Tennessee defensive end Kyle Phillips spoke with the media in a group setting on Monday of Alabama week.

Tennessee offensive lineman Ryan Johnson spoke with the media in a group setting on Monday of Alabama week.

Opening Statement:
“It was good to get a win this week on the road. I think our kids are excited. I know our fan base was, but it’s like we told our players, we’ve got 24 hours to celebrate and enjoy it. Then it’s time to move on to Alabama.

“When you talk about Alabama, first of all you talk about the rivalry. This game means a whole lot to a whole lot of people. It’s a very important game, not only because it’s the next one, but because of the tradition that comes with this game. I think we’ve got to do our part to create this rivalry again. It’s not been much of a rivalry the past few years. We have to uphold our end of it.

“Alabama has a tremendous team. They are a complete football team. Offensively, they have lots of playmakers. It starts at quarterback. They have two guys that are really, really good. They have really good runners. They’re huge up front. They have great wide receivers who have speed and play physical, and they can run with the ball after the catch.

“Mike Locksley does a phenomenal job spreading the ball around and being creative. They’re great on third down. They score touchdowns and create explosive plays. Basically, they’ve been able to do what they want to do. Defensively, they’ve always been very good. They’re big up front, they’ve got guys that can rush the quarterback. They can play man-to-man. They’re really good at linebackers. All three levels they create issues. They have great returners. They have guys who can run. When you have big men like they have, you’re going to be good on special teams. It’ll be a tremendous challenge for us. We’re looking forward to it. It’s a great measuring stick to play probably the best team in the country right now, so our players will be looking forward to it.”

On if Tyson Helton will move back up to the press box to call plays:
“No. He’ll be on the sideline.”

On the status of the injured players:
“When you get into SEC play this time of year, everybody has guys that are going to get dinged up and banged up. Everybody’s got really good medical staffs. We’ve got a great medical staff, and they’ll do a great job getting our guys ready to practice and give them a chance to get prepared to play Saturday. All of those guys will be day-to-day.”

On why Nick Saban is so successful:
“Well, I think he had a plan. Going in there in 2007, I was lucky enough to be a part of it, to experience it first hand from the foundation that was built. The organization part of it, the vision, the work ethic and sticking to the plan—I got a chance to experience it and was a part of it for the first six years. Then over the years, he’s adapted as the game and rules have changed. He’s always on the cutting edge, so I’ve been very fortunate to have the opportunity to get to work with him and the people that he hired. Obviously, there’s a lot of really good coaches that have been able to work with him.”

On Daniel Bituli’s targeting call and his absence for the first half this week:
“The targeting rule is here to protect our game. Not only is it to protect the players that get hit, but it’s also to protect the guys that deliver the hit. I don’t think in any way was Daniel trying to hurt the guy, but his technique, he had his eyes down. As he approached the ball carrier, the guy kind of slumped down and they did hit head-to-head. So, it’s a coaching point for him and the rest of our team and it will help protect him. You always need to keep your eyes up when you’re tackling. Fortunately for everybody involved, nobody was hurt, but it’s a lesson for him. Unfortunately, by not using good technique, he’ll have to sit out this week. It’s not good for him and it’s not good for our team.”

On Jonathan Kongbo’s injury and who will step up in his absence:
“Well it’s why we practice the way we do. I hate it for Kongbo. He’s moved around since we have been here and he’s worked really hard. He’s been a guy that’s tried to do everything we’ve asked him to do. He’s going to graduate this semester, so he’s done a really good job academically. It’s unfortunate. It’s one of those deals where you would like if we’re going to have targeting fouls, you would like to have some of those cut blocks being reviewed. Not saying that it was legal or illegal, but you look at it, and we had some guys that finished the game there. With Deandre Johnson, Jordan Allen, Austin Smith, we have guys that have been working hard and have taken a lot of reps this year. Now they’ll get an opportunity.”

On the offense’s difficulty running the ball at Auburn:
“There was a lot of runs out there that we didn’t execute very well. There’s some runs that Auburn whipped us up front and there’s some runs that we didn’t block the right guys, so we’ve got to do a better job. We’ve got to make the other team beat us every snap and we didn’t do that every snap on Saturday. We’re not going to beat many teams if we can’t run the football. You’ve got to be able to run the football in this league if you want to have success.”

On if it’s hard to coach to avoid targeting:
“I don’t know what the statistics are, but since they started having the targeting rule, I can’t think of many guys that I’ve coached that have been ejected. I think it goes back to fundamentals: if you see what you hit, and you know the rules, you’re probably going to be okay. Unfortunately, Daniel [Bituli] did have his eyes down. I think when he first went in there it was probably going to be a chest shot, but as a couple of guys hit the guy, the guy’s head goes down and it’s head-to-head. Can’t argue the rule, it’s there to protect the game and the players.”

On what this win does for the team’s confidence:
“I think any time you win, or you play well, it does give you a little bit of confidence and I think our players probably need that. They work hard. You work hard to try and have success and on this day in time, it’s measured in wins and losses. I can tell you this, when we watch the tape today, there’s going to be a lot of guys that played their best game, and there’s going to be some guys that played their worst game, so we have to get everybody to be at their best when it counts the most.”

On heading into this week and preparing for a program that he knows so well:
“I don’t see, when it comes to preparation, offensively, we’re going to try and find ways to make first downs and defensively stop them and for the kicking game to be productive. I watched them on offense, I’m not sure how many times, but we need to be working on our punt return unit. We probably need to be working on our punt unit a whole lot.”

From a defensive standpoint, how much better is the team at understanding things pre-snap, and adjusting to that:
“I think we’ve got some guys on our defense that are way further along than others. Some of it has to do with the age and experience, and probably not having as much anxiety when you go out there and play because they’ve played more. Some of it has to do with the fact that guys have played certain positions longer, and we’ve had to bump some guys around. It’s probably, when you look at our players, it’s hard to judge it as a unit because there’s so many moving parts but we do have some guys that are playing really well. We’ve got to get the other guys to raise their level and be more consistent.”

On Jauan Jennings’ performance and how he’s responded off the field:
“We’re 10 months here and Jauan Jennings has done everything that I’ve asked him to do since I’ve been here. He’s one of my favorite guys. Guy competes, works hard. He loves the University of Tennessee, has passion for it. He’s healthy. I’ve said all along; the guy had a bad knee injury. He just got started practicing in fall camp and it would take him a while to get his legs back under him. He’s closer to being healthy, so it’s good to see that. It’s good to see him be able to go out there and compete because I think he’s a guy that has an impact on the other players on our team so I’m glad for him.”

On his overall mid-season evaluation of this team:
“I didn’t sit there all summer and say I hope we’re 3-3 after six games, but I think there’s lots of lessons that we’ve learned every week. I said every week when we execute and do what we’re supposed to do, we give ourselves a chance. When we don’t, we don’t. We’ve got to execute at a high level for us to have success and that’s what we’re striving to do every day.”

On Chance Hall’s, Eli Wolf’s and Marquill Osborne’s performances against Auburn:
“I think with Chance Hall, he’s a guy that at one time Chance was a really good football player and the guy hadn’t played for two years. He’s been working hard to overcome a knee surgery or a couple knee surgeries so he’s another guy kind of like Jauan [Jennings] that is getting back into shape. When we first started this deal and we thought we could get him back, our goal was to get him back for the Florida game. He kind of got ahead of schedule there for a while and we might have pushed him too far or too hard, but that was him wanting to go. He’s wanting to get back to play, but him playing well or playing is not a surprise to me because I’ve coached against him when he was a freshman. He was a pretty dangum good football player then and hopefully he’ll continue to improve and get his strength back in his leg and he’ll continue to play for us. The other guys, they’ve actually had good weeks of practice. Marquill’s a guy that has played corner. He’s had to work some at Star, some at Monay. I think over the last couple of weeks he kind of made a decision, ‘you know what, I’m going to kind of create a niche for me on this football team whether it’s in special teams or I’m going to go compete at corner or Star or Money. I’m going to find a way so when my time comes, I’m ready to play.’ I think he’s a guy that can help us and I’m glad to see that he made up his mind to that. It’s positive.”

On the defense’s adjustment in the second half:
“Ya’ll are probably going to think I’m crazy but we made the same calls the first half, we made the second half and they probably did too. The first half they executed better than we did. In the second half we probably executed a little better than they did. We didn’t make much adjustments. We just tried to go in there and fix what we gameplanned on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I think our guys did a good job of doing that. That’s what happens when you play these guys. The speed of the game, it’s different than what you normally play and you can’t be looking at everything else. You have to be looking at what you’re supposed to look at and I think we got better as the game went.”

On when the Alabama coaching staff realized Tua Tagovailoa could be as good of a player as he’s turned into:
“I remember when he came to camp I didn’t see him throw. They took him behind the indoor practice field down there and some of the guys were down there throwing. When they came back, they were all raving about it. He’s a phenomenal quarterback. He’s a better person I can tell you that, just being around him. Got a smile on his face, comes from a really good family and cares a lot about his teammates. He’s an exceptional young man and a really good football player.”

On Alabama’s offense looking a little different with the new OC and how the defense looks compared to when he was defensive coordinator:
“You know John, I started watching tape on them last night on offense. After watching a couple games, I was afraid to look at the defense. I know most of the players and I know Tosh [Lupoi] and Coach [Nick] Saban and statistically you can look at them, they’re one of the best defenses in the country. I know their personnel. They’ve got dominant players at all three levels, got playmakers that create turnovers. I’m sure there’s probably a little bit of differences, but it’ll be an attacking style defense that tries to put pressure on the quarterback.”

On the 50/50 balls Tennessee threw on Saturday against Auburn:
“These guys play man-to-man lots of snaps. We didn’t block them real well up front, so I figured instead of running it right here and not blocking them, we might as well throw it out there as fast as we could. Might have a better opportunity.”

-UT Athletics