KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — With game week prep well underway on Rocky Top, both Tennessee football coordinators and four impact players were available to media on Tuesday to preview the Vols’ trip to Columbus, Ohio, this weekend to take on the No. 8 seed and sixth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. Tennessee’s College Football Playoff debut is set for 8 p.m. ET Saturday and will air nationally on ABC and ESPN.
Defensive coordinator Tim Banks, a 2024 Broyles Award finalist who leads one of the top units in college football, stressed the importance of sticking to the same routine that paid dividends during the regular season – which saw Tennessee secure 10 wins for the second time in three years.
“Our routine is our routine,” Banks said. “The way we get ready, or our process so to speak, is our process. Kids are always excited to play the game, and I think that’s what I love about this team. They just want to play. They want to put the ball down and have an opportunity … It starts with Ohio State this weekend and it’s going to be a good challenge for us. Just the way those guys have approached this game has been very consistent with who we have been all year.”
Second-year offensive coordinator Joey Halzle has engineered the Vols to producing the top rushing attack in the SEC for the second year in a row, coupled with a top-10 total offense in the FBS. As the Vols prepare for the Buckeyes, the focus remains keeping the ‘main thing’ at the forefront during a busy month in the college football calendar.
“Talking with Coach (Josh Heupel), you recruit at a high level to go to the playoff and try to win a championship,” Halzle said. “Well, we are in this thing, so we can’t stop forgetting what the main thing is – which is going these next four weeks, playing at a high level and giving ourselves a chance to win … The mentality from this whole staff is that we are here for a reason, and that reason is to go win the game on Saturday night.”
Redshirt senior defensive back Will Brooks and redshirt senior wide receivers Bru McCoy echoed those sentiments of their respective coordinators during Tuesday’s media session.
“We all kind of try to treat it as a normal game,” Brooks explained. “It’s in the back of our head, we know it’s a playoff game, but doing the ordinary at a really high level is going to be why we see success in this game, so that’s where our focus is at.”
“Absolutely, really excited,” McCoy added. “We play a lot of big games throughout the season. I think this one with the implications of everything – you still try to treat it just like any other game, but just heighten your level of understanding that this is the College Football Playoff.”
Full transcripts from both coordinators can be viewed below, along with select quotes from players.
Tennessee Football Press Conference | Dec. 17, 2024
https://utsports.com/showcase/embed.aspx?Archive=23151&autoplay=false
Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks
On what stands out about Ohio State’s offense…
“I think it’s the skill. They have really good skill. Traditionally, they have always had really good wideouts. Schematically, they put you in a lot of situations to try to put stress on the defense. So, they have good coaches and good players. They are an Ohio State team. Some of these teams I have seen in the past, they’re very similar to that.”
On how Michigan was able to have success defensively against Ohio State and how that impacts what they are able to do…
“I think it’s just like anything, it was a rivalry game. Those guys played extremely hard against each other and Michigan did a lot of good things. For us, we look at those guys just like I said, a lot of great skill from their running backs to the receivers. Obviously, they’ve got a lot of pride up front how they go about their business. I just think anytime you play in a rivalry game, anything can happen. Obviously, Michigan was very fortunate that day.”
On what he has learned about this program during the time he has been here and the success they have had…
“The fan base, I think it starts there. They are very passionate about the University of Tennessee and rightfully so. It’s a lot of truth to this program in terms of what they’ve done in the past. We felt like given the right environment, you could have a chance to be very successful. So, I think it just starts with the guys we have been able to recruit, the guys we have been able to keep here in the program, and again, just the fan base. We’ve been very fortunate to be able to win a lot of games here. I think, again, just starts with the passion the fans have, the way we play at Neyland Stadium because of the energy those guys bring week in and week out. It’s been very exciting to say the least. I just think this is a very passionate fanbase, a very passionate university that wants to win. We’re just extremely grateful to be a part of it.”
On Tennessee fans being eager to travel to Ohio State to support the team…
“I’m not on the internet very often, but I would assume it just again speaks volumes to who these guys are. They want to support us no matter where we’ve been. We’ve been in a lot of venues and it’s always great to be able to look up there and see that orange and white. Hopefully this game will be no different. We’ll get those guys in there and they’ll be cheering for us.”
On Edwin Spillman being ready to step into a bigger role…
“We were fortunate enough to get Edwin (Spillman) back in the Vanderbilt game, which was great for us. We’re excited about him, we really are. He’s definitely going to play a role in this game. He played a role in the Vandy game. We thought a lot of him when we recruited him. He hasn’t disappointed. It was obviously tough losing him for the amount of time that we did, but we’re excited to have him. It’ll be good. It will definitely be a bigger role for him. Can’t wait to watch him play.”
On how much pressure Ohio State’s trio of wide receivers put on a secondary…
“I think it will be a great challenge for our guys. The way they run the ball to set up the play action pass and things of that nature – we’re going to have to do a really good job of helping our guys on the back end. Our DNA is, we want to be able to stop the run. It’s going to be a great challenge. Our guys are eager for that challenge. They’ve worked this whole season to be in these type of venues and have these type of opportunities. They’ll be very excited for it.”
On where he has seen Arion Carter grow the most this year…
“I think losing KP (Keenan Pili) early in the year was devastating for all of us, but I thought the way those guys have stepped up, AC (Arion Carter) included, from a verbal perspective, being a lot more vocal with what is going on in terms of our play calling. I just think the leadership. I know he’s always had it in him. He was kind of forced into it when we lost KP, but he’s definitely stepped up his game as far as leadership.”
On having corners like Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson III playing well this season and what that allows him to do as a defensive coordinator…
“We have a lot of trust in those guys. Obviously, you breed confidence by your play. Those guys have played extremely well all year. Anytime you’ve got good corners it takes some stress off other positions and allows us to do other things schematically. But, we’re going to need everybody. We’re going to need the corners, we’re going to need the front and the linebackers to be successful in this game. Like I said earlier, having those guys on those edges is definitely a help sake for us.”
On the amount of defensive linemen that have played this year and the how fresh they are due to depth…
“I don’t know if you can say fresh, but it’s definitely great to have that many, to be able to rotate those guys as much as we have has been awesome. And we’re going to need them all to be successful this weekend. I think when you build a defense, you always want to build it from the front to the back and, obviously, on the perimeter. We’ve been very blessed to have enough depth up front to be able to rotate those guys and still keep the standard the standard.”
On how Omari Thomas has helped keep the team focused especially during this game week…
“Big O (Omari Thomas) has very consistent, particularly these last couple of years in terms of just being a positive role model for those guys. He’s doing his job. O (Omari Thomas), he speaks when he needs to speak, but I think everybody can look to him in terms of how he practices every week, week in and week out no matter the opponent. It’s been big. He’s got a ton of experience and all those guys look up to him.”
On why this defense has been better in the red zone than in previous years…
“I just think they’re playing with a lot of confidence. We play a lot of guys up front, so I think we’re fresh, particularly in those moments. I think a lot of it has to do with the backend and the high level those guys are playing at. We obviously concentrated on it coming into the season and just like anything, you love to see the fruits of your labor. Those guys worked really hard at it and it’s great to see those guys that play well at it.”
On if the team has treated this like a normal week or if things are amped up a notch…
“Our routine is our routine. The way we get ready, our process so to speak, is our process. The kids are always excited to play the game, and I think that’s what I love about this team. They just want to play. They want to put the ball down and have an opportunity. Hopefully we’ll get four opportunities at this thing. It starts with Ohio State this weekend and it’s going to be a great challenge for us. Just the way those guys have approached this game has been very consistent with who we’ve been all year.”
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Joey Halzle
On where he thinks Nico Iamaleava has improved the most with decisiveness and reads…
“Just for any young quarterback, getting unscouted looks each and every week, he’s reacting to them quicker and quicker as it’s going on. I think that’s why you’ve seen on the back half of the season that he’s completing passes at almost a 70 percent clip. Hitting a bunch of big plays down the field. He’s made a bunch of huge plays for us in these last couple games that we needed to get going and to go get in this playoff right here. His attention to detail has never wavered. It’s been the same since preseason into season. There’s just nothing like game reps. There’s absolutely nothing like it. You can try to create it as much as you want, as much scrimmage, but man, it’s just a different animal when there’s live bullets going out there and you’re getting completely different looks. You got the play clock and everything going like that. So, just him settling into all of that, it’s been really cool to see. Really bright future for him, so we’re excited about that.”
On if he thinks Mike Matthews can contribute if he plays and if he will play based on injuries to other guys…
“We fully intend on Mike being a big part of everything we’re doing. It’s the same thing now. If this goes the way you want it to go, you’ve got four games left. You’ve got a quarter of a season left to play right here. All those guys that are here and going, we expect them to play at high level. We feel comfortable throwing anybody out there. Our guys are prepared and ready to play, and they’re dang good players. Anybody that’s called upon, we expect that they go out and they play at a high level. We expect to see that here every week.”
On Nico Iamaleava’s biggest growth over the last four to five games of the regular season…
“The way he was able to get to that is he doesn’t blink. And I said that from the very beginning, the kid has a very even heart rate. His decision making, and more than anything, his getting rid of the first read into the second and into the third, he was getting all the way through stuff really quickly. That’s why you were seeing, like you brought up the Georgia game, early in that game, we’re going 1-2-3 and that guy is getting the ball out and we’re hitting big plays all over the field. You’re just seeing him being able to make his decision making, which was always good, he’s even taken it to a higher level, so we’re looking forward for that to keep growing for him.”
On Nico Iamaleava driving the team down the field to score after going down 14-0 against Vanderbilt and it showing his growth this season…
“One hundred percent, for him and really the whole offense. We got the ball, not the first time, we had two snaps and we had the turnover, so our third snap of the game it’s 14-0. I asked on headset because I’m up top, ‘how do we looked down there?’ And to a man, every coach was like, ‘we’re good, nobody is blinking, nobody is worried. They all know what’s about to happen.’ We go down, drive, score, get a stop, score and then roll from there. That drive was huge, and what I loved about what he did in that drive is he didn’t fall into himself. He didn’t start thinking, ‘I don’t want to mess anything up. I don’t want to have anything bad happen because something bad had already happened.’ Nope. It was, ‘that’s the ball right there. I’ve got Tay (Dont’e Thornton Jr.), and I’m driving this thing down the field for a touchdown.’ That was a very good representation of where we’re at as an offense, and where he’s at as a quarterback.”
On how he’s managing his time right now with several important things going on at the same time…
“That’s the fight right there. With stuff being open right now and recruiting, official visits and all that type of stuff, you can’t stop doing it. Talking with coach Heupel, you recruit at a high level to go to the playoff and try to win a championship. Well, we’re in this thing, so we can’t stop forgetting what the main thing is which is going these next four weeks and playing at a high level giving ourselves a chance to win. With that, the other thing can’t take a backburner, but the mentality from this whole staff is that we are here for a reason, that reason is reason is to go win this game on Saturday night.”
On what makes Ohio State’s defense so effective…
“For starters, they have really good players across the board. They roll out there, they play an extremely aggressive brand of defense. They pressure a bunch. They’ll come, they’ll press their corners, they’ll press their safeties (and) their nickel. They let their defensive linemen change up their rush techniques. Everything they do is designed to try and create negatives and to try and take the will of an offense. They present a very unique challenge. They’re a really good defense. That’s why, as you said, their numbers are at the top if not the top of every defensive category. It’s a unique challenge. We feel like our guys are ready for it, and they’re looking forward to what that challenge is going to be Saturday night.”
On how the 12-personnel brings a different element to the offense…
“It’s a bunch. In the passing game, too, created a bunch of individual matchups for us out wide and the 12-personnel passing game. When people were playing wide, it created big holes inside, so it’s been a really good addition for us. The tight end room led us to be able to do that because we have some really good players in there. I think there’s a lot of times, when you get big, it’s to run the ball, but when we get big and have the wideouts out there that can run the way our guys can, it creates one-on-ones. We’ve had a bunch of big, explosive plays in the 12-personnel passing game. It’s been a huge addition to what we did. It was something we knew we wanted to grow starting in February, and we committed to it. We’re seeing the fruits of that here in the season.”
On the risk and reward of going slow on third downs to allow the guys to get ready for the play on the road versus allowing time for the crowd to become a factor…
“It’s what is the actual situation that’s going on right here? Are you in a good situation, bad situation, what’s the momentum, what’s the feel of the game? The most important thing – people talk about our tempo and all that stuff – is running good, efficient football plays. That is what it is and that’s what it comes down to. If we have to sacrifice the tempo to get everything communicated and get on the same page, we’ll do that. If we can play with our tempo, we’ll do that. If we want to sub and move bodies around to get people in the right spot to try to create an advantageous matchup, we’ll do that. There’s not really one way to do this thing, and especially when you go into a hostile environment, the most important thing is always going to be running good football plays efficiently. Everything else takes a back seat to that.”
On the pressure that Ohio State’s defensive ends will put on the tackles and Nico Iamaleava…
“It’s picking your times to push it down the field without being reckless about it. They try to talk you out of pushing the ball down the field. They try to talk you out of playing aggressively. We have to not allow that to be something that we say we are going to play in a box. Like I said, they have really good players, and they let them turn loose and go play. That’s the challenge with these guys. Our tackles know. Our quarterbacks know. Our whole offense knows what this is going to be on Saturday night. It’s going to be a fight for 60 minutes. We are looking forward to that opportunity and a chance to mix it up with these guys.”
On how the adversity that the offense faced earlier in the year helps them going into Saturday night…
“What I was talking about, that the offense doesn’t really blink. This team hasn’t blinked when we’ve had tough situations. Start off the season, and everyone’s lighting the world on fire. The biggest thing for us as we were working through our first half struggles was, ‘Man, it was us.’ Which was a positive thing as we were talking to guys. Like, if it’s us, if we’re the issue, we can solve it. There was never an issue of being stopped. We were driving down the field, and something would happen. The biggest thing that we would talk about is we don’t get to take our turn. Let’s all make a concerted effort not to take our turn. It’s not going to be me on this one. If we’re all playing like that, then we’re not going to have the self-inflicted wounds that end drives. Whether it was a turnover, whether it was a penalty, whether it was a (missed assignment), whatever it may be, just don’t take your turn. You don’t have to play stressed. You don’t have to play uptight. Play according to your fundamentals. Play according to your teaching, and everything else takes care of itself. That’s what you’ve seen on the back half is we’re just not getting in our own way as we get drives going anymore. You don’t get your own way. It’s helpful. These defenses are too good. If you help them, it’s really hard to stay on the field.”
On not letting the weather affect the Tennessee offense
“The simple question to that one is you don’t. It will be cold out there. We’ve played cold games before. It was snowing here last week. You go out there, it’s cold in pregame, and then you start playing, and man, you don’t feel it anymore. You go out and you play at a high level. Should be good field conditions. It’s not going to be like a wet track or anything like that. That is not something that we’re harping on. Like, ‘hey, it’s going to be cold. You better be ready.’ Let’s throw and catch the ball. Let’s handle it well. Let’s do good with our exchanges quarterback center and quarterback running back. It’s the playoffs. It’s going to be cold there. Let’s go play. That isn’t going to be a thing that slows us down now.”
On how Nico Iamaleava responds to the scouting report against Ohio State compared to other teams…
“There’s not a difference in it. It’s always what’s the game plan? What are we attacking? What do we see? What do we want to do? How are we going to go win this ballgame? Like that’s just what it is. It must be. Coach Heupel has said it from the very beginning since we got here. Every week is a nameless, faceless opponent. Like that’s what it is, that has to be the mentality. That’s how you go on the road and win; that’s how you win at home. That’s how you don’t have your slip up games. It’s a nameless, faceless opponent; you show up, you respect every opponent, and you respect them by preparing at a high level, then you go out and cut the thing loose; you don’t play with any kind of reservations. That is what it takes to go against a good football team. So, they’re very good on defense. Man, let’s go attack and see what happens.”
On how they prepare the footballs to be useable in the weather they are supposed to play in against Ohio State…
“Yeah, our equipment managers do a great job. We got everything under the sun as far as what you’re allowed to have down there to keep the guys’ hands warm, the balls warm to keep it as good as possible. They do a great job of mudding them up and all that stuff. Don’t think that’s going to be an issue. We’ll try not to sub the ball as much as possible because when you sub the ball, you must slow down. So, we’ll try to do that as little as possible, but if it calls for it Nico [Iamaleava] always knows that anything weatherwise happens that he doesn’t like the ball, he’ll signal call for a new one. So, like I said, it’s not something we have had a bunch of focus on from our end. That’s what our equipment guys they are stressing about, so I’ll let them handle that. We feel like we should be able to go handle this well and go play at a high level.”
RS-Senior DB Will Brooks
On how he feels the focus has been this week…
“We all kind of try to treat it as a normal game. It’s in the back of our head, we know it’s a playoff game, but doing the ordinary at a really high level is going to be what leads to success in this game, so that’s where our focus is at.”
On how gratifying this season has been…
“It’s a great feeling to know that we have the opportunity to play for a national championship. That was our goal when we started off the season, to get to that point, so it just means a whole lot to us. We know we have to take advantage of this opportunity.”
On what he thinks has been the biggest reason for the defensive success this season…
“I would say just playing as one, playing as a whole unit. Just working together with our guys and communicating at a really high level. We’ve just got to continue to do that to be successful.”
RS-Senior DL Bryson Eason
On how they are preparing for Ohio State’s offensive line…
“Just looking more so at the team’s scheme, and what they do and what type of run plays they like to do and what types of runs they like to do. We are just majority focused on what they like to do and not who is doing it. Focusing on the scheme, and, simple as that, just focus on the scheme and what we have to take care of. That’s really about it. We aren’t really focused on who is in and who is not.”
On what has led to the success of this year over the past years…
“It’s because Coach Heupel, the staff, the coaches and everybody in the building has done a great job of setting goals and the mission for us. I feel like the leaders on the team have done a great job of just reiterating it to all the guys and things like that. Everyone has just dived in, ready to complete the mission and attack the mission, and we have seen how far we have come. Why stop? You know what I am saying. We are just excited and diving into everything. They have faith installed into us, since January 1st.”
On what it means to reach the playoffs…
“Man, it means everything. Being in college and playing in a College Football Playoffs when it is one of the new things with the 12-team expansion, so it’s a blessing. I feel like every guy on the team and in the building is excited. We are looking at this opportunity like, you know it’s the best opportunity is the next one. I feel like all of the guys are excited and ready to go. We are ready to play some football because it’s been a long two weeks.”
RS-Freshman QB Nico Iamaleava
On what his mindset is going into the game on Saturday…
“Continue to finish our prep out. Once we get out there on the field, it’s go time. We’ve got to go play football for four quarters and execute what our coaches got for us.”
On if there has been a difference in him as a player the last three to four games of the season…
“I think just game by game we continue to get better. With every rep I take, just learning from every rep I take and learning from those reps. We’ve been able to pull out some wins on the back end of the season and look forward to going into this next game.”
On if being the starting quarterback has been harder or easier than expected…
“It’s been what I expected. I had two great mentors in front of me, Hendon (Hooker) and Joe (Milton), and they laid down the foundation for me. It was cool for me to come and pick up right where they left off.”
On how much a defense like Ohio State’s impacts his internal clock…
“My internal clock is always there. I’ve got full trust in my O-line and protection piece to pick all of that up. We’ll be prepared when that time comes.”
RS-Senior WR Bru McCoy
On how eager the team is to play in this game…
“Absolutely, really excited. We play a lot of big games throughout the season. I think this one with the implications everything you still try and treat it just like any other game, but heighten your level of understanding like this is the college football playoff.”
On what stands out about Ohio State’s defense…
“What I have seen on film is not a lot of busted coverages. They’ve got veteran guys on the backend, one young guy they kind of let play free. But really, I’ve just seen them play smart, play good fundamentals. They get a good bit of holding calls trying to minimize big plays down the field. Play a lot of Cover One, a lot of man four down front. As a receiver on the perimeter that’s an opportunity you want, you might get a lot of one-on-one opportunities but on the backend, I just think they play smart football. You’ve just got to take advantage of what they are giving up.”
On how proud he was of Mike Matthews’ performance in the Vanderbilt game…
“Extremely, it’s tough being on the sideline, but the silver lining to it all is being able to see guys step up and make big plays. Especially guys that you spend a lot of time with. Kind of more or less mentoring, just talking to kind of help him come along as fast as he can so he can have a ton of success. It makes me super happy. So, seeing him score at Vandy was awesome. Should have had two, honestly.”
