Opening Statement:
“It was a great day for our program. Started off with Pro Day, a great opportunity. Tons of pro personnel in here. An opportunity for our guys that have finished their careers here to go out and perform in front of them and put their best foot forward. I thought our players did a great job during the course of the morning, representing themselves and the program. Enjoyed the opportunity to talk about them, about their careers and who they are with the personnel that was here. Great representation from almost every team.
“And then this afternoon, really exciting day for us. Guys have been really hard in the first quarter of our offseason program, strength and conditioning, and then them having an opportunity to go out, Day 1, and practice, man. Compete, make a bunch of mistakes, get a whole lot better through the course of it as well. Saw a tremendous amount of energy and effort from those guys. Took coaching extremely well, really positive with each other. Lot of things we’ve been working on as far as our accountability and just the way we interact and communicate with each other, players and coaches alike. Saw a lot of those things in a positive way during the course of practice. Excited as we continue to go through spring.”
On players potentially changing positions:
“Not right now. Our roster for the most part has stayed status quo as far as their homes and where they’re starting out at. I think as we go through the early part of spring ball here, we’re going to find out a lot more about who they are as a player, their skill set. How they fit in to what we’re doing, how they’ve grown in the offseason. Taking coaching and implementing the things that we’re asking them to. As we go through that process, you’ll find ways to move guys into a spot where they can get a better opportunity to compete and earn an opportunity to play inside of our program.”
On his early impressions of the quarterbacks:
“I think for everybody inside of our program, part of it is what you do, right? We pushed back the start of spring ball a little bit to make sure that they got some more installs, a little more comfort with our terminology, our verbiage and how you need to communicate in all three phases to give yourself an opportunity to learn how to play the way that we need to. Play with great effort and technique. Play from the snap to the echo of the whistle. That was a big emphasis today. We used the code word attack. That’s a big part of who we are inside of our building. I thought our guys did that.
“At the quarterback position in particular, I thought they handled the tempo portion of some of our team sets extremely well. Handled the communication parts of it. Played within themselves. They made some mistakes out there, too, but they did a lot of really positive things too. The thing that we’ve challenged to our guys is don’t make the same mistake twice. Be coachable, accept coaching in a positive way, learn from it, grow from it, change from one rep to the next. As we called the team up today, that was just one of the points of emphasis I made to them. I saw guys who really accepted coaching, challenging themselves to get better from one rep to the next in a really positive way. I thought there was a ton of positive energy out there between players and coaches.”
On the lack of players presenting problems during spring practice:
“I think just the logistics of spring ball, where guys are at as far as their health, guys are maybe coming off injury from the previous season, having surgeries. As you continue to go and get more and more guys healthy, hopefully, that’s a big part of your offseason program. Getting themselves in a position where they’re able to go and compete for a two hour, fifteen minute, two-and-a-half hour practice. Being in enough shape that they’re learning how to play the actual game and not just practice. I thought for the most part our guys handled the practice extremely well today.”
On not overwhelming players with information from Week 1 to Week 2:
“I think as an overall program, you’re in a race to become as good as you can be as fast as you can. That’s the challenge for your players every single day. You’ve got to be building with great urgency. Put pressure on yourself to soak in as much as possible, go out there and play and execute. At the same time, you’re trying to balance that where your kids aren’t overwhelmed and they have no opportunity to soak up the information they need to, to go out there and compete. And you can’t find out who they are as a player. In all three phases you’re balancing your installs. You have to understand that it’s Year 1. It’s Year 1, Practice 1 for your guys. We want to give them an opportunity to soak in what you’ve done. That’s part of why we backed up spring ball, to make sure they had an opportunity to get some of that information beforehand, to digest it. You push it as far and as fast as you possibly can before you get to spring ball. You come back and now you’re back to a Day 1 install. As your players came back from Day 1, I think they grabbed on to a lot more than probably thought they would as you get ready for Practice 1. I thought we handled that in a pretty good way.”
On what he thought of Tennessee’s defensive staff on the first day:
“I think defensively we have great chemistry, as far as our defensive staff. A bunch of guys that believe in what we’re doing. Who is leading that room, a lot of confidence in Coach Banks. From myself and everybody inside the defensive staff room. Some of those guys have worked together. I think that chemistry is important. There’s a great level of trust between those guys. And our players on the defensive side of the football can feel and sense that as well. They’re playing with great energy. I thought they did a good job communicating at all three levels today. A point of emphasis for us, eliminate busts and be able to line up and play assignments sound, play with great technique.”
On if Kaidon Salter practiced:
“Kaidon was not on the practice field today.”
On why Salter did not practice:
“Kaidon is part of the group of individuals that was suspended from team activities at this point.”
On the timeline for the group of suspended players returning to practice:
“That is being handled on campus and as we receive information we’ll act accordingly. There are high expectations, high standards to represent Tennessee football. At the same time, we’re going to stay true to those kids and support them as they go through this process. If we gain information, we’ll be able to share that.”
On the competition at practice:
“We want to recruit great competitors that are passionate about the game of football, we’ll go push them to go be their best every single day. But you can do that in a positive way. And and I think our staff is built and wired that way our players have understood the consistency in our communication and our standards, and how we’re gonna make sure that we’re making them toe the line and that I think they’ve appreciated that they wanted it. There’s high expectations inside of our locker room. We have a lot of really good football players here that are very prideful and in, in all reality, not excited about what happened a year ago and believe that we can be a whole lot better. And that’s what we’re building to and working towards every single day.
“Our coaches aren’t going to change who they are based on whether we’re on the field or not in the field, we have high standards, we’re going to make sure that our players are meeting those standards, we’re going to be positive and consistent in the way that we communicate with them. And if you do that your players gain a great trust level in you not just to a respect factor, but a trust level in you that they know exactly who and what you’re going to be every day. If they do that they’re able to go cut it loose and go compete at a really high level. The thing that I love about this group is that there’s a leadership that’s starting to take place where they’re starting to hold the guy to the left and the right. accountable to and great teams, championship teams. It’s always built from within the locker room that standards got to be held. From the players all day long in everything that they do in this group starting to grow in that way.”
On what he thinks the strengths and weaknesses of this football team are:
“Right now? I think we got to, this is Day 1, Year 1, of spring ball for us. We got a long way to grow, you got to develop the talent that you have inside of your roster. You got to develop depth, you got to develop or go recruit players and create some of that depth as well. We got a long ways to go. But I do like this group, because they’re prideful. They care. They’re coachable, they’re gonna work extremely hard when they step between the white lines. They’ve done that in the offseason program, they did that today. If we continue to build on that, every day that we’re in here, it will give us a chance.”
On what he saw from players at practice that showed him they cared:
“Some of the things that I already talked about. One, energy, extremely hot, they want to spring ball. Easy to do that. Day 2 gets a little bit tougher. Who are we as we come back? You know, a couple of days from now that will be telling to the energy and effort in the way that they played when we are in our team sets, but the way that they approach their individual periods, the way that they took coaching, changing something from one rep to another rep, tells me that there’s a high care factor. The ability to see some of your your leaders start coaching guys in their position group is a really positive thing. And they did it in a positive way. Don’t those things tell you that this group has got a chance?”
On if the quarterbacks are where he would like them to be at this point in terms of grasping the playbook:
“Right where you want them to be might not be the right right way to phrase it. I think as a coach, you’re you always want to be further ahead than where you’re at. You’re never accepting of where you’re at. You’re always pushing forward. But I do we got guys that they’ve been great inside the meeting room. A bunch of guys that are learning how to put in extra time and effort meet with coaches, on top of what’s required. Players meeting together, watching film together. Those are the things you know everybody, you know, there’s a NCAA requirement or max number of hours that you get with a man. Great players, great teams, they’re going to go above and beyond that all the time and our guys are learning to have how to have really good work habits.”
On what it felt like to be Tennessee’s head coach on the first day of spring practice:
“Just excitement, man. From the time we got a chance to meet with them this morning. You see some of your guys that are finishing their career here you have an opportunity to work out at Pro Day. But then the opportunity to step on the grass, and the turf I guess in the indoor, but have an opportunity to go put everything together and go compete with, you know, 120 guys and coaching staff and all the support staff. There’s so much time and energy and work that leads up to those moments where you get an opportunity to truly go out and compete. Now the way that you want to do that is as a full team. Just excitement, man. And I got a note full of things that we’ve got to correct as players and coaches and spots to have for the next practice. But I love the energy and effort. And if you get those things from your players, great energy, great attitude, and you become a tough football team. Then it’s a it’s a lot of fun to coach that type of group.”
On being excited for the Orange and White game:
“I think great, great excitement, anticipation anytime you get an opportunity to go compete inside of Neyland Stadium. Unbelievable venue. Haven’t played here as a competitor. Excited to be able to showcase who and what we are as a program as we build this, this football foundation here, and be able to showcase it to the fans inside the state of Tennessee. At the same time, that’s that’s so far down the road. I’m worried about getting to meeting here more and more, with our guys getting one day better and getting back out on the grass practice.”
On working with players within the program and balancing those who are considering transferring:
“I think your program is always about who’s inside of your building, who’s inside of your locker room. It’s never about who’s not. I don’t care if it’s recruiting or guys that end up leaving your program. It’s about the guys that are here. We got a group of individuals that wanted accountability, wanted connection, want to become a football team. We’re on a long journey. This is and this is a journey, right? Where we want to go, we’re on that long journey. Right now our guys are competing and trying extremely hard to meet their expectations. They love one another. We’re starting to be connected as a football team. That gives us a chance to move forward. We welcome anybody back that wants to be a part of that. But at the same time, it’s about the guys that are inside the room always and forever.”
On how he felt like the offensive players dealt with the new tempo:
“We balance our practice and make sure that we try to balance it offensively and defensively. And periods where we can get assignment, alignment, sound. And communicate a really good way and chase the football as well. I thought when we got into our tempo periods, our skill players for the most part operated in a pretty efficient way. We can be a whole lot better in 1000 different ways at every position right now to but overall I think for day one, they had a fairly good grasp and understanding of how we want to operate. You know, so there was some positives in that way.”
On players learning quickly:
“The energy, excitement, the want-to with what we’re doing offensively. The buy-in has been fantastic. Guys want to learn how to play the way that we’re gonna play. They want to be efficient. It’s a prideful group of kids. And that’s on the offensive side of the ball and in everywhere inside of our locker room. The expectations and standards here are extremely high. And that’s from within our building. And they obviously understand that the expectations from our fanbase are extremely high too. That’s also why they came or chose to come to Tennessee. It’s why I chose to come to Tennessee. This is one of the great traditions in all of college football. It’s our job to work in a great way every single day, to go chase greatness. And our kids are doing that. Our staff is doing that. Got a long road to haul right now. But we’re going to getting there.”
On how the offensive line has adjusted to the new offensive philosophy:
“Communication is the biggest thing for the five guys up front. Your center, recognizing it, seeing it getting all five guys to operate and same time in your tight ends, whether that’s in your run game or your protections as well. They’ve got to be able to see recognize, communicate extremely quickly for you to operate efficiently inside of the box. Our guys are training themselves to do that they have great urgency. It’s a group that’s only going to continue to get better. Today itself, tough to see and play inside the box. Just because you’re in a helmet and nothing else. So you’re going to find out more about your your front seven I like the group. They compete hard and they want to get better.”
