Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle met with the local media on Thursday morning just over a week before the Vols face Chattanooga in their season opener at Neyland Stadium.
It’s the first time that Halzle has met with the media since the start of fall camp and he updated the media on the growth of the offense during camp.
Tennessee’s second-year offensive coordinator discussed Nico Iamaleava’s development, depth at running back and receiver and much more. Here’s everything Halzle said.
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On what he likes about Tennessee’s offense exiting fall camp
“I like where we’re at offensively, just thinking about it coming off the field today. Feel like we’re in a good spot. Guys know their roles, they’re playing hard. You got a lot of depth out wide, a lot of depth in the backfield and a lot of positions. So feel pretty good about us taking the field and what we can do. Just like always, you’re always cleaning up. It’s still this group of guys, this group of 11, taking the field, has never played a game together, hasn’t played that much football together at this point. So it’s always pushing to get those fine details corrected, get everything dialed in so when we take the field next Saturday, we look the way we’re supposed to look.”
On what adjustments Tennessee receiver Bru McCoy has to make playing with Nico Iamaleava, after playing with Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton
“The chemistry between Bru and Nico is great. They live close to each other. They’re really close off the field, they’re really good friends. Bru has been a great leader, mentor for Nico coming through, who’s stepping into a leadership position. Bru’s done a really good job of helping, bringing him along and all the off field stuff. On field, it’s just reps. It’s just how many times can you throw the same routes together. For Bru, he still runs his stuff the same way. He still makes the same breaks. Switching from one quarterback to the next you’ve still got to kind of go do your thing, see what the defense gives you, how am I gonna react to it? And the quarterback feeling how he’s going to read the route and them getting on the same page. And that’s nothing but rep after rep after rep on the field. And then I know the guys, they spend a lot of time watching tape together, so they watch how do you see this, how do you see this? And they can get synced up. It kind of takes place for, as you said, not having live bullets together.”
On the use of in-helmet communication, the balance between getting play calls in and also reminding players of certain things
“I think the reminders is the biggest thing, where you can talk and you can just tell your quarterback like, hey, you’re in the four-down territory right now. Hey, we’re thinking field goal here if we don’t get it on third down. Or you got two downs here, we’re going to go for it. We’re going to go for the touchdown here. Hey, I’m giving you a shot of the end zone, don’t take a sack. Like you get those little quick bullet-point reminders that I think are going to be really helpful that, usually, and you still will on Friday, you go through with your guys, you’re sitting there talking through it. Well now he doesn’t have to commit that all to memory. He’s got it, he studied it, but then he also gets to hear it right before he snaps the ball again. I think that’s the biggest benefit you’re going to get, along with hearing the play call. You still see the signal, you do all that, but you can hear a play call now. And you’re getting it from two different channels. So I think it’s going to be nothing but beneficial, but I do think it’s the situational reminders that it’s the biggest benefit. And we’ll see how it actually plays out on the game day.”
On how different this Tennessee offense looks from a depth standpoint
“The biggest thing for us (last year) I think is the depth we had. We were just riddled with injuries last year and we were young to start. Now we got a lot of guys back, we got a lot of guys that have played football. And the young guys that came in that haven’t played yet are really good players, which is has done nothing but boost the competition level in the rooms.
So we feel good that we can roll two deep out there at a lot of positions and feel really good about who’s on the field and not have to adjust the calls off of it. Not to keep harping the same point, but honestly, it’s just how is this group going to gel together? That’s what we have to keep pushing for. That’s what every rep in practice, when the ones are up there and they’re rolling, it’s still the first time they have run these plays together. It’s still the first time they’ve gone through a scout week together, gone through an opponent breakdown together. So just gelling and putting all that together and the guys understanding that this extra week we have is not right off. It is a push to get to where we need to get next week.”
On both Dont’e Thornton and Bru McCoy returning from injures from last season
“I think it’s the culture in the building. Because you’ve seen it with the running back room as well for like Cam (Seldon) that was out for a while this offseason. Like the guys push each other. You get a date that they think you can be back and everyone’s just pushing to beat it. So it becomes a competition. That’s what we tell the guys. Okay, you can’t go compete on field right now in spring ball, let’s say, but you can go compete in the training room and in the weight room to get yourself back. So there’s still that competitive nature that exists inside of this building, which I think is why guys like Bru, guys like Dont’e, guys like Cam, they’re all beating their dates back and they look great when they take the field.”
On preparing Nico Iamaleava for the pressures that come with being the QB at Tennessee
“I think it is one of the harder things to prepare someone for because they hear it all the time, but I don’t think you really know what it’s like to be the quarterback at a place like this until you are the quarterback at a place like this. Where everybody cares about every little thing that you’re doing on-and-off the field. It’s just reminding him that, ‘hey, like you’re in a fishbowl, but the opinions outside this building don’t affect you.’ Like you go, you show up to work every day, the same exact way you handle your business. Now we’ll see if he will go do that after a 102,000 people watch you every single weekend. It’s a different animal. But he’s wired the right way. Nico’s an extremely even keeled kid just in general. He doesn’t ride high-or-low. He just kind of is. So his natural demeanor I think will lead very well to him handling the pressures of this position.”
On what the running back rotation will look like with Cam Seldon healthy
“We love to play three or four. Even last year, Jaylen Wright leading the conference in rushing. Three guys played and they played a lot. Dylan obviously is our seasoned guy that has the most reps in what he is as a weapon, we’ve all seen. But the guys back, Cam (Seldon), Peyton (Lewis), Khalifa (Keith), DeSean (Bishop), like all those guys, they’ve looked really good in spring, they’ve looked really good in fall camp and they’ve earned their chance to go show what they can do on the field. So we’ll rotate guys through and then just like in any ball game, if somebody gets hot you got to ride the hot hand and let them go.”
On the depth at receiver, how even the snap distribution could be
“I think the first thing I’ll say is that the new season (with the expanded CFP Playoffs) which you’re anticipating playing, is a completely different animal. You got to play more guys, you gotta play guys to keep ’em healthy. Just 17 weeks is a lot of weeks to play football. So like I said from the beginning, our young guys— really good players. We feel great about them. Our guys that have been around the building, we’ve got a great unit like old and young that can all go sub in. We got multiple guys that are playing inside, outside, left side, right side. So with that we have a lot of depth that we can move guys around and get the right bodies in the right position. One for play specific stuff, but two when the inevitable football happens and someone has to step up, feel like we do have a good opportunity to maintain the level that we need to maintain.”
On if they script receiver substitutions before games
“It hasn’t been a thing we’ve done in the past. Doesn’t mean that we couldn’t. It’s mostly just being intentional about this series this guy’s going in. Like we’re getting guys out because one, to get the guy in that deserves to be on the field because he’s earned it and he’s played well in the offseason. And two for the guy that is in he needs to not take 95 snaps. He needs to come off and save his body as well. So like it’s the long game, right? It’s playing guys as much as you can so you can play them more because if you burn somebody out in eight weeks, man those last eight, nine weeks, there’s still a lot of football left and it’s the time of year where you got to go try to win some hardware.So it’s the long game. You could script it but it’s mostly just being intentional. Like this guy gets this many and then he’s out, this guy gets this many and he’s out and then the next one’s in and you rotate like that.”
On how he’s seen Nico Iamaleava grow in learning the system and tempo of Tennessee’s offense
“The kid grasps football is like the best thing to say. And I know it sounds like an obvious statement, but he understands what you’re trying to accomplish. He feels space, he feels timing, he understands what’s going on just innately the kid gets football and he studies really hard. Like his offseason preparation is really, really good. It’s older than he appears to be. Because of that I feel like he’s grasped it well. Like he goes out there, take the field, you don’t feel like you’ve got a freshman quarterback that’s never done it full-time before. You’re not pulling him back, you’re not holding him back from anything. You’re just letting the kid go play because that’s when he’s at his best when you just cut that guy loose and kind of enjoy watching.”
On his assessment of the offensive line, if the starters have worked together
“We have, yeah. I feel like the offensive line’s in a great spot. A lot of veteran guys on that line, which is the one thing you want when you are starting a young quarterback. For as much as Nico I do think is an elite player, which he is, he prepares well. He has that old soul that even keel. You got four dudes, five dudes that have played a lot of football in front of you. It’s a different animal. Like Coop’s gonna get you in the right check. Your guys aren’t gonna bust up front, put you in bad positions. So having those guys up front gelling as a unit and with all the experience they have, it does nothing but help our guy back there.”
