Coach Tee Martin, Assistant Head Coach/Passing Game Coordinator/Wide Receivers
On the freshmen receivers and if any of them have stood out…
“First thing I would say is speed. That was something that we wanted to address in last year’s recruiting class. We wanted to replace the size that we lost with Jauan (Jennings) and then Quez (Marquez Callaway) as the starters, but also to upgrade in the speed department. We want to push the ball downfield vertically and we want to create matchup mismatches on offense, and you can’t do it without speed. So, the addition of Velus Jones, a transfer from USC who is someone I’m familiar with, who’s a 4.3 (40-yard dash) waking up in the morning, Jalin Hyatt, having the addition of Jimmy Holiday, Jimmy Calloway – those guys can absolutely run. So, we’re moving guys around. The one thing that I’ve been noticing about them, if you just had to sum it up in a few words, is that they can run.”
On what he’s seen out of Velus Jones Jr. and how he’s been able to adapt to this offense as well as being a threat in the return game…
“Definitely will be a threat in the kick return game, both as a kickoff returner and a punt returner. The one thing that you can’t replace when guys transfer, what you can’t underestimate, is experience. Even though he’s new to our system, he’s played college football at a major level and he’s played in some big moments and been called on in some big moments. He’s new, just like the true freshmen are, but the one thing that he has a leg up is that he’s been in college football for a few years, he’s a veteran, so he’s able to plug and play at different positions without panicking because he’s been there before. I like what he’s doing. Again, he’s playing outside, he’s playing inside, we’re doing things very creative with him, motions and putting him in the backfield. That’s how he was used at SC (Southern California) when I was there as a coordinator, I’m not familiar with what they did with him last year, but we know what kind of talent he is and is certainly a guy that we want to get the ball to.”
On WRs Josh Palmer and Ramel Keyton…
“I’m so excited about how they’re playing. The retention from last year, you know you don’t have a spring and you really have an abbreviated and modified training camp, so there’s a lot of teaching that you would normally have as a receivers coach in training camp that we’re not able to do because they’re in school and you’re on the 20-hour rule, so the time is cut a little bit. So, you’re having to lean on their experience, and ultimately, their intelligence. You just spoke of two of the most intelligent receivers that I’ve ever coached – Ramel and Josh. Both of them are having to be moved around. One thing about operating under COVID is week-to-week you can have a different lineup at any position. If someone is out because of tracing, because they may be positive, and injuries. So, the approach I took as a receiver coach was to teach every receiver every position, because you may line up a week playing a different position because of whatever reason. Ramel has shown the ability to do that. Josh has shown the ability to do that. Both of them are surehanded guys, both of them are great route runners, both of them play above the rim – those so called 50-50 balls that you put in the air. If you noticed last season, Josh made great catches down the stretch for us on those 50-50 catches where he played above the rim, outjumped a guy and pulled the ball in. Ramel, you saw him kind of emerge towards the bowl game, big catch in the red zone, jumping in the air and playing above the rim. Both of those guys can jump, they can run, they’re smart, and you’ll see them being used in a lot of different ways this season.”
On what he’s seen from freshman Malachi Wideman and where he needs to improve the most…
“He has probably the most upside of everyone because he’s coming in probably the most raw of them all. Jalin Hyatt lined up at wideout his whole career. Jimmy Holiday was a quarterback, so there’s some development there but he was a quarterback so he’s very familiar. But Malachi, for three years the young man played in kind of a Wing-T offense and was a basketball player during the offseason, rarely went through spring practice, wasn’t on a big-time 7-on-7 circuit, and would just show up and play football and just kind of go off natural skills. You see basketball transfer to his football game where he plays above the rim, he’s tough, he’s physical, he knows how to body people up – just like rebounding a basketball, sometimes you take contact and you initiate contact to get separation. Those skills have carried over for Malachi on the football field. He is a bright young man that just needs a lot of reps. He’s one of those young players that the more reps he gets, the more you start seeing him shine more and more every day. He has a want to, he’s that guy that’s young but doesn’t mind making mistakes and he doesn’t lose confidence when he does make mistakes and when you get on him. He wants to be out there. He wants to get better. I really like what he’s bringing to the table and we’re just going to continue to push his skillset out of him as we go along.”
On not overloading the freshmen but still having them ready to plug and play if needed…
“It’s about maximizing every meeting and every practice on very direct and detailed teaching. I’m having to change the way I teach. When you have two hours to meet, you can kind of hit five or six, seven, eight different things. When you have 30 minutes to meet and you have to be on the field in 30 minutes, you have to be very specific about what you’re teaching and very detailed about what you’re teaching, and you can’t bounce around. So, what I find myself doing now in adapting to the new way of having to things is focusing on one thing, maybe two things at the most that day, and let’s get better at this, specifically. Then we’re able to go to film and say we focused on this for practice, did we do this or not? If we did do that and I’m satisfied with that skillset, we’ll move on to the next thing. If not, we stay there because you can’t progress until you perfect, so that’s what we are. I’ve really changed my teaching approach in meetings and on the grass to try to maximize the opportunities that we have during this time.”
On what he’s seen from freshman Dee Beckwith…
“Dee bounces back and forth between the wide receiver room and the tight end room. He’s kind of a hybrid receiver/tight end type of body type. He hasn’t been around for a few days, but when he was there, he was progressing quickly. He’s fast, he’s big, he’s physical, a young man who the nuances of the game and the feel from when he’s outside versus when he’s inside, when he’s in the core, possibly putting his hands down – we haven’t decided yet if we’re going to actually progress him that far at that position yet – but, he has the skillset. He has the want to. He’s a young man that’s always around asking questions, always trying to watch extra film and improve himself. That’s what you want from a young guy. He just needs a lot of reps.”
On what gives him confidence that the passing game will be more consistent this season…
“Well it’s the second year with the same play caller. That hasn’t happened in a long time around here, so I’m excited about that, just being a Vol. And then, to being on the staff, I’m just happy for that for our quarterbacks. When language carries over, when ideas carry over, there is a cohesion there, there is a chemistry there. When Jarrett (Guarantano) can look to the sideline and get a call from Jim (Chaney) and understand what the expectation of that play is. With expectation comes anticipation, comes an opportunity to eliminate problems, and when you do have problems an opportunity to minimize the destruction on the whole offense. You had to kind of feel and see early in the season, and once we kind of said, ‘Okay, this is what we are comfortable with doing, this is what we do very well,’ we kind of stuck to that in the second half of the season. Going into the spring, that was the idea. Now we’re in training camp with new faces, new bodies in there at different positions, but the one position that has been consistent in two places is the quarterback and the coordinator. So, I think just having a second year of being comfortable with the play calls, the expectation of the plays, the familiarity of the plays is going to help us overall from that position and it’s going to trickle down though my room. I know in my room we’re a lot more comfortable with language, with expectation, and why are we doing what we’re doing? Why are we calling this on 3rd-and-3? I know there’s a corner route, but are we really trying to throw that? So, long story short, familiarity, comfort level and understanding what we’re trying to do I think is the benefit in that.”
On the chemistry between the quarterbacks and wide receivers early in camp…
“It’s been about as good as you can expect. Obviously, these young men went their separate ways after spring and were in different cities. We slowly started to get them back, had limited opportunities, and I think that you couldn’t ask for a better chemistry with the situation. I think Jarrett (Guarantano) is very direct about what he likes and what he wants. How he wants routes to be ran. He has Ramel (Keyton) and Josh (Palmer) and Cedric Tillman, guys that he’s played with for a few years and they know him, he knows their body language. There are certain things that you pick up on as a quarterback: how a guy sinks his hips, how a guy gives you what we call indicators of when he’s coming out of a route, things of that nature. He’s feeling that out with the younger guys, but he anticipates a lot better with our veteran receivers because they’ve had more time together. That’s what we’re trying to bridge the gap between the reps that were lost with not having a spring and a very limited offseason and trying to put that all together and go and play a game here in a few weeks. So, it’s a great question and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re just trying to get them as many reps as they can to build that trust as you will between quarterback and wide receiver.”
On how he coaches the young receivers to get them ready to play all the different spots…
“I put them in the hardest situation first, and that’s playing inside. Playing inside is the hardest receiver position that you can play because there is so much action there. You see people crossing your face on blitzes. You see backers, safeties, nickelbacks, there’s a lot of things that happen inside. So, I placed all of them inside when they first got here, and that adjustment to move outside becomes clearer. It’s a bigger field out there, there’s more grass, you can see and anticipate coverage and disguises and things of that nature. So, that’s what I did, that was my approach, was to make it as hard as possible early and then start to put them in the positions that feel more comfortable to them. And they’ve all responded well. You look at Jalin Hyatt and Jimmy Calloway and those guys, they were natural slot receivers anyway, so when they got the opportunity to move outside, they really liked that. But that’s what I did. My approach was to put them in the toughest position early, let them sink fist then teach them how to swim and get out of it.”
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