Tennessee running backs coach De’Rail Sims met with the media on Tuesday morning ahead of the Vols’ showdown against rival Florida on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium.
Ahead of the matchup, Sims discussed issues running backs have had in pass protection, Dylan Sampson continuing his great start to the season and much more. Here’s everything Sims said.
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“They’ve been in the right frame of mind. They came out yesterday, did a phenomenal job in the meetings. Came out today, did a really good job in practice, attacking, practice. So it’s been really good from the mindset standpoint and the energy and the sense of urgency too.”
On the focal point with Tennessee’s running backs right now, where they are in pass protection at this point
“Number one, fundamentals. Number one is eye placement, number two two, hand placement. Making sure we taking the proper angles when it comes to that. And then at the end of day, just being able to finish. That’s the number one deal. I think we’ve done a good job of identifying who we got. We just got to do a really good job of finishing. I’m just going to continue to work on the fundamentals. That’s the main piece.”
On Dylan Sampson saying Tennessee players were lackadaisical last week, the kind of leader he is on the team
“I think Dylan does a really good job of just leading. And he’s always going to do a really good job of making sure that he’s hard on himself. I think that’s the number one deal. So anytime he speaks on things, I think he’s looking at himself number one and making sure he’s doing everything that he can do because he wants to lead by his actions. So I think number one, he takes upon himself to be the leader of our room. He takes upon himself to be the leader of his team and continue to push and drive. So from that standpoint, I think he’s always looking at himself internally, always trying to figure out ways that he can continue to improve and continue to get better as well.”
On Tennessee’s offense struggling to create explosive plays, Dylan Sampson being able to make some
“I think that number one is he’s just doing his job. He’s trusting his read, he’s trusting the offensive line and then when the big plays is got to be made, he’s allowing himself to be able to go do that. I think you see that in terms of him being comfortable in the offense, him being comfortable with the offensive line and then seeing the plays as just getting ready to develop and then giving himself a chance. Once he gets into the third level, it’s on him from that standpoint. So he’s done a phenomenal job.”
On what he saw from Dylan Sampson early in the second half at Arkansas, trying to turn that game around
“He has showed that every day. And he showed in that situation too. He just continued to get stronger as the game goes along and he did a phenomenal job in terms of jump starting the offense in the second half. So that’s him in a nutshell, in terms of what he wants to do. He wants to lead by example and then he wants to be the spark plug that gets the offense story as well. He did a phenomenal job in that.”
On Florida not being able to stop the run earlier this season, but having success with its run defense against UCF Saturday night
“I think the big deal is you look at them up front. I think they’re doing a really good job playing up front and doing a really good job at the second level with the linebackers being connected together. I think you can tell how hard they want to play. Like they’re doing a really good job of getting on and getting off blocks from that standpoint up front. And I think you see they linebackers are fitting downhill. And then they’re getting the secondary support as well with the safeties being able to fit the run up as well. So I think you see them continue to get better as the season goes along from game one to where they are right now. So I think the number one deal is us collectively doing a really good job of understanding what our roles got to be and tell them how we want to tackle them in the right game, and that they do a really good job from that standpoint.”
On what the difference was in the first two Tennessee drives in the second half at Arkansas
“To be honest with you, I think that collectively we just did a really good job of settling in. We got our adjustments that we needed to make at halftime, which is really good, and I think we just came out collectively, just everybody was settled, everybody was executing at a high level and then that you saw it. From an execution standpoint. As long as we’re all on the money, that’s when the big plays are coming. And really the big plays come because of the execution. Because we’re just doing our routine plays now. We doing them at a really, really good clip and then boom, there’s an explosive play that happens.”
On how Cam Seldon and Peyton Lewis progressing, pushing them when they’re not getting opportunities on game day
“They’re doing a good job of continuing to come along and keep developing. I think the number one deal is, you look at the game on Saturday, you only touched the ball maybe four times in that first half and then the game is the way that it is in the second half. So it’s hard to really get a chance to rotate guys in the way that you want to. But they’ve done a good job attacking it in terms of coming in to meeting room, coming in practice, always staying ready because you never know when your number is called. So they’ve done a really good job of being positive from that standpoint.”
On Dylan Sampson’s ability to create yards after contact
“I think it’s the want-to factor. I think it’s all about him understanding. We talk about it as a program, being ‘pad plus two’ in everything that we do and he’s living by that example. And he’s doing a really good job in terms of, okay, if nothing is there, let me drive forward and let me get two yards. And then at the end of the play we talk about finishing all the time because you’re getting judged on how many yards that you’re gaining off the contact, whether that’s me having to run through a defender or me making a defender miss. And I think it’s the want-to factor of it that hey, I’m going to drain this and for every single yard that I can get and put us in a critical situation offensively, to where we’re in a manageable down and distance. So I think that portion of it is just a want-to factor for him.”
On if it helps that Tennessee has a rivalry game with Florida on the heels of the Arkansas loss, being able to put that game away more quickly
“Yeah, I think in the mindset you kind of got to look at it as a situation in life, too. Sometimes you’re going to have off days. We talk about it in our room every day that we have off days, we don’t have bad days. Bad days is people that got stage four cancer that’s in that fight for their life. We got an off day, okay? So now you got an off day, what are you going to do the next day to make it better? The number one deal is let’s do a phenomenal job of learning from that situation that we just went through. So now understanding, flush it, let’s go on to the next page and now let’s get ready to go attack this next week. So I think we done a really good job from that standpoint.”
On the progress of DeSean Bishop at this point
“Man, I like where DeSean is at right now because he does a phenomenal job in terms of learning from his experiences. The one situation there in the pass pro (at Arkansas), he goes inside to try to cut a defender. You can’t cut guys that aren’t rushing hard. So the main teaching point is that just make sure you do a really good job of staying up. But I know where he’s at right now in terms of his mentality. I think you see him each week continue to get better and better and better and that’s what you want to see happen. And his mindset hasn’t changed whatsoever in terms of the way he prepares, the way he goes out here and attacks practice. And he’s done a really good job.”
