KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — With its second-straight SEC East road trip on deck, the Tennessee football team hit the practice field Tuesday to resume preparations for its matchup at Missouri. The Vols (2-2, 0-1 SEC) and Tigers (2-2, 0-1) square off Saturday at noon ET in Columbia.
Running backs coach Jerry Mack, linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary and select players met with media Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s divisional showdown.
Tennessee’s rushing attack has been sufficient through the first four weeks under head coach Josh Heupel‘s up-tempo, high-octane offense, averaging 201 yards per game on the ground. The Vols head into Columbia with a favorable matchup as Missouri allows 269.2 rush yards per contest, ranked last in the SEC and 129th in FBS.
“I think our tempo helps us extremely,” Mack said Tuesday morning inside the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center. “I think the way we get players in and out of the game, the way we get our cleats set in the ground—you can see it from the defensive lines that we play against—a lot of times those guys won’t be set. You can see it from the defensive secondary, sometimes those guys won’t always be in position and we can steal a couple of explosive plays like that.
“I do think the things we do from formation variation, you’ve seen a lot more of that probably over the last couple of weeks, and I think you will see even more of it as we move on. Just always giving and presenting a different look to the defense is going to be our key.”
Mizzou’s aerial assault will challenge the Tennessee defensive unit as sophomore quarterback Connor Bazelak enters the weekend putting up 300 yards per game through the air—ranking third in the SEC and 13th in the nation. Jean-Mary spoke to the Tigers’ ability to spread out a defense with schemes implemented by second-year head coach Eliah Drinkwitz.
“I think Coach Drinkwitz does a great job,” Jean-Mary said. “He did a great job as a coordinator, and he does a great job as a head coach. You can see they’re going to spread you from sideline to sideline, they’re going to give you a lot of different formations. It’s probably simple for them on offense, but it’s a challenge for defenses because they put guys in different positions and they’re going to give you a lot of different formations, motions and shifts, so it’s going to be a challenge there.”
Full transcript of Coach Mack and Coach Jean-Mary can be viewed below as well as select quotes from Tennessee players.
Running Backs Coach Jerry Mack
On what has impressed him most about Tiyon Evans…
“So far, it changes week to week. Tiyon has been doing a really good job so far being locked in at practice. The thing that impressed me this last weekend was his pass protection. It’s something that we made an emphasis on. You saw that 75-yard touchdown pass that we threw. He was right there to protect our quarterback, to keep that guy out of his face and out of his lap. This past week, I thought he did a great job of being locked and loaded. We made a couple checks at the line of scrimmage. The long touchdown pass he had on the screen was actually a check that we got in the right situation. Just being focused more and focused to attention of detail is really what I’ve been impressed with so far the last couple weeks.”
On the adjustment of the game for the running backs with players rotating in and out…
“Actually, they have probably not been in tune with that because we can take the next man up approach. No matter who’s blocking upfront, it doesn’t really matter to us. We are going to do our best job to put those guys in the best situation. We understand sometimes those guys don’t take certain reps in practice, we’re patient. We encourage them as we come back to the sidelines. We’re always encouraging our offensive line, because without those guys we know we can’t move the ball. Same situation with the tight ends, tight ends are extremely involved in our blocking scheme. Whether it be pass or be the run. We have no clue who’s blocking in front of us, we expect whoever is up there that the coaches put them in that position to do that job and be successful at it.”
On how he handles the running back rotations…
“We always start with that thought process of two-to-one or one-to-two, or whatever the situation may be. As the game progresses, that’s where we feel like we have to get a situation where maybe a guy has a hot hand, we get him more touches or more involved in the series. A lot of times you will see those guys within the course of the series actually come out so we can give a guy, a more fresh body, into the game. Especially with the type of tempo that we run, sometimes coach calls three runs in a row and we need to get a new guy in so he can be a fresher body. I think that is what has helped us a ton. Those guys are self-aware to know, ‘hey we can’t carry the ball four or five times in a row,’ so maybe we need to tap out and get a new body in. So, a lot of times it just varies through the course of the game and the flow of the game, but we always start off initially with some type of rotation.”
On what he saw from Jabari Small in his first game back after injury…
“He was out a practice all week and I saw consistently every day that he got a little bit stronger and a little bit better after taking that week off against Tennessee Tech. He was able to come back and practiced all last week. I saw strength, the power and strength. I think taking that week off from practice and that game really kind of helped his strength and helped his body a ton. I tell those guys all the time, as the course of the season goes your body’s not going to be 100 percent. That’s just not the situation we live in. You’re going to have some bumps and bruises, it’s really going to be able to be mentally tough, being able to fight through some of that adversity on and off the field, especially with your body, taking care of it off the field. That’s one thing that I saw from him, just getting stronger as the game went along.”
On where Dee Beckwith is with his development…
“Continuing to develop, continuing to bring him along, continuing to grow. All guys take a little bit longer, some don’t take as fast to grow and develop in the system. We’ve got two guys right now playing at a really high level, but he’s still with us and he’s still in the rotation at practice at times. He’s really just fighting and working his way up the depth chart to continue to make sure he’s the best version of himself. You just never know in this day and age, we’re an injury away from Dee Beckwith being the starter. So, we always got him ready and prepared to go.”
On Jabari Small’s power ability despite his size…
“I really think it’s more of about playing with great pad level. Being a guy that’s got really a natural instinct to running the football, he really does play with great pad level. He has a nice burst between the tackles, which allows him to gain momentum and then play with that pad level. He can generate that power through that way. No, he’s not a 225 pound back that’s just going to (have a) naturally physical presence, but the way that he plays with the lowest pads, he’s able to generate power. I think that’s really the thing that you see.”
On Jaylen Wright’s progression…
“Really with Jaylen, it’s just a continued battle as a true freshman. Every week, the game plan is a little bit different. Every week, we’re trying to figure out different ways to get our best 11 on the football field. Last week was a situation where we had two guys playing really good, and he wasn’t involved as much in the rotation. Who knows what it looks like this week, he may be involved, but who knows what it looks like next week. So, it’s just a matter with him as a true freshman, every week he has a certain skill set that we can use this year and will be used. When that’s going to happen or how consistently that happens, you just never know. I think one of the games, he ended up finishing the game out the entire second half so that was just his role for that week. Every week his role should and probably will vary.
On the difficulty in preparing for Tennessee’s offense…
“I think our tempo helps us extremely. I think the way we get players in and out of the game, the way we get our cleats set in the ground, you can see it from the defensive lines that we play against, a lot of times those guys won’t be set. You can see it from the defensive secondary, sometimes those guys won’t always be in position and we can steal a couple of explosive plays like that. At the end of the day, we have to make sure that fundamentally when that ball is dead after an incomplete pass or after a clock stoppage, we are ready to rock and roll. So, I do think the things we do from formation variation, you’ve seen a lot more of that probably over the last couple of weeks, and I think you will see even more of it as we move on. Just always giving and presenting a different look to the defense is going to be our key.”
On Tiyon Evans…
“The biggest thing I told Tiyon is that you can see the level (of play) and the strength levels in the SEC are a little bit different in some of the opponents we were playing against. There are probably several NFL prospects on that field that are going to make a lot of money playing this game one day. The way he ran the ball, always making sure that he plays with a low pad level, and always making sure that he is locked and loaded and in tune to what is going on. I think the thing we take away from the game is, don’t ever play to the level of your competition no matter how good or how bad. I want to see the same Tiyon Evans every single week. I was a little disappointed coming away from Tennessee Tech. I thought maybe he didn’t play as hard, or run with great pad level at times. You saw this game a different Tiyon, so this is a great learning tool to showcase what you need to be doing for the rest of the season.”
On the connection to Memphis and recruiting the area…
“Being from Memphis, there definitely is a sense of pride, and I want to see every kid on our roster be successful, but those kids from Memphis remind me of myself when I grew up. I take a little bit of added interest sometimes and just checking on those guys and making sure they are okay. I understand where they come from, I understand the schools, I grew up with and know a lot of their high school coaches, and that is really, really important to me. That’s one of the reasons I chose and accepted the opportunity to come to the University of Tennessee. It’s my way of potentially giving back to my community.
“I think adding a second back (to the recruiting class) is extremely important. You can see with the transfer portal and how guys are coming in and out of programs, you can see how important it is. You just never know with that depth and what that roster looks like. I am always interested, we are always checking the portal just to see what those guys look like. There is always skill involved in evaluating high school students, to see exactly who we can potentially add to the roster. We’re going to take the best 25-plus players we can take and whatever that looks like, I am sure coach Heupel is going to be all in to do that.”
Linebackers Coach Brian Jean-Mary
On his conversations with Jeremy Banks on reigning in his energy…
“The first conversation is we have to do what’s best for the team. The personal fouls—we never want them—but if they’re costing us in game situations, we can’t allow that. He does play extremely hard, as hard as any player I’ve been around, but we have to do it within the framework of first, the way Coach (Josh) Heupel wants things to be done as far as the team structure, and then defensively, we can’t keep putting ourselves in pre-snap penalties and the post-snap penalties that he’s had. We’ve had a lot of discussions about that and that’s something that has to be addressed. We make a big point of emphasis on trying to play clean as a team and as a defense. That’s something that we can’t tolerate and obviously if it persists, we’re going to have to put someone else in. He knows about it. It’s been addressed and we’re going to try to play a lot cleaner as the season goes on.”
On what he has seen from Juwan Mitchell and what he would like to see from him the rest of the season…
“Juwan has been good. He’s battling through a couple of injuries. Whenever you have multiple things going on with your body, it’s hard to practice, it’s obviously hard to get into a game situation, feel comfortable and accomplish what we call on defense. It’s been a struggle for him these last couple of weeks, but he’s toughed it out. We’ve tried to get him in there and rest him with some of the things that he’s going on. He’s toughed it out, but it’s been a little bit of a struggle because he wants to be healthy. He wants to be able to go out there and help us as a defense, but it’s been a little tough these last couple of weeks.”
On how he would evaluate the linebackers in terms of instincts and eyes…
“At this point, you would hope they would be pretty greased up in terms of their eyes being in the right spot and the instincts all come from film and pregame preparation as far as knowing your opponent, recognizing formations and tendencies. We’ve been OK. I’m not going to say we’ve been great. We feel like we do a great job of prepping them for what they’re going to see and what offenses like to do as far as attacking defenses. For the most part, I think their eyes have been in the right place, but it only takes one time. If they lose their focus and lose their eyes on the play, it could be a big play or a touchdown. Nobody sees the 99% that you did right if it doesn’t affect the game. We’re always striving for perfection.”
On how he would evaluate the linebackers’ performance against the run and against the pass…
“Up until last week, run-wise, I felt like we were in the right spots. Last week brought a different type of challenge because of the quarterback being, probably, the best runner on the field. We felt like we had a good plan with him. A lot of it was tackling technique. We had guys in position to tackle him and we didn’t get him on the ground. We didn’t do a great job of using our pre-snap tendencies and our pre-snap rules to keep contain on the football with the quarterback. It’s one of those things where, versus the run, I thought we were building. Obviously, it’s a little bit of a different animal this week—not the same type of running quarterback. Regarding the pass, we’ve been in a lot of the right spots and sometimes it appears—because it’s underneath coverage or the running back is catching the ball—that it’s on the linebackers. We do play a lot of zone defense. That might not be apparent to the naked eye, so it’s not always on the linebackers when it’s a running back or tight end (catching the ball). We’ve had our fair share of not being in the right spot in those instances also.”
On his evaluation of rotating linebackers…
“I feel like it’s been good. I feel like there is not a lot of great separation with the linebackers. Our whole goal is to be fresh in the fourth quarter, and our whole goal in rotating is whoever’s playing the best is going to be the guys that finish the game. If there’s not great separation during practice, there’s not great separation during the games, we want our guys to be able to play 100 miles an hour—under control … We want them to be able to play as hard and as fast as they can. We feel like we can do that because we have a rotation that allows those guys to play with intensity and with the ferocity that we want them to play.”
On the traits of an ideal inside linebacker…
“Just watch a lot the football from (the NFL) on Sunday. We want some of those guys. You can just go down the line from the Bobby Wagners to the Fred Warners, those are guys that are big and athletic. But it’s turned into a space game, like you said. You have to be able to make plays in space. You have to make one-on-one tackles. It’s turned into basketball on grass. You now have to be able to get guys on the ground in space. But in the same light, you have to be able to find guys that can take on blocks of offensive linemen and tight ends, and can get off those blocks and make tackles. It takes a dynamic guy, so you’re always looking for guys in that 220 to 230 (pound) range, that are going to develop to that size, and guys that are athletic enough that they’re not going to be a liability in coverage or in space but can still get decent athletes on the ground.”
On what he sees from Missouri’s offense…
“I think Coach (Eliah) Drinkwitz does a great job. He did a great job as a coordinator, and he does a great job as a head coach. You can see they’re going to spread you from sideline to sideline, they’re going to give you a lot of different formations. It’s probably simple for them on offense but it’s a challenge for defenses because they put guys in different positions and they’re going to give you a lot of different formations and motions and shifts, so it’s going to be a challenge there. Their running back (Tyler) Badie is a really, really good player. He’s probably one of the top running backs in the league, obviously he leads them in rushing and receiving yards, so it’s going to be a challenge there. Like I said, it’s a different animal compared to the quarterbacks. Obviously, (Connor) Bazelak is more of a pocket passer, he can run the ball and get out of the pocket, but the big thig with him (is) he can beat you with his arm, so we’re going to have to do a great job of being in our right zones in zone coverage and making sure we’re on our man in man coverage.”
On what LB Aaron Beasley has been doing well…
“Aaron is one of our veterans. A veteran in our room is a guy that’s kind of just been older. We don’t have a lot of guys that have played a lot of football at Tennessee. Juwan (Mitchell) played a lot of football but at a different program, so he’s (Beasley) a guy we lean on to be able to come out there and kind of give us a veteran presence. He’s been consistent as far as being able to play all three linebacker spots, and the big thing with Aaron is you kind of know what you’re going to get every day. He doesn’t have the highs and lows that some of the other players have. He’s one of our better players as far as tackling and getting off of blocks, and he’s one of the guys that we can really lean on for teams that give you a lot of different formations and are going to try and change the offensive strengths of the formations with motions and shifts. He’s one of the guys that can really help us get lined up and put us in the right positions to be successful on that defensive snap.”
Player Quotes
Junior RB Tiyon Evans
On staying consistent…
“Really, it’s just a battle with myself. I have standards I’m trying to hold myself at. You know what I’m saying? Just approaching it with the same mindset every day and the getting the outcome that I got. That’s what we need from backs. We need explosive runs, hard runs downfield.”
On being a role model for his son…
“Most definitely. Me, I didn’t grow up around all this. It was a rough road the early years of my life. I feel like I could have used some guidance and this is what I’m trying to do with my son. I’m starting early, I’m getting him aware of all this early, so when it’s time for him to make his own decisions, he’ll have some type of knowledge.”
On friendly competition with Jabari Small…
“Our relationship brings out what we do on the field. We’re so competitive in practice and when we do things, we feed off each other so me and (Jabari) have that mindset already. There is no type of confusion so when we lock up and pad up, it’s go time for us.”
Sophomore RB Jabari Small
On how Tiyon Evans makes him a batter back…
“In the film room, we just critique each other. Same way in practice, just push each other, keep each other going. It’s kind of like we compete but we also have each other’s backs. It’s great having him in the room.”
On communicating with the quarterbacks…
“Yeah, we have to be vocal, especially in hostile environments like Florida. That’s a big part of the game. We are getting better, each week, at it. Last week was our first road game so we’ll continue to get better, I’m just happy we can learn from it.”
On cleaning up pre-snap penalties…
“It can be cleaned up, that’s the little things. Little things, they lead to big things, so that’s just something we have to clean up during the week. We’ll get better at that. I feel like that Florida game, I’m happy we had that early so we can learn from that”
Senior DB Theo Jackson
On young guys contributing…
“I feel like that they’re doing a great job. Their confidence is high and with Christian Charles being so young, he’s really listened to us more because we’ve been playing for a while. So, he’s just listening and taking everything in but he can also play and play very well, too. So, he just knows his assignment and is just going out there and playing.”
On cleaning up mental mistakes…
“Oh, very few mental mistakes. Now everybody can just fly around with minimal calls, so it’s really just us executing the easy calls and going out there and playing fast.”
On translating an easier offense to the younger guys…
“Since I was in one of the hardest defenses, and this is so much simpler, I can break it down to them a little bit better. Then they can understand it easier than when I had to learn it. So, it really makes it easier for everyone.”
-UT Athletics
