Opening statement:
“When you look at this Missouri team, really came away impressed, especially with what Coach (Eliah) Drinkwitz and his staff have done without spring ball. Probably not your usual summer and fall camp. The way they put it together in the last game, I know the game didn’t turn out the way they wanted, but just watching them play, the way they play, the toughness they played with. They never quit. The physicality. Very well coached. I’m sure they’re just like us from Week 1 to Week 2, they want to make as much improvement as they possibly can. So, we will definitely need to play a complete game to have a shot at this game. It’s a challenge to our players in trying to create the right habits fundamentally in all three phases. It’s something we’ve tried to address over the last four days here since the first game.”
On if the secondary group will have everyone available and his expectations…
“You know we had three guys that were out for most of our preparation last week; we’ve got two of them back, so that will be a positive in having Jaylen (McCollough) and Warren Burrell back. It gets guys used to where their playing some of the same spots. Until you play in live settings, which Tank (McCollough) got to do and Warren did a little bit last week, got to be in tackling space, got to play the ball, got to be able to play man-to-man, got to be able to make calls as they give you different formations and stuff. I’m sure these guys, like I hope the rest of the secondary does, I hope we continue to work hard and improve. And as the game goes Saturday, we get better as the game goes.”
On the depth of the team…
“We got a lot of guys that we think can contribute. There’s some of the guys like John Mincey and Omari Thomas that only maybe played a couple of snaps – they need to play more snaps. Darel Middleton, hopefully, will get a chance to play in this game. But, we need to play a lot of guys. At the outside backer position, we need to do the same thing.”
On the depth at the running back position…
“We’ve got some wide receivers that we feel are kind of like running backs. Velus Jones is a guy that returns kicks and carried a couple of rocket sweeps the other night. Jimmy Holiday is kind of that way. I would like to see us play Jabari (Small) and Tee (Hodge) a little bit. Tee’s getting back healthy and Jabari’s had a really good camp. So, we’re going to need more than two running backs as the season goes, so we’re going to need to get those guys some touches.”
On changing the receiver rotation…
“Well, we’ve had three more practice dates. It has been really good for the freshmen to continue to grow and develop together. They’re going to continue to work hard and have a better understanding and as the season goes, they’ll really control their roll. How they practice and how they prepare, that’s really how it is with all positions. I think there are some guys there that have the ability to help us and they have to work hard to do that.”
On Doneiko Slaughter’s recruitment…
“He’s a guy that came to our camp, had a chance to see him work out and see how he responds to coaching. He had a really good senior year at a really good program. He’s a good kid, good student. Doing the right thing is important to him. He’s a guy that comes to work every single day. The way he goes about his business; he’s going to continue to improve and get better.”
On the challenges that Missouri’s presents…
“To start with their defense, eliminating them from creating negative plays for us. We don’t need negative plays (and) we don’t need to get behind the sticks. We need to be in manageable third downs. We obviously have nowhere to go but up when it comes to third down. Being able to run the football, especially in the second half, was a challenge for Alabama last week. They’ve done an outstanding job of doing that. They’ve always played tight coverage. When you look at them on offense, coach (Eliah) Drinkwitz, he’s very creative. He mixes in a little bit of option out of the gun with counter and gap schemes. They spread the ball around, they stretch you defensively horizontally and vertically. Maintaining our gaps and assignments and finding a way to create negative plays for them. Getting some turnovers, holding them to field goals in the red area. Special teams, they’ve got good specialists, kickers and returners. It will be a tremendous challenge for us, but it is something that we are looking forward to. We are grateful to have an opportunity to play.”
On Missouri QB Shawn Robinson…
“I think he was 19 of 25 throwing the football. They had some pretty good things going for him in the first half. They had a couple of negative plays that got them behind the sticks and if it weren’t for them, they would have scored some touchdowns on those drives. I thought they were efficient offensively and I think Shawn is a guy that can extend plays. He looks like he has good arm strength. Keeping him in the pocket and control him running the football on the perimeter is going to be tough.”
On what Cade Mays could potentially bring to the offensive line…
“Cade has experience in a tough league. He’s familiar with our offense. Unless you’ve played in this league a bunch of years, you’re not going to duplicate it in practice. He’s a guy that has been through the wars a little bit. He’s a smart guy that can play multiple positions. He can play guard, tackle, center, tight end. We’ve repped him all the way through camp with the twos at different positions just in case it did happen we would be ready.”
On how far back they have gone back to scout Eliah Drinkwitz’s offense…
“During the offseason we always find different teams to study just to see how they do things. Teams that have had success whether it’s offense, defense, special teams. A couple of years ago we studied a little bit of what some of the things Eliah was doing offensively because he was having a lot of success. You go back to North Carolina State. I mean that’s as far as we went back.”
On DB Alontae Taylor’s performance against South Carolina…
“I really think that was Alontae’s best game he’s played since he’s been at Tennessee. It’s not surprising. He works hard, comes to practice every day, approaches everything the way you should. He don’t take any days off, puts a lot of work into prep, so he’s got to continue to do that (and) create some consistency and habits. We’re going to need him to play like that again.”
On the situation at long snapper and how much work goes into special teams at practice…
“It consists of about a third of our practice every time we go out there. There’s nothing to figure out for me. Will Albright is going to go out there and snap again. He’s a guy that I believe in. He made a mistake. I made a lot more mistakes Saturday than he did, I can assure you. He’s going to go out there and he’s going to do a good job and he’s going to be a great player for us. We’ll continue to go the way we have been with him and (Matthew) Salansky and let them swap in and out.”
On Velus Jones Jr. in the kick return game…
“I think in kick returning it’s about decision making. There’s some kicks that based off the height, where they’re located on the field that it’s probably not wise to return them, so you got to be patient and kind of let the game or the kicks come to you and make sure you make the right decisions back there. Ball security is a premium. He’s got a lot of experience doing it. It was his first time in our league this past week (and) I thought he did a really nice job and he needs to continue to do that.”
On the reasoning for wanting to get freshmen running backs Tee Hodge and Jabari Small some playing time…
“I think these guys had really good camps and I think they have kind of earned the right to play some. I think we need more than two backs, obviously, probably need four or five or six really in this league. Another guy, Len’Neth Whitehead, he started taking reps on the scout team this week, so that’s good to see. Hopefully, as we kind of go over the next couple of weeks he can get used to competing again. He’s had a long time off, so he’s going to need couple of weeks to kind of build himself back up to give us another guy.”
-UT Athletics
