniversary of Condredge Holloway, the first Black quarterback in this league. Pretty special opportunity to honor a great legacy, somebody that meant so much through who he is, his character, how he handled himself here, [his] post-playing career, and the legacy that he has left behind. Like all the guys who have statues and are honored outside of our stadium, it is an awesome way to honor their legacy. Smokey Grey [uniforms] will be worn in a pattern that was similar to a uniform that he wore while he was here. Smokeys are something that our players and recruits get excited about, and hopefully our fanbase does, too.

“Looking forward to seeing 102,000 of our closest friends here on Saturday evening. For our program, it has been a long time since we have been inside that stadium with our fans, and we look forward to that. For a lot of our guys, it’s the first opportunity that they will have to drive by Vol Navy, walk in front of 40,000 fans in the Vol Walk before the game, and run out to 102,000, so looking forward to that. This week, good opponent in Austin Peay, and excited about us going into week two just continuing our football journey, continuing to get better here as we go through the season. Opportunity for us, as we looked back at the tape this morning, ways that all of us can improve in all three phases of the game.

On Squirrel White’s status after exiting the Virginia game:

With Squirrel, it was just the time of the game; that was the only reason that he was not back in the game. Feel like we’re in a good spot there.

On Joe Milton III’s decision making:

During the course of the ballgame [and] on the video, too, I thought his decision making, where his eyes were at, was really solid throughout the course of the football game.

On the principles they teach quarterbacks that limit interceptions:

It starts with very small details, but what we do all offseason – understanding our schemes, being solid in their decision making based off of a defensive structure, the time that we spend on defensive structures and the fundamentals of playing the position. You put all that together, you should be in a good position to take care of the football.

On how tight the running back group is:

Very selfless group; they want to be successful individually, but I don’t think there is anyone more happy about the success of the guy who is on the field than the guys who are on the sideline during the moment of that success. At the end of the day, that group understands that the strength of the position cannot be one guy. They pull hard for each other, they are great competitors on the practice field, they push each other in the meeting room, and like all of our position groups, they care about the people inside of that room.

On how he evaluates Saturday’s performance of the offensive line:

I thought for the moving parts that we had [and] the different guys that played at center, the communication [and] getting all five guys on the same page as far as where our targets were in the run game and in the pass protections, they did a really solid job. There are some things that all five, and really all the guys that played – you are looking at eight guys that played a ton of snaps, and maybe 13 that played during the course of the ballgame – there are a lot of things that they have to clean up, too, which is anticipated as you go from week one to week two. All in all, a really solid performance by those guys.

On how he evaluates Saturday’s performance of the wide receivers:

Subtle details in some of the structure that we saw from the opponent that we could be a little bit cleaner in. All in all, I thought they performed well. There were some things early in the football game that everybody saw. We were not quite in sync. We’re not far off, either. I anticipate us continuing to grow and shore those things up.

On potentially giving Dee Williams an offensive package:

Dee is special with the ball in his hands, but he is going to continue to work at the corner spot and obviously be heavily active in our return game. I thought he did a really nice job throughout the course of the day; I thought the way that he responded after something not going his way showed maturity, and I actually pointed that out to the team after the ballgame and did that again today.

On the kickoffs that went out of bounds:

Fundamentally, just a little bit off, and that is why you end up hooking it a little bit.

On the secondary taking a positive step in the first game:

Played a lot of guys; for the most part, their fundamentals, their technique, their eyes were in the right spot. They played with good fundamentals which allowed them to be in a good position, and made some plays on the ball. There are some things they again can continue to clean up. Like I said all offseason too, a part of being better in pass defense is what you do up front and being able to apply pressure to the quarterback. You guys saw that on Saturday. Those guys did a great job up front of creating havoc in the backfield.

On the performances of Aaron Beasley and Keenan Pili:

They graded out really well. Keenan got a game ball; Beasley played really well.

On any impact with the new clock rules on first down:

You hear people all over the map of how it is actually affecting the game. I mentioned a week ago what some of the analytics said of the first few ballgames. I think you find more out as you get into more conference play of how the game is actually playing out, so we will continue to see that.

On Ollie Lane’s growth at center:

Ollie is smart, cares about this program [and] cares about his teammates. He is a great teammate, and this offseason, [he] continued to change his body. He had his best offseason, that is why I think he is playing his best football right now since we have been here. He is smart; moving from guard to center is different, yeah, but he has gotten consistent reps at the center position throughout our tenure here. He has done a really nice job.

On Dayne Davis playing some at center:

Dayne did not take reps there until [Cooper Mays] went down. As we looked at things, it felt like he had an opportunity. We did not know if he would handle it well and how he would respond in there. He is really smart; he can communicate at a really high level. We knew that from his time at tackle. It has been pretty seamless from him in the middle of it. He has done a great job and [is] really natural there.

On Austin Peay:

Defensively, [we] have to handle tempo. They will spread the football field. RPO game, we have to do a really good job on perimeter screens, defeat blocks and make tackles in space. Line of scrimmage will be everything for us. Offensively, [we are] going to have to have balance, be able to run the football and throw the football vertically down the field off of all that. Nothing different than who we are. Special teams have a chance to take another step this week. There were some really positive things; I think we had 13 freshman that were playing on teams. [I] thought they did a really nice job; there is another step for those guys obviously, as young as they are in their career. Our specialists, there are some really good things, we just have to be more consistent.