KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The 2021 Tennessee Volunteers took Haslam Field on Thursday for the second day of preseason camp. Quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle met with local media after practice to discuss the early progress and development of Tennessee’s signal callers.
“It’s been really positive,” Halzle said regarding his assessment of the quarterback room through two practices. “For starters, everyone is going out and competing their butts off, not getting a bunch of misses with call and protections, calling runs as fast as we go. Our eye discipline has been really good, and zero turnovers so far in camp right now. In camp, the first couple days you always have a tendency to be sloppy, especially with a new offense, but guys are doing a great job getting their eyes in the right place, getting the body in the right place and taking care of the football.”
In head coach Josh Heupel‘s frequently referenced high-octane offensive scheme, quarterback play is paramount. Halzle discussed the importance of pushing the ball down the field quickly and efficiently, and how his group has improved since the spring.
“That’s a big part of what we do with how we play,” Halzle said. “We have guys that can throw the ball. That’s what we have here. They can put it down the field. The guys that were here this spring, they have made a huge jump in actually using their lower body to drive a football instead of trying to pull it with their arm all over the place … you’ve seen their RPMs, their velocity, their distance, all of that pick up from when we got here at the start of spring football to where we are right now.”
With four quarterbacks on scholarship and the season opener less than a month away, the competition for the starting job is underway and evolving constantly. Halzle expects to see some separation as fall camp progresses.
“I think it’s always positive in fall camp when you have competition,” Halzle said. “With that said, if you have competition at the quarterback position, that means you don’t have a solidified starter that’s played a bunch of ball for you. We do understand that it’s coming down to it. It’s about that time. So, we are pressing both the guys and the coaching staff to start figuring out who is going to separate themselves. And as that guy, or two guys or three guys start to separate themselves, they’ll see their rep count go up, and they’ll see that they’re getting more pushed to get ready for the actual game day on Sept. 2.”
The full video and transcript from Halzle’s post-practice press conference can be seen below, along with quotes from select offensive players following the second day of fall camp.
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Halzle Transcript (8.5.21)
On his assessment of the quarterbacks through two practices…
“It’s been really positive. For starters, everyone is going out and competing their butts off, not getting a bunch of misses with call and protections, calling runs as fast as we go. Our eye discipline has been really good, and zero turnovers so far in camp right now. In camp, the first couple days you always have a tendency to be sloppy, especially with a new offense, but guys are doing a great job getting their eyes in the right place, getting the body in the right place and taking care of the football.”
On Hendon Hooker’s progress over the summer…
“Hendon has done a great job pushing. You can see the how hard he works in everything he does. Yeah, in the classroom, but he’s made a bunch of adjustments. He’s completely changed his body. He’s big, he’s fast, he’s strong. And he worked his butt off on getting his mechanics where he needs to be. So not only mentally is he in the right place, but he can make all the throws that he needs to make once he’s there. That guy works as hard as anybody that I’ve been around. He did a great job taking advantage of this summer and gave himself an opportunity to play this fall.”
On the quarterbacks pushing the ball down the field…
“That’s a big part of what we do with how we play. We have guys that can throw the ball. That’s what we have here. They can put it down the field. The guys that were here this spring, they have made a huge jump in actually using their lower body to drive a football instead of trying to pull it with their arm all over the place, and you’ve seen their RPMs, their velocity, their distance, all of that pick up from when we got here at the start of spring football to where we are right now. Joe (Milton) didn’t get the spring with us, but he had a great summer, and he has a really big arm. He can put the ball down the football field and make all the throws.”
On Harrison Bailey’s progression from January to now…
“The thing with Harrison is he’s made a big jump mentally off the field. He was just so young when he got here. He’s really worked hard to get himself to where he can call it quickly. And he can see the defense, recognize what he’s getting. Am I getting pressure? Am I getting weak rotation? Too high, single high? He’s doing a much better job of processing that. When you get that, now your body follows because now you can actually get yourself in the right position. It’s hard to have good body position when you have no idea what you’re looking at on the front end. So, he’s done a great job grinding in the classroom. It’s a little bit different than Hendon, who’s a grad transfer coming in and has a bunch of classroom experience and a bunch of game experience. He understands what he’s seeing, and he was working on the physical side of it. Harrison pushed really, really hard on the mental side of it.”
On how he would assess the retention of information from spring practice to fall camp…
“Really good. That was actually the first thing we said coming out to field yesterday. We didn’t have to talk to guys about splits, alignments, formations, routes. Guys came out here, even the guys that got here in May or June as grad transfers or transfer ins, these guys have been extremely locked in and dedicated to what we’re trying to do this fall. So, we haven’t had busts and all that type of stuff all over the field. It’s been great to watch.”
On the importance of leadership in the quarterback position…
“That’s huge. It’s one of the most important factors of a quarterback, and that’s one of the things that as a coach, you can try to help guys get there, but that’s something that they have to take over themselves. A lot of that comes from what the guys see out on the field, what they see in the weight room, what they see in the meeting room, who is in here, who’s not, who’s just going through the motions, and who’s giving us a chance to go win on Saturdays. Guys will naturally gravitate to that guy, and then it’s up to that guy at that point to now take the reins of the team and take us where we want to go. The quarterback position isn’t the only one that can do it. But as we all know, the great ones, they can do it.”
On what factor he’s most looking for in a starting quarterback…
“If you have a huge powerful arm, but you can’t hit a building with it, that doesn’t do us any good. If you’re very accurate, but you can’t make a field throw, that doesn’t really help us either. So, it’s really like a holistic look at everything. Who gives us the best chance when we take the field on Saturday based on their skill set to go win. Not everybody has to be the same guy. But everybody has to have something that they give us that gives us a chance to go be successful on Saturdays.
“One, can you make the throws that we need you to make? Can you extend plays when we need to extend plays? But the main thing for our guys is can you process quickly? We play fast, we force the defense to play fast, so a lot of times guys want to be in the exact right spot on the other side of the ball. Can you process what you’re seeing and get your eyes and your body in position to make the throw that we need every single time? The ability to process quickly is as big as anything that we have physically that we need.”
On if he feels the need to teach the quarterbacks the balance between trying to win the starting job on every rep and understand when to make the smart play…
“Absolutely, we made the point the first day that there’s not enough reps to go around right now. So in that, the natural thing guys will do is press. It’s exactly what you’re saying. You’re not going to win the job on one throw. You’re not going to lose the job on one throw. All I’ve asked them to do is to go out there and throw the ball aggressively. I don’t want to see guys out there just half stepping in there, dropping it down and tentatively making throws because they don’t want to lose the job. I want guys to go out there and just rip it all over the field, giving it everything they’ve got. Then we can make adjustments from there, but if you come out there and you’re not giving it everything you’ve got or you’re playing timid—because all you’re trying to do is not lose the job—now we’ve got to work to get that out of you and then make the corrections physically and fundamentally after that. So, all I want them to do is go cut it loose and play aggressively. That’s it. That’s all I ask.”
On what he has seen through two days of fall camp in terms of the wide receivers and quarterbacks being on the same page and what work ethic has he seen in the quarterback room off the field…
“With the quarterbacks and wide receivers, it kind of goes with what we talked about. We are rolling guys through with a bunch of reps, so you’re not getting that one guy with one guy all the time report. They worked their butts off all summer. They work together all the time, so we have had pretty good timing and pretty good relationships between the two. It hasn’t been a bunch of like, we’re just not on the same page. In that stance it’s really good, but we also understand as a staff that as we get closer and closer to the season, you do have to get your guys that are going to be standing out there more and more and more reps together so that you can be as dialed in as possible.
“When it comes to the off the field stuff, it’s been great. There are times when you’re up here at 10 at night and you look out your office window and there’s guys in there going through the call sheet for the next day, calling it on the field on their own, just the quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs out there together. Literally, that happened at 10 at night this June. I just looked out the window and they were in there. These guys understand what we’re trying to accomplish. They understand the urgency of how we have to act to accomplish what we want to accomplish.”
On what progress he has seen from Brian Maurer…
“Brian’s done a really good job of digging into what we’re trying to do and buying in to how we’re teaching it, how we coach. He’s got a lot of athletic talent. He’s got a lot of quick twitch. He’s got a good arm and he’s done a really good job of trying to take in exactly how we want things done and buy in to coach Heupel’s process, coach Heupel’s strategy, how he wants to play and let go of what he used to do. He’s done a really good job of accepting us and allowing us to coach him in a different way than he’s been.”
On the corrections he has been working on with Joe Milton’s game…
“He was highly recruited coming out of high school because he does have a huge physical talent pool. He has it. It’s been mostly just kind of refining some things with his feet. We’re different than a lot of people and from the last place he came from, it was more of the under center, traditional drop back stuff than how we play. So, it’s been less about completely breaking him down. It hasn’t been anything like that. It’s been more fine tuning him to how we operate how we play. That’s been his process. To his credit, he hasn’t fought that one step. He’s like, I’m in here, I want to be in, I want to do it how you guys want it and he’s bought it and he’s gone with it.”
On how important it is to this offense for the quarterback to extend plays…
“That’s extremely important in this offense—the ability to extend and create on your own. With how we play, with the splits in the tempo, stuff breaks down all the time. It just does. Your ability to get out, go and extend the play (is necessary). Does that mean you have to run a 4.4? No, but it means you need to be able to think, to have quick feet, to have athleticism, to be strong so that you can step through some arm tackles, get out and extend a play, keep your eyes downfield, keep your composure and drive a football where it needs to go when everything breaks down inside. So, it’s not like QB run game. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the ability to operate when there’s mass chaos going around you. That’s what I’m saying when I say that.”
On where his emotions are that there is a race for the starting quarterback job…
“I think it’s always positive in fall camp when you have competition. With that said, if you have competition at the quarterback position, that means you don’t have a solidified starter that’s played a bunch of ball for you. We do understand that it’s coming down to it. It’s about that time. So, we are pressing both the guys and the coaching staff to start figuring out who is going to separate themselves. And as that guy, or two guys or three guys start to separate themselves, they’ll see their rep count go up, and they’ll see that they’re getting more pushed to get ready for the actual game day on Sept. 2.”
Junior RB Tiyon Evans Quotes (8.5.21)
On proving himself after dealing with an injury in the spring…
“I most definitely have a chip on my shoulder because I feel like I didn’t really show what I could really do in the spring with my ankle injury. So, I’m blessed with this opportunity right now and I’m going to take my chances and capitalize on every chance I get. Got to.”
On what’s impressed him the most about the quarterbacks…
“All of our quarterbacks are pros. They are locked in. The way they move themselves in the facility is different and you can tell they’re really trying to go get it. That’s what I like about them. They’re all going to pick you up (and) they’re all going to coach you up. They all coach each other up too, even though they got this big competition going on, so that’s what I like about it.”
On if he likes being looked at as an underdog…
“Oh yeah, I love that role. I love being the underdog. I’ve really been the underdog all my life. I’ve been under the radar. Being at Tennessee is the biggest thing I ever did. So yeah, I love it because when you go out there and do something and you see all the people trying to come be on your side, just that right there shows you that you’re doing something right.”
On his recruiting process and when he finally got to see the campus in person…
“I did commit off a virtual tour, but when I finally got out here, I fell in love with it. Flying into Knoxville, I fell in love with the place. I got COVID as soon as I got here, so it was kind of hard at first, but when I got out of quarantine and really started living my life (it was great). I love Knoxville. I already told everybody (that) I plan on raising my family out here.”
Senior WR JaVonta Payton Quotes (8.5.21)
On being able to play for Tennessee being from in-state…
“Man, it is exciting. When I got here everyone told me, you should have (already) been here. Being back in my home state and knowing a lot of players, you know, I knew a lot of players before I got here, so it feels much more comfortable being around a lot of players that I know. One of the guys from my hometown, Theo Jackson, he took me in when I first got here. He helped me find a place to live and stuff, but there were a lot of guys that took me in like a little brother, even though I am pretty much the oldest. They took me in pretty well and I am pretty excited.”
On his fit in the offensive scheme…
“Most definitely (I fit in better). You know, early on it was a lot of option game, but I go deep a lot more from the slot than I did when I was at (Mississippi) State. I would say this offense is more comfortable to me.”
On what he brings to the offense…
“A lot of speed, most definitely. When people ask me, that’s the first thing, I can run. Any DB at that line in front of me I’ll tell them ‘be ready to run’ because I can run. Also, being a leader because I am an older guy and trying to help the younger guys. It is big to them too, when I come in and show them that I am learning the same thing they are learning.”
On what he can pass off to the younger guys…
“I had a lot of one-on-one talks with Coach (Kelsey) Pope and Coach (Kodi) Burns, they tell me all the time that I have the most experience of the guys out there and just helping them out and telling them how it is going through camp.”
Freshman TE Miles Campbell Quotes (8.5.21)
On the first few days of fall camp…
“They have been great. It has definitely been a lot of hard work, but it’s going to be fun seeing where this offense, and team, can go.”
On having an opportunity to play as a freshman…
“Having an opportunity is great, knowing that I have a shot to get on the field. But I am taking that humbly, knowing that I have to do what I have to do (to get there). I have taken more than the freshman load and I feel I’ve taken it well.”
On the tight end usage in the new offense…
“Tight ends are used a lot, flexed out to spread the defense out and stay wide. They also want us in the box, not attached a lot, but they are going to use us a lot.”
On the benefits of a high-tempo offense…
“It keeps the defense off balance, knowing that we are a step ahead of them.”
Sophomore WR Jimmy Calloway Quotes (8.5.21)
On starting fall camp after a strong spring…
“I’m not really picking up where I left off, more so improving what I messed up on and showing my talents more… it’s just understanding the plays and stuff like that because in the spring it was all new, I didn’t really know (them).”
On what he likes most about the offense…
“What I really like is how they allow us to get into open space and really show what we can do. We don’t have a game plan with plays for specific people, its more like you go in with this route and you have the option to do what you want and it is up to us whether we take that opportunity or not.”
On what he has learned from Coach Kodi Burns…
“Technique and really becoming a wide receiver. Thinking, mental, footwork stuff, just a lot that I didn’t know before. The technique really, really matters.”
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