Tennessee football outside linebackers coach and special teams coach Mike Ekeler met with the media on Saturday morning as the Vols get closer-and-closer to their season opener.
The high energy Ekeler discussed the the return game, competition at kicker and much more. Here’s everything Ekeler said on Saturday morning.
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On what he’s looking for in Tennessee’s kick and punt returners
“Well, I’ll tell you what. Squirrel White punt returning, (Jermod) McCoy, returning punts, Boo (Carter) — we’ve got a bunch of guys — Cam Seldon. And then kickoff return, you got guys, a lot of the same guys in that group in there, adding (DeSean) Bishop in. We’ve got some dynamic guys with the ball in their hands. And, you know, in the last three years we’ve given up 23 yards of punt returns and we’ve got right at 900. So our guys take great pride in this. And it’s going to be no different this year. This will be our best unit, period.”
On what has stood out during Tennessee’s kicker competition
“It’s been awesome. We got three guys that could pretty much start anywhere in the country. Max (Gilbert) has done an awesome job. Turbs (Josh Turbyville) just keeps getting better. And JT (Carver), man, since the day we walked in here, he just grinds and he works his tail off. And he can go out there and, like I said, those three guys can play anywhere in the country. So we like the competition we’ve got.
“And what’s really cool about it though, I’ve been a lot of teams rooms over the years and our guys are so tight knit. And obviously it’s like a quarterback. There’s one ball, only one guy can go out there and those guys all want that job. But they truly have a great camaraderie. They truly help each other and they pull for each other in the right way. So the chemistry in that room is as good as I’ve ever seen.”
On how defensive backs coach Willie Martinez said he knows Tennessee players work in space defense if he sees it on special teams
“It’s a space game. I mean, if you can’t play in space, there used to be a saying in coaching, ah, he’s a Big 10 Mike. There’s no such thing anymore. I mean a linebacker, you got to be, you got two will linebackers out there. You got to be able to, to flex out and play guys in, space. And guys in nickels, the corners, the safeties, all these guys are, our leos, our outside backers. It’s a space game and then you transfer that over to the offensive side. They’re blocking guys in space. That’s what it’s all about. If you can’t change direction and if you can’t make plays in space and make people miss, and or block people in space, you can’t play.”
On why this will be his best special teams unit at Tennessee
“This is year four. Year four. Our guys understand what we’re asking from them. Each year we push the envelope to get better. And we got a saying, it’s ABT, all about technique, for ABM, all about money. These guys buy in, they get it, they see it every single day. Every drill we do makes them better as a football player and it transfers over and they see, we show clips of guys, we show Dee (Williams) with the Seahawks making plays out there on kickoff cover. We show Tank (Jaylen McCollough) with the Rams out there, wrecking shop. Theo Jackson. All these guys that have been their teammates and they see it and and they want it. Because ultimately they want to be the best player they can be right now and they want to play this game as long as they can. And they get the fact that, shoot, your skillset, that’s all you got. So your knowledge, your technique, either you got it or you don’t. When you get to the NFL, you’re standing up there. If you don’t got it, they’re going to tap your shoulder and tell you to take your playbook and go see the head ball coach. These guys would like to keep their playbook and we talk to them in that sense. I challenge them. So guys, first scrimmage, this is a preseason game. You’re walking out there, your play books are on the line. We’re going put some Rated-R you know what on film, NFL Teach tape, grade A shizzay and they take pride in it.”
On what the next step is for Jackson Ross to develop as a punter
“Jackson Ross is one of the most amazing punters I’ve ever been around. I mean this guy, legitimately, we’ve built a system around him and it’s been hand-in-hand around his skillset. We’ve got a lot of things that we’ve put in in this offseason that I’m beyond excited to roll out there. So what’s next about him? Is just having that year of experience. He had 27 kicks— he had 55 punts last year— 27 of them were inside the 20 yard line. Seventeen of those were inside the 10. That’s lethal. Nobody can say that. He led the country in-that and he’s gonna get better-and-better-and-better. We’ve been in the scrimmage a couple times in Neyland and he’s at 14 pooches and two of them have been on the six and the rest have been inside the four. That’s a damn weapon. I told you guys, I screwed up the first game last year and I told you he was going be a damn weapon. I didn’t lie.”
On how to simulate game situations for the kicker competition
“Great question and Heup does that all the time. He’ll get those guys up, he’ll get the whole team up and he’ll literally form a tunnel around them and pressure kicks at the end of the day. And so he puts those guys in the situations really, truly a handful of times each week. And Coach Crabtree is working with the specialists as well and Dustin Colquitt and those guys do a phenomenal job with those guys and love their approach, love their mentality. If they miss a kick *snap* next kick. I mean, that’s their mentality. And it’s all about consistency. It’s like golfing. I mean it’s about being a consistent ball striker and that’s what they’re working on. And freaking love this group, man. I mean we got NFL type specialists. We have NFL type kickers. We have two snappers in (Matthew) Salansky and Bennett Brady that can freaking play the NFL. But we’re at Tennessee, man. And if we don’t have that, Coach Heup should tap me on the shoulder and say, hey, go find a job. Go down the road. Because that’s what we got.”
On the new NFL kick off rule being a selling point for people to buy in to special teams
“Well it’s kind of a unique rule, obviously. A unique deal and we don’t spend a whole lot of time on that because we don’t do it in college. So we’ll show clips like of Dee (Williams) making a tackle, setting up a guy. The same things we do and we’ll pull a clip of Dee doing it in practice, in a drill and say guys, there it is. That’s fine. It’s the same thing. Same thing we’re doing on Saturdays transfers over on Sundays.”
