FootballOctober 08, 2024

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — As the Vols look to bounce back from their first loss of the 2024 campaign, No. 8/9 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) has turned the page to Saturday’s 7 p.m. ET home contest against rival Florida (3-2, 1-1 SEC) – the first of a four-game homestand inside Neyland Stadium. Preparation for the Gators continued Tuesday with practice in full pads on Haslam Field.

A common message shared early in the week has been to ‘flush’ the results of the Arkansas game, to learn from the tape and gear up for Florida. In his comments to media on Tuesday, secondary coach Willie Martinez described the team’s mentality heading into the matchup with the Gators.

“It’s really the next play is the most important play,” Martinez explained. “We already know what the results are. We’re moving forward. We want to get this bad taste out of our mouths, and we are just moving on because we have a great opponent in Florida. They have a lot of really good players. This is a great league. It’s the best league in the country. The next team is the most important team … that’s how they look at it.”

Running backs coach De’Rail Sims echoed the sentiment and applauded his room’s mindset and sense of urgency through two days of practice this week.

“They’ve been in the right frame of mind,” Sims said. “They came out yesterday and did a phenomenal job in the meetings. They came out today and did a really good job of attacking practice. It’s been really good from the mindset standpoint, their energy and sense of urgency, too.”

Full comments from Martinez and Sims can be viewed below, along with select quotes from sophomore linebacker Arion Carter, redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Jayson Jenkins and redshirt junior defensive back Andre Turrentine. Topics of conversation included focal points for Florida prep, keys for facing multiple Gator quarterbacks and run defense.

Tennessee Football Press Conference | Oct. 8, 2024

Running Backs Coach De’Rail Sims

On the response he has seen from the running back room after the loss to Arkansas…
“They’ve been in the right frame of mind. They came out yesterday and did a phenomenal job in the meetings. They came out today and did a really good job of attacking practice. It’s been really good from the mindset standpoint, their energy and sense of urgency, too.”

On the focal point for the group…
“Number one is fundamentals. Number one is eye placement, number two is hand placement. Making sure we are taking the proper angles when it comes to that. At the end of the day, just being able to finish. That’s the number one deal. I think we’ve done a good job of identifying who we have, we just have to do a really good job of finishing and continuing to work on the fundamentals. That’s the main thing.”

On what it says about Dylan Sampson as a leader after being critical of the team’s mentality during the past week…
“I think Dylan does a good job of leading. He’s always going to do a really good job of making sure he’s hard on himself. I think that’s the number one deal. Any time he speaks on things, I think he’s looking at himself number one and making sure he’s doing everything that he can do. He wants to lead by his actions, so I think number one he takes it upon himself to be the leader of our room. He takes it upon himself to be the leader of the team and continuously push and drive. From that standpoint, I think he’s always looking at himself internally. Always looking at ways that he can continue to improve or get better as well.”

On what has allowed Dylan Sampson to continue to create explosive plays even when other parts of the offense have not…
“I think number one is that he’s just doing his job. He’s trusting his read, he’s trusting the offensive line. When the big play is there, he’s aligning himself to be able to do that. I think you see that in terms of him being comfortable in the offense, him being comfortable with the offensive line and then seeing the play as it’s getting ready to develop and give himself a chance. Once he gets into the third level, it’s on him from that standpoint. He’s done a phenomenal job.”

On if he learned anything about Dylan Sampson against Arkansas…
“He’s showed it every day. He showed it in that situation of him continuing to get stronger as the game went along. He did a phenomenal job in terms of jump-starting the offense in the second half. That’s him in a nutshell in terms of what he wants to do. He wants to lead by example, and he wants to be the spark plug that gets the offense started as well. He did a phenomenal job of that.”

On the challenges Florida’s rushing defense will give to the running back room on Saturday…
“I think the big deal is you look at them up front, they’re doing a really good job of playing up front and doing a really good job at the second level with the linebackers being connected together. I think you can tell how hard they want to play. They’re doing a really good job of getting on and getting off blocks from that standpoint up front. Their linebackers are fitting downhill, and then they get into their secondary support as well, with their safeties being able to fit the run. You see them continuing to get better as the season goes along from game one to where they are right now, so I think their number one deal is us collectively doing a really good job of understanding what our role has to be in terms of how we want to attack them in the run game, and then do a really good job from that standpoint.”

On what was different about the first two offensive drives in the third quarter against Arkansas compared to the rest of the game…
“To be honest, I think that collectively we did a really good job of settling in. We got the adjustments that we needed to make at halftime, which was good. I think we just came out collectively and everybody was settled, everybody was executing at a high level, and you saw it from an execution standpoint. As long as we are all on the money, that’s when the big plays are coming. The big plays come because of the execution. We’re just doing our routine plays, and now we’re doing them at a really good clip and then boom, there is the explosive play that happens.”

On how Cameron Seldon and Peyton Lewis are continuing to come along…
“They’re doing a good job of continuing to come along and keep developing. I think the number one deal is that you have to look at the game on Saturday and you touched the ball maybe four times in the first half and the game is the way that it is in the second half, so it’s hard to get a chance to rotate guys the way that you want to. They’ve done a good job of attacking it in terms of coming into the meeting room or coming into practice. They’re always staying ready because you never know when you’re number is called. They’ve done a really good job of being positive from that standpoint.”

On Dylan Sampson’s ability to create yards after contact…
“I think it’s the want-to factor. It’s all about his understanding. We talk about it as a program being pad plus two in everything that we do, and he’s living it by example. He’s doing a really good job in terms of if nothing is there, let him drive forward and get two yards. At the end of the play, we talk about finishing all the time. You get judged by how many yards you gain after contact, whether that’s you having to run through a defender or him making a defender miss. I think it’s the want-to factor of it that he’s going to drain this for every yard that he can get and put them in a critical situation offensively to a manageable down and distance. I think that portion of it is just the want-to factor for him.”

On if playing a rival in Florida helps players flip the switch mentally faster after a loss the previous week…
“In the mindset, you have to look at it as a situation in life too. Sometimes you’re going to have off days. We talk about in our room every day that we have off days, but we don’t have bad days. Bad days are people having stage four cancer sitting there fighting for their life. We had an off day. So now, you had an off day, what are you going to do the next day to make it better? The number one deal is that let’s do a phenomenal job of learning from the situation that we just went through so now we understand to flush it, it’s on to the next page and let’s get ready to go attack this week. I think we’ve done a really good job from that standpoint of mindset too.”

On where DeSean Bishop is at coming out of the game against Arkansas…
“I like where DeSean is at right now because he does a phenomenal job in terms of learning from his experiences. In the one situation in the pass protection, he goes inside to try and cut his defender. You can’t cut guys who aren’t rushing hard, so the main teaching point is just to make sure we do a really good job of staying up. I love where he’s at right now in terms of his mentality. I think you see him each week continuing to get better, and that’s what you want to see happen. His mindset hasn’t changed whatsoever in terms of the way he prepares and goes out and attacks practice. He’s done a really good job.”

Secondary Coach Willie Martinez

On when he discovered Will Brooks would not only be a help on special teams, but also in the secondary …
“Yeah, that’s a great question man because you get in this business of helping develop kids. That’s what it’s all about. That’s why I got into the business. It is to get some guys in the program that you want. Obviously, we walked into it. He was here already. Somebody that is a hard worker. Everything he does is first class, I mean whether it’s off the field on the field, but football wise, you knew right away, because as we are putting in the package three and a half years ago, whatever it was right, you always ask the questions in the room. You ask, ‘Hey, what are we doing in this quarter’s coverage?’ Bam! You get the instant answers. Somebody else was a little bit delayed, and he was constantly doing that. Now when he gets his opportunity on the field, early on, most of it’s going to be special teams because we are a space group, meaning we deal with space the most. The best special team players should be the guys at the skill position, let alone the defensive backs slash linebackers. They deal with it the most. They read and react, and he immediately makes an impact as we go through practice drill after drill, very consistent. Finds out a way how we are going to do it, how we are going to teach it, and since day one he was that way. When he was given the opportunity to run down a kickoff the first year or on the kickoff return. He knew how to line up. He knew his job, but then he was also productive. You know what I mean, so there is no surprise to see where Will Brooks is at because he is the same guy every day. He’s still trying to get better, so all that does, I said it early on in camp, ‘I thought I really love this group, I really do, whether it’s older, whether it’s younger, whatever it is man, they’re in, they’re locked in man,’ and a lot of it is because guys like Will Brooks. He’s not the only one in the room, but definitely you have somebody that is actually doing it. He will be the first one when he makes a mistake to say, ” I own it, that’s on me, I have to be better,”. Just like a coach would do it, and like he should do it if he made the mistake. Great example. He does it every day.

On what Will Brook’s biggest area of growth has been…
“As a leader, he’s more vocal. He’s not afraid to say it. Before he was quiet, and we got on him. We kept on telling him to listen and ‘man, you have proven it, you have actually proved it,’. That’s the best way of being a great leader. A great teammate is a guy that does it the right way, works hard and is productive. He’s earned it, so he’s more vocal.”

On what it’s like to have a player-coach like Will Brooks…
“It’s highly important. Again, you got a guy that’s a good player, and again you got credibility, you got street credit. You have proven that you have done it, so whatever comes out of your mouth, they should be listening. They should see it because your peers will respect you. If you are a really good player, you’re smart and you’re tough, that’s Will Brooks, then obviously that’s better leadership than I can create. I’m playing the game. I’m the mentor. I’m the teacher. I’m not going to move off of whatever my task is, and I’m going to keep on pushing, pushing and pushing. When players are doing it and they’re driving it, that’s what we had and that’s what we have built here. He’s the poster child.”

On what the term, “Flush it,” means and if it has become more of a motto this year…
“Yeah, it’s really the next play is the most important play. It’s the next play, and whether you are using that as an example of ‘just flush it man, let’s go on over to the next play.’ It’s how we see it. That’s how I see it. You are only as good as, obviously, the next one really, to be honest with you. We already know what the results are. We’re moving forward. We want to get this bad taste out of our mouths, and we are just moving on because we got a great opponent in Florida. They have a lot of really good players. This is a great league. It’s the best league in the country. The next team is the most important team, you know, the next play, so that’s how they look at it.”

On how he would evaluate the STAR position this far into the season…
“We knew there was going to be some growing pains going through it, but I think we have done a really good job of mixing Christian [Harrison] and Boo [Carter]. Their strengths and building off and improving their weaknesses. Weaknesses is that neither one of them played the position here. One was here playing corner in Christian Harrison. The other is a freshman that came in here. Been here for 10 months, and is learning how everything is done. They have strengths, and they have proven it in the games. They are continually growing and getting better and better. We had a great practice today. I tell you what, as a team I think we did, but also, the communication was really good. It really starts with them because they set the calls. It’s getting better. The experience, obviously, you can only get it when you are playing, so they’re gaining their confidence.”

On the reasons there were some open receivers versus Arkansas…
“You might be talking about zone coverages and stuff like that, and there was. We have to do a better job of tackling. The first thing that shows up when you are playing in the perimeter and you have to be really good against offenses. Doesn’t matter what the offense is, we have to be elite at the perimeter game, whether that’s screens, whether a guy catches a ball. The yards can not be after the catch. That’s what you are trying to minimize, the yards after the catch. They caught some balls, obviously in one-on-one situations. We didn’t win some. We didn’t win the one-one-ones that we have been winning. Again, that just comes from play making, that comes from fundamentals and technique. Not to take anything away from like you just said, Arkansas is a good football team. They deserved to win. We have to play better. On our end of it, we feel like there’s a lot of stuff there that was us too. We weren’t the smartest on certain plays. We weren’t as physical as we needed to be. We missed a tackle when we shouldn’t have missed a tackle that created a momentum change. We missed an assignment as a defense in a crucial moment on third down that allowed them to change the field on us. We want to be a dominant defense. We want to be an elite defense. We want to keep the field position when we have the field position. Offenses are going to make plays, they are going to make plays. We want to be in tight coverage. We just have to play smarter. We have to play harder and longer, in moments, especially at the back end of the game.”

On if the team has to do anything extra to prepare to potentially face two quarterbacks in Florida’s offense…
“It doesn’t. There are two really good quarterbacks. Both of them are athletic. You could say one is a little faster than the other, but they’re very effective in what they do. We played against (Graham) Mertz last year, and he played a great game against us. He obviously played really well off schedule and made some big-time throws. (DJ) Lagway has a great arm. What a talent. He has great size, and both of them can make every throw. Both of them can also hurt you in the quarterback run plays. We have to contain it. We just played one. We played two back-to-back to be honest, so very similar to the guys that we just finished playing. We have to contain them, get to them, throw them off schedule and be effective in doing it.”

On how much of containing a quarterback comes down to defensive effort…
“I think it starts with our front seven, or if we are pressuring, it could be a perimeter player. Just keep them in the pocket. That’s the most important thing. I thought we played hard. Did we play smart at some times? No, we could have played smarter in some moments. Did we play long enough and harder than our opponent? I think at times we saw that we didn’t. Containing the quarterback is just making sure that you keep your rush lanes and do not go past the level of the quarterback or the ball and continue to push the pocket where you’re actually containing it and not let them out. If that’s the case and it happens, it happened to us a couple of times where we knew they were going to throw the ball down deep. We call it plaster, but we have to be able to stay with our receivers with our eyes. We have to transfer it to stay on the wideout and not the quarterback.”

Sophomore LB Arion Carter

On his biggest progress made this season…
“Just the play of speed and being able to read and react. Being able to understand the schematics of what wants to be done on normal downs and third downs, and then also knowing what the offense that we’re playing is trying to do. I think also having a good grasp of what the game plan is of how they want to attack us and how we need to defend.”

On lessons learned as a collective defense after a difficult play…
“Just knowing situational football at the end of the day and being able to read and react off of what they give us. Being able to have great communication and understand the plan of how we want to hold the offense up depending on the formation or call.”

On learning from the challenges to move forward in playing against two quarterbacks…
“Obviously you have to be assignment sound, and everyone has to be able to do their job whenever you’re going against a dual-throwing quarterback and a person who’s able to move in the pocket and be able to create extra time and space with his legs. So, you have to be able to corral the guy getting down on the ground while being able to have great pass coverage. Eyes are everything and obviously you have to know what your assignment is, who your man is depending on zone of coverage, and you have to be able to go and play at the end of the day.”

RS-Sophomore DL Jayson Jenkins

On correction focuses of this week…
“I think just effort. We definitely tried to play our hardest. And then, the things that we have to clean up are we feel like we could be more physical on the line of scrimmage; that’s going to be the main emphasis going forward. Just winning the line of scrimmage and winning that battle in the trenches.”

On challenges that Florida may present…
“They are very well coached. It seems like on tape they work very collectively as a unit and they are on all of their keys and everything. Pointing out where all the pressure comes from, so we just have to knuckle down on all the details this week and just trying to play our ball, ultimately playing the brand of football that we know and that we play.”

On the defensive success in short yardage situations…
“That’s something that we emphasize, stopping the run. Nobody is just going to run the ball on us, and as a unit we understand that. On those short yardage situations, you have to knuckle down and not let them get the yards that they want, and that’s the mindset.”

RS-Junior DB Andre Turrentine

On preparing to face two quarterbacks…
“Both of those guys do some things very well, each of them different in their own regard, but they both do things very well. I am trusting the game plan that our coaches have given us is going to lead us to success and we are ready for two quarterbacks this week.”

On Florida’s run offense…
“We know what to expect, exactly like last year and the years prior. We know that they want to run the ball with (Montrell Johnson Jr.), and we need to understand the skillset that he brings to the game and understand how to stop that skillset. We will use the gameplan to our advantage and also the crowd and things like that being back at home, will be to our advantage trying to stop the run.”