Tennessee Football has officially wrapped up its first week of spring practice out on the football field in Knoxville.
The excitement for the season isn’t hard to feel in the air, radiating off of the players and coaches alike on the field. Music is blaring, guys are competing, and the football has certainly been thrown around a good bit this week on the practice field.
After the second practice of the week, Tennessee made some of their freshman newcomers on the defensive side of the ball available to speak with the media. That included four-star edge rusher Caleb Herring, four-star linebacker Arion Carter, and four-star defensive back Jordan Matthews.
Each of the players spoke about their initial impressions of spring camp, the coaching staff, and just being out on the Tennessee practice field.
“I understood the assignment when I first got here, even as a recruit, everything is going to be faster, bigger, stronger and more competitive in comparison to high school with smaller guys,” freshman defensive back John Slaughter said. “But here, stars don’t matter, rankings don’t matter, everyone’s a dog here.”
More from RTI: Tennessee Makes Top Six For Four-Star Receiver
Tennessee also had third-year defensive coordinator Tim Banks and third-year defensive line coach Rodney Garner speak with the media as well. Banks spoke about different aspects of Tennessee’s defense, both from a newcomer and returning player perspective, while Garner really zeroed in on what he has liked from his group so far throughout the first week of camp.
“Right now, I think the guys have a great attitude, are working hard, taking coaching and have attention,” Garner said on Saturday after practice. “At the end of the day, I was a little bit disappointed. I told them that I felt like at the end they slowly ran out of gas, and they started to stand around and weren’t competing. That’s when you have to find out who you are. When you’re faced with that adversity, we have to find a way to strain and tough it out. We have to continue to fight. That’s something we have to get better at.”
Check out all the aforementioned interviews below. And don’t forget to stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more coverage from Tennessee Football spring camp in Knoxville this month.
Defensive Lineman Caleb Herring
Defensive Back Jordan Matthews
Linebacker Jeremiah Telander
Linebacker Arion Carter
Defensive Back John Slaughter
D-Line Coach Rodney Garner
Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks
