photo by Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee coach Butch Jones and selected players held their weekly press conference on Monday at Neyland Stadium.
The Vols, coming off a heartening upset win at South Carolina behind the heroics of sophomore quarterback Joshua Dobbs, host an improved Kentucky team Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m.
Tennessee needs to win two of its final three games to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2010 when it lost to North Carolina, 30-27, in overtime.
Here is a transcript of the media session, released by the university’s sports information department.
Head Coach Butch Jones
(Opening Statement)
"It is good to see everyone, thanks for coming out. Update you on our team a little bit and then move forward. Josh Smith had an exploratory procedure where they go in and determine if you need surgery or not. They did go in there and they did decide that he did need surgery so he did have surgery, he had his ankle scoped, they tightened the joint up. He will out for the rest of the season. We will have him back for spring football.
"Talking about the (Kentucky) game. We are going to need all of 102,455. There (are) 1,000 tickets left for the game. I believe it will be out fourth sell-out, which is amazing.
"For us, it starts with eliminating the big plays. We have given up way too many big plays over the course of a couple weeks. We need to get back to playing our style of defense. Third downs, as you all know, we have done very well, and then the last couple weeks we have struggled in that area. So we have to do again, a good job. And you say why? There are a number of reasons. We haven't been ahead of the sticks. It is just tackling and maintaining our points of pressure on the quarterback. Two weeks ago they were able to get, I believe, a third-and-16. It was just defensive tackle coming around, didn't maintain his leverage point on the quarterback, and there you go. Impactful play and they get a first down. So it is really getting back to the fine details of playing winning football. When you go on the road, the crowd noise obviously affects your offense. When you play at home, the crowd noise impacts your defense. And so again, it is our defense understanding how to communicate when we play home games. So we have really, really stressed that. Then overall ball security. But as a football team we have challenged everyone to play their best football in our program. Right now we have way too many health and depth concerns, but you can't fix depth overnight. I know people want instant gratification, you fix your depth with recruiting. So again, we have challenged everyone to step up and impact this football team in one way shape, form or another. But everything is about your special teams depth and that is showing as well. So we just have to continue to recruit to that.
"Moving on to Kentucky, you start with them offensively, very, very explosive, up-tempo, everything starts with the quarterback, Patrick Towles. Know all about him. Even though he is from Kentucky, he is from Highlands but that is right across the river in Cincinnati. So we were involved in the recruitment of him. He is a winner. He has won numerous state championships. So it is going to be a great challenge for us. The major difference we believe in their offense is their speed. They have really improved their overall speed, especially on the perimeter. They have some bigger-bodied guys up front. They are scoring a lot of points. They are going to playing with a lot of up-tempo, fast-paced, so we have to be ready. Again, that is why the communicative aspect is imperative in moving forward."
"Defensively, older, veteran group up front. Have done a very good job. They are down by seven to the No. 1 team in the country entering the fourth quarter. Again, they have improved their speed in the back end. They are plus-eight in turnover margin. Getting back to offensively, I think they are one or two in country in fourth downs. They have gone for it 20 times. So again, not just playing third down, we have to have the mindset to play through four downs of football.
"So I will answer any questions that you may have."
(On seeing similarities between UT and Kentucky in building the program)
"Every week is a new season. I am concerned with us and the progress that we are making. Again, it is the fine details, it is the consistency that we talk about each and every day. But they have done a good job. Mark [Stoops] has done an exceptional job there. Being at Cincinnati, knew all about the Kentucky program. A lot of the players on their team, we recruited when we were at Cincinnati. I have a lot of respect for him as a coach and what he is building there. But all our efforts are on how can we continue to make Tennessee a better football program, minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day and that is what we focus on."
(On if he felt his team was tired after the South Carolina game)
"I wouldn't necessarily say tired, I would say this though, the grind of a long season, I spoke about it prior to the South Carolina game, is the accumulation of reps and it adds up over time. So the amount of repetitions had really started to increase, but I did sense a little bounce in their step. They understand what is at stake. There is a lot this team is playing for. So I have liked our approach but I have liked our approach all year."
(On consistency from Joshua Dobbs)
"Needs to work on it. Not what we needed. And again, it's easy to write things when you watch a game or two, but we see it every day in practice. There's a lot different. Josh knows it. For us to be successful, he has to play with great consistency, day in and day out. That's his biggest challenge, and he understands it. Being able to make the routine plays and Josh in game situations has done a very good job of that and managing the offense.”
(On the changes he has seen with the offensive line)
"Anytime you can have the threat of a running quarterback, that changes the dynamics up front. From the defense being gap conscious, being able to account for the quarterback, I think the offense has continued to be a work in progress. We're still a work in progress. I do believe they've continued to grow and develop. I think Jalen Hurd has helped a lot. I think our offensive coaches have done a good job playing to the strengths of our players, the ability to win some one-on-one matchups in the perimeter. I think it's a combination of a lot of little things which obviously add up to big things."
(On the health of the team entering game week)
"TreVaris Saulsberry will still be out this week. He's the only one as of today right now. We expect everybody else to play Saturday afternoon."
(On Marquez North's shoulder)
"He was back at practice yesterday, so we fully anticipate him playing Saturday."
(On Todd Kelly Jr. and the bye week)
"T.K. is one of those individuals again where you learn by valuable repetitions. You try to create hypothetical situations in practice and gain opportunities. You can see where he was one of those individuals who stuck out. The big thing for Todd has been the overall mental grind. That's the thing that a lot of people don't realize. These are still 17, 18-year-old kids. The mental grind of a long season adds up from classes, academic work load, different game plans each and every week, the amount of video study that's required for your opponent. Todd is a very, very smart individual but again a lot of times we put a lot of expectations and standards on these young individuals but they're still kids and they're still developing. I think Todd is a great illustration of that. He did benefit, and I expect him playing more for us defensively on Saturday."
(On how their bowl eligibility comes down to play in November and comparing last year's chance )
"I don't need to. This is a different team. The dynamics are different. That's why each year is a new different team. It has a different personality. Our players know what they have at stake. The thing you don't want to do is create stress on them. They understand what they're playing for. I hope everyone truly understands the magnitude of that win at South Carolina. It's never happened in the history of Tennessee football. We've been playing football here for 118 years. It's the biggest come from behind win of 14 points in less than four minutes. You look at ESPN and we had a .9 percent chance of winning that football game. That's a great illustration of that continual growth and development and belief that you're going to find a way to win a football game. We were able to do that. Now, the more you win, the more is at stake."
(On Coleman Thomas)
"Coleman Thomas is back, he's practicing, but right now Jacob's (Gilliam) our right tackle."
(On how tough it is to prepare for a mobile quarterback) "Well it is and that's what makes him (Patrick Towles) dynamic. That's what makes him who he is, the ability to create plays with his legs. That's the element Josh (Dobbs) brings to us.”
(On what they saw Derek Barnett before the season)
"Great, great competitor, has an internal drive, very intelligent and his effort. Usually when a young player comes into your program you have to spend an inordinate amount of time on your style of play. The effort, that's required, and the small details. He came in and right from the get go he had another gear to himself, another level. He's a great competitor. We want competitive greatness and he's done a very very good job with that. Mature beyond his years."
Senior Linebacker A.J. Johnson
(On how to return to playing better defense)
"Just communicating. Everybody doing their job. I know we haven't been successful on third downs the past two weeks, and that's what we build ourselves on throughout the whole season--getting off the field on third down. A couple busts here, a couple busts there, but we had this off week to get everything back right and how we were going in the beginning of the season. We are going to come this week and have a great third-down mentality and get off the field."
(On if number of plays is a factor in giving up increased points)
"You can't say that is the cause of it because we are athletes, we play football. It doesn't matter if you get 10 snaps or 80 snaps, you still have to execute your assignment at the end of the day."
(On team's attempt to earn bowl eligibility)
"Just keep working hard, pretty much. Keep going hard each day, each week. Get this win number five, so we can get to win number six. Getting to a bowl game is my last thought because I know we are going to get there. We are going to do what it takes, and we're going to make whatever happen to get to a bowl game this year. It's going to be a great feeling when we get there."
(On if they watched Kentucky's game on Saturday)
"Yeah, I watched it. Like he was saying, their offense, they've got some skilled players and they've got a good quarterback. He knows how to manage the game. They're fighting for a bowl game just like we are. "
(On having Derek Barnett contribute as a freshman)
"I call him sack master."
Sophomore Linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin
(On differences between playing a no-huddle offense and one that does huddle)
"It's a different style of team. We've seen plenty of no huddle throughout the season. Saw a lot of it earlier in the season, and, all week, we see it from our team. It's a little bit different challenge, but it's nothing that we can't handle. We'll be able to take care of it."
(On what they see from Kentucky's offense)
"They've got some good skill players. The quarterback [Towles] does a lot for them. He can move. He's a big guy. He can get out of the pocket. They've got some quarterback runs they can do and they've got good speed on the edge."
Junior Wide Receiver Alton Howard
(On keeping the offense's momentum)
"Tempo. Going and painting a picture for Joshua Dobbs. Being consistent. Just doing the little things right. Executing."
(On if the quarterback change made the offense more explosive the past two games)
"I can say that with a running quarterback, it opened up the pass game. So, that's got a lot to do with it. Defense can't blitz as much at the same time. Dobbs being a running quarterback, he can keep the play alive. He can get out of the pocket. He can use his legs to get first downs. All around, it helped us."
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)