Tennessee Volunteers College Football Pregame Quote, 10/06/2025

Opening Statement…

“I expect to have a really big group of former players back here. Looking forward to seeing them. Then a chance for us to recognize and honor Coach Dickey as well. So it would be great to have him back and his family. For us, I think this is the only home game that we have here this month inside our stadium. So hopefully our fans are rested, juicy, and ready to go. Need them to be a big part of this game as we get ready to play Saturday afternoon. So playing on an Arkansas football team obviously, that’s had some changes with their staff, but it’s a really good football team too. I know you know the outcome against Notre Dame certainly wasn’t what they wanted, but you look, you know, a couple of weeks previously, and they’re in a one-possession game with four minutes to go in the fourth quarter against an Ole Miss football team that’s a really good football team too. Defensively, huge task in front of us with their quarterback. He’s playing extremely efficient and creating big plays in the pass game, but obviously has a chance to be a huge part of the run game as well. We’ve got to do a great job of bottling him up during the course of the afternoon, and defensively, with the changes they’ve made, you don’t know exactly what you’re gonna see. The success that they had in their three-down, three-safety stuff from last year, we gotta be prepared for, and that’s kind of where we’re pointing our emphasis, and then react to whatever else we see and be able to adjust during the course of the football game.”

On David Sanders availability…..

“ David’s cleared to play. I mean, he’ll be a part of what we do. David’s going to play. We’re going to need all those guys, you know, so.”

On Arkansas and what areas to attack…

Well, you’re practicing and you want to see it in all areas. Defensively, I think as much as anything, it’s communication. Fundamentally, there are some things that we missed as far as tackling a week ago. Offensively, all of them are tied in together, some of the details in the pass game and some in the run game, too. Special teams, alignment, assignment, and communication.”

On Jermod McCoy…

Jermod continues to do a great job in his rehab with our medical staff, our strength staff. Somebody told me there was a report out there of a certain ball game that he’s focused on as far as returning. I think that’s unfair; whoever put that out there, I don’t think they truly understand Jermod and the situation. He’s done a really good job; he’s got more to go. I think it’s all about him being prepared to go play. There are a lot of things that go into that. You look at the position he plays, all the reactionary work that you have to have. And so you’re always balancing his ability to be prepared and short-term long long-term health as well.