The college football season fully gets going on Saturday and Tennessee opens the season by hosting instate FCS foe Chattanooga at Neyland Stadium.
The Mocs are a preseason top 10 team in the FCS but it’s a whole different level of competition as they face a Tennessee team with College Football Playoff hopes.
Chattanooga head coach Rusty Wright met with the local media in Chattanooga earlier this week and discussed Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee’s defensive line and much more. Here’s everything Wright said.
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Opening statement
“Looking forward to a huge challenge. A great opportunity to start the season up in Knoxville. I know these guys are excited about it. Just ready to get going. I think we’ve had a good fall camp and are looking to just go watch our guys compete on Saturday in a great environment. We’ll see what happens.”
On playing a SEC team like Tennessee to open the season as opposed to the middle of the season
“I know they’re (UTC) is going to be excited to go play because sometimes when you play them late they may not be quite as excited. Look, we’re going to be in an adverse situation from the time the ball kicks off Saturday until the time it is over. It’s only going to help us. Somehow, someway it’s only going to help us. I’m going to find out about people that I may have questions about and I’m going to find out about guys and see what their fight is like, what those things are.
I told them today, it’s going to be adverse. You’re going to go up against guys bigger, stronger, faster than you and that’s not going to happen after this week— most of the time. We’re going to go out there and the playing field is going to be a lot more level so we have to find some things out about it. But I’d like to know about my team going into a year than waiting to find out at the end of the year, find out what people we have and who’s going to do the right things, for sure.
No offense, but I would much rather play these guys than someone I should go beat. What people think I should do as far as who we’re playing and those types of things. Id’ much rather have a much harder challenge than— these guys are excited about playing. Sometimes when you play people from lower levels and those kind of things, even at our level, if you play lower level teams they don’t take them as serious or do those things. I know my guys are excited about going to play. So I’ll find out some things about our football team. Especially this week and next week with the level of competition that we’ll play.”
On what he’s seen from Nico Iamaleava
“He’s talented. He’s talented. He can make all the throws and the scariest part is when he gets it in his hands and tucks it— it gets real interesting then. Just a very talented young man. I’m sure you’ll see a lot of growth from him from the bowl game— going through the bowl game then spring ball, then fall camp and having an opportunity to go play. I think that’s the thing. With his talent level, the sky is the limit at the end of the day because he can do everything that they’re trying to ask him to do in that offense. I think you’ll see him continuously get better especially as the season goes along and he gets more comfortable about everything.”
On it looking effortless when Nico Iamaleava runs
“I can promise you it looks real effortless. But that’s that SEC speed for you when it gets going. He made it look real effortless against Iowa a couple times and those are Big 10, corn fed boys. He’s a good a football player.”
On Tennessee DC Tim Banks saying the Vols have one of the best defensive lines in the country
“They have a couple (players) that are pretty special. They really do. A couple of ends that are really special. They’ve added some pieces to it over the deal in the transfer portal and those kind of things. They have an opportunity. They do. It’ll be all we want to handle and then some but without seeing a couple of them play and just knowing what they have— the one defensive end has a chance to be a top five draft pick. Something like that. He’s pretty special.”
On the biggest challenge of facing a FBS team
“You’re talking about athleticism and speed and those different things all play into it. I got asked yesterday about the athleticism or the depth and its athleticism. Because I can’t simulate that (in practice), as hard as we try and as adverse as we make it for our guys. It takes a couple of plays to get caught up to the speed of it. And then when you do, you have to play at that speed and handle that athleticism the whole time. That’s the biggest thing. Guys are guys, football is still football when you get out there and do it. You have to be in the right spots. They have to be in the right spots, they have to do the right things. We have to do the right things. But that’s what happens when you’re playing folks like this, especially one that’s progressively— you can see them progressively getting better since Josh (Heupel) has been there, being a good football team.”
On if tempo has become easier to defend against
“They’re snapping it about once every 20 seconds so they’re moving pretty quick. We’ve seen it but I don’t know if we’ve seen it quite as fast. At our level, we tend to not let it get started a lot of times which helps. They get it started and get going and it’s hard. We’re doing some things to try and help our guys out with that but no one has stopped them. They’ve stopped themselves, when you watch film, more than anything else. Which is the scary thing when it’s all set and done. We see it but we haven’t seen it— it’s fast but maybe not quite as fast as what they do. But it’s interesting because the center-judge (official) is backing out and they’re snapping the ball. Someone has to get set. I actually went back and watched two or three games yesterday to see the center-judge backing out to see how many penalties he threw because if he was really set during the course of the game. It wasn’t many. I don’t know how good that guy is backing out when he’s supposed to watch what he’s supposed to watch. That’s how fast it’s going at time.”
On if he took much from Austin Peay’s game at Tennessee last year
“I watched it. I’ve watched that, UConn, a couple more people a bit more similar to us and I’ve watched the Georgias and Alabamas and all that. Tennessee didn’t play well (against Austin Peay). The first drive I think they dropped three balls. Dead in their hands. Austin Peay did some things a little uncharacteristic early, schematically, and gave them some issues. But when they figured it out in the second half it was some unsound stuff. We’re not going to reinvent the wheel to go play. We have to go do what we do. We have to get better at some things no matter what happens Saturday. But, again, that was I don’t even remember where it was for them but probably weren’t too fired up about playing them. I don’t know who they had the next week (Florida) but that is a part of it too. They have 19, 20, 21-year old guys too.”
On if they try to simulate crowd noise at practice
“We played Rocky Top Sunday. We’ve played it at team deals. It’s loud. Hopefully it’s loud for the right reasons and not the wrong reasons. Hopefully they’re making noise so we can’t do anything because we’re playing well. It’s hard to simulate all that stuff when it’s all set and done. We’ve got some things to hopefully help ourselves with it. Alabama is loud too. Maybe not as loud as Neyland but it’s loud. They’re all loud just because of the sheer number of people.”
