Here are some photos of the Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball team preparing for the 2020-2021 season, courtesy of UT Athletics.
Vols Hoops Preseason Practice
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Guard Keon Johnson #45 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Guard Keon Johnson #45 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Forward Corey Walker Jr. #15 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Forward Uros Plavsic #33 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Forward Olivier Nkamhoua #13 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Forward E.J. Anosike #55 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Guard Victor Bailey Jr. #12 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Forward Drew Pember #3 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Guard Josiah-Jordan James #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Forward Corey Walker Jr. #15 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Forward Uros Plavsic #33 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Guard/Forward Yves Pons #35 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Guard Davonte Gaines #0 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Guard Santiago Vescovi #25 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10, 2020 - Guard Josiah-Jordan James #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The league’s coaches have chosen Tennessee’s Rennia Davis for the Preseason All-SEC First Team, marking her third year in a row of earning that distinction.
Joining Davis on the first team are SEC Preseason Player of the Year Rhyne Howard of Kentucky; Chelsea Dungee, Arkansas; Unique Thompson, Auburn; Khayla Pointer, LSU; Rickea Jackson, Mississippi State; Aliyah Boston, South Carolina; and N’dea Jones, Texas A&M.
The second team is comprised of Jasmine Walker, Alabama; Destiny Slocum, Arkansas; Lavender Briggs, Florida; Shakira Austin, Ole Miss; Jessika Carter, Mississippi State; Aijha Blackwell, Missouri; Zia Cooke, South Carolina; and Kayla Wells, Texas A&M.
In the race for the SEC regular season championship, meanwhile, the Lady Vols were predicted to finish sixth in the league standings by the coaches for the second straight season. A year ago, during Kellie Harper’s inaugural campaign at the helm of the Lady Vols, Tennessee fashioned a 21-10 overall record and 10-6 league mark, good for a tie for third in the standings. It was UT’s highest league finish since taking first in 2014-15.
South Carolina, ranked No. 1 in the AP Preseason Poll, is predicted to win the 2021 SEC women’s basketball championship. Kentucky, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Tennessee and LSU round out the top half of the league. Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Ole Miss, Florida, Vanderbilt and Auburn fill out the bottom half.
Tennessee returns four players who were regulars in the starting lineup at some point during the 2019-20 season. That group is headed by Davis, who is a two-time All-SEC and All-America honorable mention performer. The second-leading returning scorer in the SEC, she averaged 18.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in 2019-20 while shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 80.2 percent from the free throw line. In league play, Davis produced 19.9 ppg. and 8.0 rpg. while hitting 49.6% from the field and 82.8% at the charity stripe in 16 regular-season contests.
UT’s other players with significant starting experience include 6-1 junior guard/forward Rae Burrell (10.5 ppg., 5.5 rpg., 21 3FGs), 6-2 sophomore guard Jordan Horston (10.1 ppg., 5.5 rpg., 4.6 apg., SEC All-Freshman) and 6-5 sophomore center Tamari Key (7.3 ppg., 4.7 rpg., 2.8 bpg., 56% FG). Burrell was the team’s top reserve for the first 22 games before starting the final nine contests of the season. She averaged 12.3 ppg. and 5.7 rpg. during that end-of-year stint in the first five.
All told, UT returns five of its top six scorers and rebounders from 2019-20, including the top four in each category. Harper welcomes back 80.8 percent of her scoring, 76.4 percent of rebounds, 78.6 percent of blocks, 71.0 percent of steals and 64.8 percent of assists from a year ago. The Big Orange women also return 80.6 percent of their field goals, including 73.3 percent of their three-pointers, and 84.8 percent of free throws from last season.
In addition to returning Davis, Burrell, Key and Horston, the Lady Vols welcome back rotation regulars in 6-4 senior center Kasiyahna Kushkituah (5.4 ppg., 4.4 rpg., 49% FG, 31 games played), 5-8 sophomore guard Jessie Rennie (2.7 ppg., 25 3FGs, 46% 3FG, 30 games played) and 6-3 redshirt senior forward Jaiden McCoy (2.7 ppg., 1.8 rpg., 26 games played). Emily Saunders, a 6-5 sophomore center, saw action in only 10 games a year ago but averaged 3.7 ppg., 2.2 rpg. and 1.0 bpg. while shooting 71% on field goals.
Tennessee also welcomes a pair of highly-regarded graduate transfers in Keyen Green from Liberty and Jordan Walker from Western Michigan. Walker, an All-MAC guard with two seasons to play, brings experience, quickness and depth to the guard corps. The 5-8 redshirt junior averaged 16.0 ppg., 6.2 rpg., 2.5 apg. and 2.1 spg. while knocking down 66 three-pointers in 2019-20.
Green, meanwhile, is a first-team All-ASUN forward/center who is expected to bolster UT’s inside presence. She averaged 13.9 ppg. and 7.5 rpg. last season and shot 59 percent from the field. ESPN ranked Green, who has one season to play, at No. 15 in its 2020-21 preseason Newcomer Impact Rankings.
UT’s three-member rookie class includes 6-0 guard Destiny Salary (four-star prospect, #57 by espnW HoopGurlz), 6-1 guard/forward Tess Darby (#86 by Blue Star Media, four-star prospect by ProspectsNation.com) and 6-2 guard/forward Marta Suárez (a four-star prospect by Blue Star Europe).
PRESEASON COACHES’ POLL
ORDER OF FINISH
1. South Carolina
2. Kentucky
3. Texas A&M
4. Arkansas
5. Mississippi State 6. Tennessee
7. LSU
8. Alabama
9. Georgia
10. Missouri
11. Ole Miss
12. Florida
13. Vanderbilt
14. Auburn
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Rhyne Howard, Kentucky
ALL-SEC FIRST TEAM
Chelsea Dungee, Arkansas
Unique Thompson, Auburn
Rhyne Howard, Kentucky
Khayla Pointer, LSU
Rickea Jackson, Mississippi State
Aliyah Boston, South Carolina Rennia Davis, Tennessee
N’dea Jones, Texas A&M
ALL-SEC SECOND TEAM
Jasmine Walker, Alabama
Destiny Slocum, Arkansas
Lavender Briggs, Florida
Shakira Austin, Ole Miss
Jessika Carter, Mississippi State
Aijha Blackwell, Missouri
Zia Cooke, South Carolina
Kayla Wells, Texas A&M
In an already award filled year for Dan + Shay, the hottest duo in country music has another opportunity to walk home with 3 more trophies this weekend at the American Music Awards. Their nominations include Favorite Duo or Group of the Year, and Favorite Song for “10,000 Hours”, both in the country categories.
Dan + Shay’s “10,000 Hours” also has a nomination, along with Justin Bieber, in the all-genre Collaboration of the Year…which Shay says is not only important for him and Dan, but also country music in general “Being in that all-genre category just…I think it’s great for not only for our career, but just the country music format. You know, any time we can…We love country music and we’re so proud of the people who are in our format, and any time bring over some fans from somewhere else and get them to kind of check out some other country artists because they heard us on the pop station or watched us on an award show, we’re very thankful for that. And I think that’s good for everybody. So, we’re very appreciative to be in that all-genre category kind of waving that country music banner.”
The 2020 American Music Awards will broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on ABC on November 22 at 8 PM ET/ 7C.
Check out the music video for Dan + Shay, and Justin Bieber’s American Music Award nominated song “10,000 Hours”
Everyone is adapting their holiday plans this year, including Ashley McBryde. To keep her family safe, she and her siblings have laid out a holiday schedule for visiting their parents “Normally I would be at home, for every holiday, but my parents are no spring chickens…so, I’m trying to make sure that everybody is as safe as possible. So, my family and I, we’re gonna do holidays in shifts! We’ll be tested, and then I’ll get to go be with mom and pop, and then my brother or my sister can come a day or so later as long as everybody is making sure we’re keeping mom and dad safe”
Now, when she does get home, what will be her favorite Thanksgiving menu item? Ashley states “Mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes…with gravy? Even better! But, mashed potatoes.” We think she likes mashed potatoes.
Here’s hoping your holidays are nothing like the story line in Ashley’s latest song “Martha Divine”…
American Idol winner Laine Hardy celebrated Friendsgiving with some fellow country music making friends at the Ryman Auditorium Wednesday Night with a special performance. The concert was performed in front of a socially distanced crowd and streamed live for fans around the world to see.
This was a big night for Laine. Not only was it the first show he’s had with his band since the early spring, but it was also the first time he’s ever played at the Mother Church of country music. Laine’s road to the Ryman stage began when he heard Elvis Presley on the radio in the car with his mom “At 6, that’s when I got my first guitar, the reason I got it was because me and my mom were going down the road in the car, and he came on the radio, and I asked her ‘Who is that?’ She said ‘It’s Elvis’ and then I started watching videos and stuff…at 6 years old I was doing this.” Laine’s love of Elvis was even captured in a childhood photo session where he dressed as The King.
Laine’s mom was there when he discovered Elvis, and she was also the one who saw the musical potential in her son several years later, and asked if he’d like to try out for American Idol. After passing the audition phase in front of judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan, Laine’s first trip to Hollywood didn’t end up like he hoped. The following year he showed up to support his friend Ashton Gill as she tried up for Season 17 of Idol. The judges recognized him, and after giving him a warm welcome back, they coaxed Laine into an impromptu audition that once again saw him heading to Hollywood, but this time it had the dream ending as Laine was crowned the winner.
But even during those successful days on the west coast, while he was in the L.A. of California, Laine knew his heart would always be in the LA of his home state of Louisiana.
Now the pride of Livingston, Louisiana is taking on Music City with his current single, “Tiny Town.” Laine knew the song was meant for him the very first time he heard it “I was listening to it, and was like ‘wow, it really sounds relatable to me’.” That might be because his home town of Livingston is a “tiny town” with a population of about two thousand people. Laine would have needed about 35 of his towns to fill the Super Down in New Orleans the first time his sang the National Anthem there.
From Friendsgiving this week to Thanksgiving next week, Laine Hardy is very thankful for the experiences he’s had along the way over the last couple of years “It means a lot to me, I never would have thought a few years back that I’d be doing this right now. It’s unreal, it feels unreal.”
As Laine Hardy closes out 2020…the boy who would be the king, and was crowned an Idol, is set to take on the country music world with the help of his “Tiny Town.”
This weekend, A Nashville Christmas Carol premieres on the Hallmark Channel. Saturday, Nov 21, you can watch Sara Evans, Wynonna Judd, Raelynn, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Kix Brooks join Wes Brown and Jessy Schram as they give a country music themed twist to Charles Dickens’ timeless tale.
“It’s patterned after the classic Christmas Carol” says Sara Evans “It was such a fun experience, and I think the movie is going to be incredible.” Sara also shares that this was not a quick cameo “I actually have a pretty decent size roll in the movie.”
To see Sara Evans, Kix Brooks and all the other country stars in A Nashville Christmas Carol, tune into the Hallmark Channel this Saturday, November 21 at 8pm/7c.
Chrissy Metz’s song is called “Talking to God”, but this weekend you could be talking to her! Chrissy is launching an interactive live stream series called Live From Home this Saturday, Nov. 21 on ChrissyMetz.Topeka.Live at 9pm ET/ 8pm CT. During the four-part series not only will Chrissy be sharing stories, and performing songs for viewers, but she will interacting with fans directly! On the debut episode Chrissy will also have a very special guest, her This Is Us co-star Chris Sullivan will stop by to talk with Chrissy and the fans viewing at home, along with playing some of his music.
Chrissy’s Live From Home series will start this weekend, on Saturday, with the other 3 episodes running Dec. 5, Dec. 12 and Jan. 9. For more information head to ChrissyMetz.Topeka.Live
Along with her current single “Talking to God,” one of the songs that Chrissy might be talking about, and performing, is her recently released version of the holiday classic “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” which you can check out right here…
Blake Shelton is knocking on the door to the top of the country music charts once again. “Happy Anywhere” is trying to be the 28th chart-topper of his career, but it’s already in the number-one spot for one category…the most fun song he’s ever recorded!
Blake says “You know ‘Happy Anywhere’ is…gotta be one of the most fun songs that I’ve ever had a chance to record. And the actual recording process was a blast. Listening to it afterwards was a blast. I had a moment where Gwen (Stefani) told me ‘you know, there’s something about this song that just makes you smile’ and it doesn’t hurt that it has ‘happy’ in the title.”
Check out the video for “Happy Anywhere” featuring Blake Shelton and his fiancée Gwen Stefani right here…
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee women’s basketball senior Rennia Davis has been named to the 2021 Women’s Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Watch List, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced on Tuesday.
Overall, the list of 50 women’s players represents 11 national conferences with the Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC having nine players each. Davis, a 6-foot-2 guard/forward from Jacksonville, Florida, made the Naismith preseason list for the third straight season. She was among the 30 players advancing to the midseason list a year ago.
“The competition for the 2021 Women’s Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy will intensify as more players enter the competition throughout the season, but these 50 candidates are the early contenders to watch,” said Eric Oberman, executive director of the Atlanta Tipoff Club. “While last season was unlike any college basketball season we’ve experienced, we hope these athletes have the opportunity to compete through their entire schedule this season and showcase the full breadth of their abilities and talent.”
The midseason 30 team will be announced in early February. Players who do not make the watch list are still eligible to be selected for the midseason compilation.
Also a Cheryl Miller Award Preseason Watch list member for the third year in a row, Davis has displayed an impressive knack for knocking down shots at clutch moments during her career. She has hit 14 buckets with the game clock winding down, with two of those falling just before the final horn.
The second-leading returning scorer in the SEC this season, Davis was a first-team All-SEC selection in 2020 as well as an All-America honorable mention recipient from the AP, USBWA and WBCA. She averaged 18.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in 2019-20 while shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 80.2 percent from the free throw line.
With a scoring average that was the best by a Lady Vol since Candace Parker put up 21.3 ppg. in 2008, Davis enters her final collegiate season tied with Bashaara Graves for 10th in UT history with 29 double-doubles during her first three seasons on Rocky Top.
Davis averaged 19.9 ppg. and 8.0 rpg. vs. league foes in 2019-20. She hit 49.6% from the field and 82.8% at the charity stripe in 16 regular-season contests. Against nine ranked opponents, Davis tallied 19.8 ppg. and 7.0 rpg. and shot 43.8% on field goals and 84.2% on free throws vs. those teams.
The two-time All-SEC choice ranked fifth in the conference in rebounding last season at 8.2 rpg. and eighth in field goal percentage (.469) and stands No. 5 in both categories among returning players. She finished No. 4 in the SEC in free throw percentage at .802 a year ago and is No. 2 among returnees this season.
Davis is among the SEC’s active player career leaders, ranking second in points (1,400 points) and double-doubles (29) and third in rebounds.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee returns to action at 7 p.m. ET Saturday as the Volunteers travel to face No. 23/21 Auburn on ESPN. Head coach Jeremy Pruitt previewed the matchup at his weekly Monday press conference.
Opening Statement
“I wanted to start this press conference talking about an article that was written about our assistant coaches the other day. When you talk about contracts, the situation is fluid. I know the men that are in this building, and I know where their hearts are at. I also know the circumstances around decision making, what they’re looking for, and where they’re going in the future. The final chapter has not been written on that. They will continue to look and meet with our administration to see what they can do to help supplement the university.
“While I can’t answer all your questions regarding this, I’d like to focus on Auburn and looking at these guys as a team. To me it starts offensively with their quarterback, Bo Nix. He’s a guy I’m very familiar with. His grandfather and my dad used to coach together, so I’ve known his family for a very long time. I think he’s playing really good football. They have three really good wide receivers who have lots of experience playing on the outside. They have a stable of running backs. They play a couple of guys at tight end and they’re big across the front. After going against Coach (Gus) Malzahn over the years, they clearly play with really up-tempo different looks and spread you across the field. You have to keep your edges on the defense and eliminate explosive plays. You have to make them drive the ball through you. Defensively, Kevin Steele is a guy that I worked with many years ago. He’s a good friend of mine. They play a lot of man-to-man and mix it up defensively. They create negative plays. They play fast and hard. They’ve been really opportunistic over the course of the year. I think they’re one of the better special team units we’ve played. They’ve blocked a couple of punts. They’ve been explosive in the kickoff return game. They’ve got good specialists, so it will be a tremendous challenge.
“This past week our team was really disappointed about not getting a chance to play. I thought we put three really good consecutive practices together. Harrison Bailey had a really good week along with (Brian) Mauer and J.T. (Shrout). It was good to get Jimmy Calloway, Jimmy Holiday and Malachi Wideman extra reps. We helped them start understanding how to run routes against certain coverages and the details of being able to do it. Being able to have a chance for Tee (Martin) and Coach (Jim) Chaney to coach these guys was really good from a throw game standpoint. It was a really good chance for us to get healthy. I feel like our football team is the healthiest it’s been in a while.”
On the difficulty of the last couple weeks and the game postponement …
“Well, when we went home March 12, everything changed. Everything changes daily. There’s lots of unknowns. We’ve really been trying to adapt. There’s nothing to draw from. There are no history books on COVID-19. I think it’s been very important for our staff to do a lot of quality control and documentation about some of the things we did during March, April, May and June. This is so we can go back and look at it. This might be the norm for next year too. It’s not like this is going to go away anytime soon. We’ve tried to adapt and provide the leadership for our players so that we can get the most out of this. I’m frustrated for a lot of these guys because their circumstances change frequently and it’s out of their control. The guys have great attitudes and they’re working hard. They’re excited to get a chance to play this week.”
On the difference between Chad Morris’ offense at Auburn and that of a Gus Malzahn-run offense…
“I coached against Chad (Morris) when he was at Clemson, so they kind of come from the same family of offensive football. There is some familiarity there. I probably see some of the things that Kirby (Smart) was talking about. We have lots of history. I’m sitting there and Coach (Derrick) Ansley’s showing tape to the players yesterday and as I’m sitting there looking, I’m trying to figure out what year this video was from. It was 2013. We have lots of history. I will say this, you can see that Chad has his thumbprint on it, maybe more so than Gus, but there’s still a lot of things and flavor that shows up that is still Gus Malzahn’s offense.”
On if Jarrett Guarantano’s performance in a road win over Auburn in 2018 was one of the best performances of his career…
“He played really well that day. You’re right, we couldn’t run the ball. We couldn’t block them up front. They had a very good defensive front. I felt like our wide receivers made a lot of plays that day. Our o-line held up in protection enough for us to get the ball out. It was very typical. I think the score might have been 17-0. I might be wrong there. We kind of have a history there of playing against Auburn. It seems like if you can get through the first couple of drives – they play so fast – and you get accustomed to playing them. I was telling the defensive guys yesterday, if you look, the teams that play Auburn every year have more familiarity with how the offense is run. Teams that don’t play them every year seem to struggle. It’s important to try and understand what Auburn tries to do philosophically on offense. We really worked hard yesterday to get that engrained into our defensive players.”
On how confident he is that Tennessee will be able to play all 10 regular season games this season…
“Obviously, we can’t predict the future. I believe we all knew when we started this, that there were no guarantees. That’s why I’ve been really proud of our football team – the way they go to work and the way they stay positive through the circumstances. I think it says a lot about them as people and about their character. I know they’re excited about the opportunity this Saturday. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to play.”
On if the assistant coaches brought the potential pay cut discussion to him, or if they made a decision on their own…
“I wasn’t really going to talk about it, but with the communication and being in the middle of the season, I did not specifically sit down with any assistant coach. I knew that they were being approached about it, but I didn’t know the outcome until Blake (Toppmeyer) wrote the article on Friday. What Blake wrote was factual. I do believe, as I said before, that the final story has not been written yet. It’s a fluid situation and with contracts, things change. There will be opportunities to make adjustments as we move on.”
On if the differences in the SEC scoring is because of a philosophical shift or the unique preseason this year …
“Probably a little bit of all that you said. There are a lot of really good players playing in this game right now. There’s quarterbacks that are prepared coming out of high school that can get people the ball out there in space. If you’re committed to getting the ball out in the perimeter and you’ve got good players out there, lots of times you ain’t got to block all the big guys in front. So, when you line up and run inside zone, and you’re going to run it 10 times, you’re talking about six guys that have got to block six guys exactly right with a back hitting it up in there. Whereas if you get the ball out in space, you’ve got guys that can create explosive plays just like that. So, it’s something that I feel like you’ve got to be able to do both. You have to be able to run the ball consistently in this league, but you got to create explosives plays – there’s nothing like getting yards in chunks. That’s something we’ve really been trying to focus on.
“Someone mentioned the last time we played Auburn. I don’t know how many explosive plays we had that day – we couldn’t run the football, but we could create explosive plays and that was the difference in the game. Probably the two most important things when you talk about outcomes of games is No. 1, turnovers and No. 2, explosive plays, whether you create them or whether you give them up.”
“He practiced yesterday, but all of the other guys took a lot of reps over the last three practices. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes here. I was really excited about how these other guys continued to work. I thought Jarrett had a good day yesterday. It seems to be a little more confidence offensively, especially with our younger guys having a better idea of how to execute at a higher level.”
“Shawn is working on academics. This has been a very unusual circumstance for this whole deal. You try to do school from home, not being in-person when you talk about tutors and things like that. He’s going to focus on academics the rest of this semester. No, (he will not be back with team this season).”
On the NCAA pushing the dead period into the spring…
“For us as coaches, whatever tape that you get you just have to evaluate it. Obviously, there wasn’t any spring evals when you watch people in person. There weren’t any summer camps. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of football going on throughout the country. It’s not consistent anywhere. So, the opportunity for guys to improve their game is not there for everybody. The ones I worry about are really the student-athletes that are being recruited – the fact they can’t go on campuses, which I understand why they can’t. I can’t imagine making a decision on where I’m going to go to school and I’ve never been to a campus. It’s very unfortunate for them. I don’t have the answer for it. I wish I did. We as a staff have really worked hard to build relationships and do the best we can to take Knoxville and University of Tennessee to wherever that may be, by Zooming online, videos, whatever means necessary.”
On the difficulty of having to play three consecutive road games and having no home games this month…
“I really didn’t even know that. Since 1891? (No November home games) Obviously, going on the road in this league is a challenge. I don’t think it’s as challenging as it is when the stadiums are full. I think having a home game – the familiarity, not putting in the travel – is definitely an advantage. I think it’s good for Knoxville, it’s good for our fans and it’s good for our team. That’s another thing, when we travel, we have to miss school on Fridays, so having a chance to be able to finish and do all your academics on Friday is important too. We’ll be glad when we get back.”
“Just command. When you are comfortable doing something, running an offense, whatever it is, you have confidence. Your peers can see it. You can’t fake confidence. It’s either natural or it’s not, and that’s not to take anything away from him, but the more you do something, the more comfortable you get at it and the better you feel and the more confident you are, and you can see that. The simplicity of communicating the calls all the way across the board. You’re talking about a young guy sitting here and you got to tell Trey Smith which guy he’s supposed to block on this run play right here. ‘The MIKE is 42 or whatever, we’re working 42.’ Just some of that. Nothing different that you see out of any freshman. It’s no different than Tamarion McDonald making all the calls in the secondary, or last year Henry To’o To’o when Daniel Bituli was out having to be kind of the quarterback of the defense. It’s something that the more you do it, the more you gain confidence in and everybody sees it.”
On Auburn’s wide receivers, specifically Seth Williams…
“Well, you know Seth is from Tuscaloosa there and I was very familiar with him coming out of high school. He’s a really, really good athlete, good basketball player. He’s a guy that’s really never covered. When I say that, you can have him covered, but you can tell that Bo (Nix) has a lot of confidence in him. He throws the ball to him and he goes and gets it. He can high point the ball. He creates yards after the catch. He’s a tough out in one-on-one coverage. And then you throw in the mixture of the other guys they’ve got, the Schwartz kid (Anthony Schwartz) is the fastest guy in the country. I remember in high school going down and watching him run on the track, just one day I’m watching him and another young man just practice track, and I’m just seeing him run by. I mean this guy can fly, and he’s really developed into a really good football player. So, they’ve got some really nice weapons at wide receiver and at running back and they do a nice job of finding a way to get these guys the ball.”
On the development of Auburn’s defense after having their best game against LSU…
“Really, because of my relationship with Coach (Kevin) Steele, no different than a lot of teams across the country. Circumstances change every week. Obviously, they’ve had some guys in, some guys out, but that week (against LSU) they had more guys in, probably more that were healthier. Then you just talk about, if you’ve got a young group of guys, just the consistency and the circumstances that we’re all well aware of, I think it’s probably affected a lot of teams. I know just talking to Kevin, he’s talked about that just between me and him. So, they played really well I thought against LSU and I expect them to play really well against us.”
