Tennessee tight end Ethan Wolf (82) eyes a block Monday night as tailback John Kelly takes a handoff from quarterback Quinten Dormady in the Vols' 42-41 win over Georgia Tech. The Vols return to action Saturday at home against Indiana State. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. The SEC Network will televise the game.
photo by UT Athletics
Tennessee football coach Butch Jones and Vols student-athletes spoke to reporters at Wednesday's press conference.
Jones discussed the No. 25 Vols' thrilling 42-41, double-overtime win over Georgia Tech on Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
"First of all, I am very proud of the way our players fought back and their mentality," Jones said.
"We found a way to win a football game after going through a lot of adversity, some of which we created for ourselves. Nonetheless, we were able to win the football game."
Tennessee scored 35 of its 42 points in the second half and overtime. In rallying back from a 14-point defense against a Georgia Tech team that controlled the ball for most of the game, the Vols needed to execute when it mattered most. UT also benefited from game-changing plays like Rashaan Gaulden’s forced fumble with 4:50 remaining in the fourth and Paul Bain’s blocked field goal with time expiring in regulation.
"When you look at the turnovers, you are always concerned about that in any game," Jones said. "We had zero turnovers on offense and took the ball away twice on defense, so we had a plus two turnover margin. We had a blocked kick. We were 5-for-5 in redzone efficiency. We knew we had to score touchdowns. We couldn't kick field goals in the redzone. We only had two penalties. We talked about playing a clean game and how that would give us an opportunity to win."
Jones and the Vols now turn their attention to Indiana State. The Vols host the Sycamores on Saturday at Neyland Stadium with a 4 p.m. ET kickoff on the SEC Network. Indiana State is coming off a 22-20 loss to Eastern Illinois in its season opener.
Jones and Indiana State head coach Curt Mallory both coached on the 2001 Central Michigan staff. Jones was the offensive coordinator and Mallory was the secondary coach.
"Indiana State is going to challenge us with different things like shifts and motions," Jones said. "They do a very good job, and I have a lot of respect for Curt Mallory, their football coach. He is a very close friend of mine. We coached together, and I know what he is all about. I know they will bring their A-game coming into Neyland Stadium."
Vols Among Nation's Best Over Last 20 Games
Tennessee is 16-4 over its last 20 games. UT is tied with Michigan, Wisconsin, Stanford and Washington for the nation's fifth-best record over the last 20 games. Only Alabama (19-1), Clemson (18-2), Ohio State (17-3) and Oklahoma (17-3) have a better record over that stretch.
Tennessee moved up four spots to No. 21 in the Week 2 Amway Coaches Poll. The Vols stayed at No. 25 in the AP Top 25 poll.
Dormady Reflects On His First Start
Dormady, who had entered Monday's game with 10 relief appearances in his UT career, earned the win in his first start. He completed 20-for-37 for 221 passing yards and two touchdowns. The Vols completed a 14-point comeback thanks to big plays on defense and special teams and the offense's second-half surge. After halftime, Dormady went 12-for-17 for 169 yards with two touchdown passes to Marquez Callaway.
"Obviously there is a lot for us to improve on," Dormady said. "We will get better in this short week. Fighting back hard and getting the victory was awesome."
On Wednesday, Dormady discussed some areas that he thinks he can improve in for this week's game against Indiana State.
"For me, it's just making the easy throws," he said. "That's between me and the receivers by working on our timing. I think that getting back out there today, we will get things fixed. We just need to focus on making the routine plays."
Tickets Available for UT-Indiana State Game
Fans can still purchase tickets for Saturday's game between the Vols and the Sycamores. Tickets may be purchased online via AllVols.com or by phone by calling the Tennessee Athletics Ticket Office at 1-800-332-VOLS.
Quotes From Wednesday’s Press Conference
Butch Jones
(Opening statement)
"This week is paramount in terms of continuing to improve our football team. A lot of teams can make great improvements from week one to week two, and that is what we need to see. We need great improvements from all facets, starting off with special teams. Obviously, we have to do a much better job of tackling on defense. On both sides of the ball, we need to work on third down conversions and our overall physicality at the line of scrimmage. Those are a lot of things for us to continue to improve on as a football team.
"Indiana State is going to challenge us with different things like shifts and motions. They do a very good job, and I have a lot of respect for Curt Mallory, their football coach. He is a very close friend of mine. We coached together, and I know what he is all about. I know they will bring their A-game coming into Neyland Stadium. I think we found out in college football that you have to show up and be ready to play your best each and every week. The mental part, recovery part and physicality part are all things that this young football team needs to grow up and mature in. They have done a very good job to date. We are going to need to have a great couple of days of preparation here."
(On preparations talks in the SEC about the Hurricane Irma and the story behind the turnover trash can)
"First of all, with the inclement weather and hurricane coming, that is something that we are all watching. In terms of getting a call from the conference or anything, we have not received that, but I know we will have a plan in place. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone with what is coming and could happen.
"The trash can is something we have done for a year now. We had it last year. It's never meant anything disrespectful towards the opponent. It's just having a heightened awareness for turnovers and having some fun with it. Our kids enjoy it. If you go around the country, pretty much everyone does something like this, whether it's a heavyweight belt or a chain. There are a lot of schools who use trash cans. We felt we needed to hunt the ball better and get turnovers. We celebrate turnovers. We do a thing called shots on goal. We chart in practice and games how many ball disruptions that we have. It's something that is creating habits."
(On defensive line adjustment
"I don't think I've ever been through a game where they had well over 80 rushing attempts. We have spoken about that as a staff, and we need to play more players, particularly on defense and the defensive front. It’s about your consistency and performance, and it starts in practice and earning the trust of the coaches and your peers. That’s something that we'll continue to coach, but moving forward, we're going to have to play a significant amount of others. I think some of it is experience, some of it is the first game. I think the game from a defensive stand point was completely different, so you need some maturity."
(On Daniel Bituli and Darrell Taylor stepping up)
“Darrell Taylor had over 5,000-plus yards running in this football game, and that’s pretty remarkable for a defensive lineman. He was all over and there are some things we ask them to do whether it was fill in the triple option or the counter and some things like that, but again, he made the play he needed to. Darrell has been doing that since spring football, and he’s really continue to grow and develop. I think it’s also a great indicator that we were able to redshirt him his freshman year. I think he's reaping the benefits from that year, in terms of a redshirt.
In terms of Daniel Bituli, he works very hard. His opportunity presented itself, and that’s what we talk about all our players about all the time as when you get that opportunity to perform whether it’s one play, whether it’s thirty plays, whether it’s fifty plays. You get an opportunity to put your identity on video, go take advantage of it. Both those individuals you just brought up definitely took advantage of their playing time, and we’re going to need those kinds of effort from them moving forward.”
(On Jauan Jennings and Drew Richmond)
“Drew will be ready to play. I’m excited to get him back into practice and competing. He will be available for the game. In terms of Jauan’s injury, it is indefinite and that’s all I can say at this time. I really can’t get into specifics.”
(On message to QB Jarrett Guarantano after not playing)
“The message is always the same. You’re always one snap away and you have to be ready. It’s the first game that he’s really been in that situation, and Quinten (Dormady) went through the same thing in his process as well behind Josh (Dobbs). I think that sometimes you’re antsy, you’re ready to play, you have some anxiety, you’re going through everything in your mind. We always tell them, ‘you’re one snap away.’ We knew this game, like we talked about last week, the nuances of this game would be completely different. We knew our possessions would be very limited. Then all of a sudden we have a couple of receivers go down and we have a couple of O-linemen go down and they were able to come back in the game. These are the little things that (were) encouraging. We have a big play down in the red zone area, and then Marcus (Tatum) has to go out for a play or two, and Venzell Boulware goes in there and does a very good job, and all of a sudden Jack Jones has to go from left guard to right tackle the next play, and we were able to do that.”
(On health status for Kendal Vickers, Evan Berry, Shy Tuttle, and Josh Smith)
“I would say right now at this point in time, all of them are questionable. They’ll be available for some part of practice today. Some, we’ll keep in for treatments and just get them out there for team periods. I’ll know a little bit more later in the week, but there is a possibility that they could play.”
(On what position Daniel Bituli will play this week)
“The advantage now is he knows both Sam (outside linebacker) and Mike (middle inside linebacker). Again, he’s going to come in and compete, and you can never have enough competition. So he will play more Mike against a traditional offense.”
(On junior transfer Paul Bain’s development and field-goal block on Monday night)
“I just remember him coming here with his family and wanting to be a part of our football program. Obviously, (he’s) a good person, really strong character. I think it’s a great story, a young man who has two jobs to make ends meet. This program is very important to him and the sacrifices that he and his family have made to be a part of this football program. Here’s an individual on a national stage to get the opportunity on a field goal block to go in there, and delivers and responds. It was really rewarding in the team meeting yesterday when we showed the clip, and just the amount of respect he has from his teammates was a pretty neat thing to see.”
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)