Tight Ends Coach Brian Niedermeyer
On if being young and not married makes him a good recruiter:
“Well, apparently. I think being young is always good to be able to relate to people. More than anything, I think it is about building relationships and identifying with people. I’ve lived in so many different places it helped me out to understand different people and it has been good for me, so that’s what I attribute it to.”
On how long he’s felt like he’s had a chance to be a good recruiter:
“I’ve never thought about it. I just show up to work every day. I’ve never gave it much thought. There was no plan, no thought. Just show up to work and do what you can.”
On expectations and obstacles of being a young tight end to find the field early:
“Being in the SEC it is always a physical position, especially at the point of attack. I think how coach (Jim) Chaney uses tight ends, moves them around and different things, it is a lot of moving parts but it’s really good for the guys. They have really responded and done well, so I am very proud of them and happy they are here.”
On how Dominick Wood-Anderson will be used this year versus last year:
“Slightly different. He definitely fits into our offense well and he is really good for coach Chaney’s plan in the future for using tight ends. He has always had great tight ends in all of his offenses. There is some crazy stat of how many receptions they’ve had every year and how many receiving yards he’s always had at tight end. He fits in well.”
On the biggest difference with Wood-Anderson’s from this year to last year:
“Coming from being a quarterback in high school and really a stand-up receiver, being able to put his hand in the ground and really do all of the facets. He can protect really well, he can run block well, and he can obviously catch the ball very well. Just being a complete tight end and really developing for the next level.”
On offensive coordinator Jim Chaney:
“He is a very intelligent man. Jim Chaney is very smart. He does a great job identifying matchups, identifying personnel. He has been different everywhere he’s been. I think that he really works to what he has. He’s very smart. He’s done it a long time and he’s seen a lot of things, so I hope to learn a lot from him.”
On how many guys he hopes to be in the tight end rotation this year:
“You always want to get a rotation going and that will all be game plan specific, so it all depends, but yes, we’d like to have a rotation at tight end.”
On the importance to have a tight end who can block and catch:
“I think for us, we always want to be a threat to catch the ball. We always focus on being able to do both things. That’s important obviously, so you don’t give away personnel in a game plan. We think we are moving towards that and I think we are doing a good job.”
On the freshmen being able to catch and receive:
“I have three guys I got at freshmen tight ends for us and they do a good job. Obviously, Sean (Brown), Jackson (Lowe) and Hunter Salmon, all three of those guys do a good job along with Andrew Craig and you know everybody else, (Jacob) Warren everybody.”
On Jacob Warren adding weight and his progression:
“He’s made some really good strides since he got here. Coach Pruitt, when he signed him had a plan for him to gain the amount of weight and Jacob has done everything we asked him to do.”
On recruiting Henry To’o To’o and his response to breaking his foot and playing in his high school state championship game:
“He broke his foot actually and he played in the first half and he played in a lot of pain. He’s a great kid, he’s a great competitor, he’s extremely tough, and has great family values. I think all of that contributes to him being such a phenomenal athlete with the guidance of his parents.”
On seeing him with a broken foot in the first half of the state championship game:
“He did a good job. I know you’re in a lot of pain with the injury he had, so it was impressive.
On things he works on with Dominick Wood-Anderson as a blocker:
“You always talk about hand placement, second foot in the ground. I think everybody in the tight end position, we talk about alignment, assignment, eyes, you know. Your first step, which is most important and your finish.”
On the stop along the way where he learned the most:
“When I went to school at Butte Junior College. I lived in a four-bedroom apartment with 10 dudes. It was pretty funny. I had a lot of close friends and you get really close after an experience like that.”
On what he learned from that experience:
“Everyone is from somewhere else. You talk about Rock Hill, S.C., Charlotte, N.C., St. Petersburg, Fla., and Seattle Washington. We are all so different, but we are all such good friends.”
On now being one of the top recruiters in the country after that experience:
“I never really think about it. I just show up every day. You do everything you can to coach your position, you do everything to get the program better and leave it better than you found it. Every day you work on it.”
On altering the pitch between the 2019 class and the 2020 class:
“For me it never really comes up. It’s just about talking to each kid. It’s an easy place to sell. You talk about the University of Tennessee. You talk about playing for Jeremy Pruitt. You talk about playing offense for Jim Chaney. We have the best Athletic Director in the country in Phillip Fulmer. I believe that. For us, it is not a hard sell. The community, the people and the tradition it is all pretty unreal. There is no change. It is just saying, ‘this is who we are’ and finding people who want to be a part of it.”
On pressure of having a top class but still ranking middle of the pack in the SEC:
“You never really think about it. Today, I got in early this morning. We worked on our tapes to get everything ready and showed the guys the mistakes they had yesterday and get them ready for today. For me, you just go each and every single day, one day at a time.”
On daily responsibilities as a tight ends coach and a recruiter:
“The majority of it is as a tight ends coach and getting those guys ready to play because most importantly you want to play good that weekend. Then, you take some time for your top guys and you sit there and recruit some dudes. For us, getting our guys ready to play is the most important thing. At the end of the day if you aren’t getting those guys ready to play and when the new guys come in and you spend your time with someone else, it doesn’t really matter.”
On being the tight ends coach for a second season after primarily being a defensive guy:
“I played some tight end in college and coached receivers at a Division III school. I feel a lot more comfortable this year going into it. Like I tell anyone, everything is learned from somebody. You learn a lot going through the first year and you do really well going through the second year.”
On relating to guys on both sides of the ball when recruiting:
“You can talk a variety of topics with either side of the ball. Having a really good knowledge of the defense helps me on the offensive side of the ball because you really understand what they are trying to get accomplished over there.”
On recruiting nationally and on the west coast:
“Tennessee is such a national brand that you are recruiting in the Northeast, you are recruiting South Florida, you are recruiting over in California, Seattle, Washington or any place you talk about recruiting like Las Vegas, Nev. Any of those places are going to be huge for us. It is a national brand. Tennessee has always had that power and hopefully we’ll get back to where they were in the 90’s and early 2000’s.”
On how growing up in Alaska helped shape who he is based on the people he met there:
“For me, my mom is originally from Coral Gables, Miami and we spent three months every year there. For us, I would spend the whole entire summer down in Miami. I think you learn to really adjust and you understand different people’s upbringings. It’s really empowering thing for me. I have really enjoyed going to all of these different places and interacting with all of these different people. Everything is so different, depending on how you grew up and where you grew up. You really understand it is a beautiful thing to be around a lot of different people.”
Offensive Line Coach Will Friend
On the criticism the offensive line has received in past years:
“I think they all feel like they’ve played a big part in it and I’m sure there are a lot of places that haven’t been as successful as they’ve wanted, and I know they feel like they’ve been a part of that and they’ve tried to prove that. They’re not the only reason why. I do feel like, they feel like they’re one of the main areas to improve, which it definitely needed to be. I think they sensed that and are tired of having that problem.”
On the offensive line having a different mentality this year compared to last year:
“Yeah, I think we’re older, stronger, more mature. You all have seen a lot of progress from some of those guys as they’ve grown a little bit in the program. We also have some new guys that have added some depth and are guys that have the ability to play and be successful.”
On where Darnell Wright and Wanya Morris are right now:
“I think they’re young. They’re both having good days and bad days. A lot of it has to do with the age they’re at right now. This is probably tougher than they’ve ever practiced and against better competition. A year ago tonight they were getting ready to play a game tonight in high school. They’re doing some good things and we just have to keep them going on the right path.”
On expectations for Darnell and Wanya as freshmen:
“Through the whole recruiting process we asked them to come in, compete, try to win a starting job and to help us to where Tennessee is supposed to be.”
On finding the best starting five through the first few games of the season:
“Nobody has really jumped out and said, ‘I’m the guy, you can’t get me off the field.’ They’ve all had days, but we would also like to play as many people as possible. That’s always been my philosophy and Coach Pruitt’s too. The more people you can play the more you can wear down a team and the better it is for building your own program, because guys are able to get experience. That’s the easy part, the hard part is finding enough guys that can help you be competitive. I feel like we’ve improved that. A year ago, we were just trying to find five guys that could go out there. We will play a lot of people this year.”
On Coach Jim Cheney spending a lot of time with offensive line and his contribution:
“He’s provided an extra pair of eyes. When you have five guys going in a drill it’s harder to see everyone. When you split it up you can each take two or three guys. It’s how my wife is in the summer with three kids. With one it was easy, with two it wasn’t so bad and when it became three it became a bit harder and you need a bit more help sometimes. We two spot so many different things, so a lot of times you got my GAs on one field and I’m on the other field. When you can half up the group, you can really center around what you’re trying to improve on.”
On if there is a specific way the line is split up:
“No, it’s no different than anyone would. It’s as simple as ‘you take these guys, they need to work on this and I’ll take these guys and work on that,’ and then we go from there.”
On the benefits of cross training the offensive linemen:
“You’d like to always be able to do that. I think that’s important [because] No. 1, they learn the big picture instead of just one position and as soon as you can learn everybody’s role, I think it makes it easier for you as a player, so that helps them. Another thing is it allows you to – no matter what happens with injuries or what may be the case – you can always get your best five [on the field] … If you rated them one through 10 or whatever and No. 8 was the backup right tackle – if he’s the only guy that can go at right tackle – there’s two guys that are better than him that can go in the ball game. I think my math is right on that, but you get what I’m saying. Just to be able to get your best guys on the field if something happens and basically just train them. And plus, for those guys it adds value to them down the road in everything you do.”
On the biggest improvement for the offensive line from the start of camp to now:
“For the first time, this week there was a couple days in the team run period where we really were playing physical and playing on their side of the ball a lot, so that’s something that was pleasing to see this week. We just got to keep going. We’ve got another week and a half to try and get ready, but I think we’re playing more physical than we did this time a year ago.”
On the most important factor in earning playing time:
“Well I think who is going to make the least amount of mistakes. We want to play – Jim (Chaney) calls it play clean – you guys have probably heard Jim say that. That means not killing yourself, so who’s going to make the least amount of mistakes? From there you obviously have the talent and the physical abilities and stuff. You’ve got to start, especially in the offensive line, with who’s going to limit the mistakes.”
On how much more physical Marcus Tatum has been after gaining weight this offseason:
“He’s done a lot better. When we first got here, he was not a very heavy guy. He’s gained a good amount of weight and looks a lot better and that’s helped him a lot.”
On if the confidence of the offensive line overall:
“The truth of the matter is that those guys haven’t had a lot of success. I think that like in anything else, confidence is a big part of what you’re trying to do and be successful. I think with being confident, a lot of it is growing and being stronger and knowing what to do better, [that] allows you to be more confident, so by being just a year older has helped them there. It’s time for us to get this program turned around and going in the right direction. The only for them to gain confidence is do it and do it right and do it well, and anything else is just going to be talking about it.”
On comparing this group to the one at this point last year:
“Right now compared to a year ago, we’re playing better. We’re still nowhere where we want to be and still day-to-day looking for more consistency, but we’re better than we were a year ago.”
On having Brandon Kennedy back at center:
“Brandon does a really good job of holding things together. He’s a calming effect. I know that may sound crazy, but we put a lot on our center and Brandon is a smart kid and does a really good job of getting everybody in the right direction, so that’s a big plus.”
On strength coach Craig Fitzgerald helping the o-line be more physical:
“We’ve got a great strength coach. Fitz is outstanding. He’s done a great job with these guys and he does a great job in getting them ready for us when we come to practice. The numbers were terrible last year. Just the little bit of time compared from now to then they have improved a lot. I know that he’s continued to work with them, so that has a big part of it, and then just mental toughness and those type things.”
On the difference having Trey Smith available would make:
“Well I think, obviously, Trey is a good football player and like we said earlier, we’re trying to get those eight or nine guys that can play in a ball game and be successful, and he can do that, so we’ll see how that goes.”
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