Tennessee outside linebackers/special teams coach Mike Ekeler spoke to the media on Saturday morning in Knoxville as the Vols draw closer to the season-opening game on Sept. 2 in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium.
Ekeler is known as one of Tennessee’s best personalities with the media. Ekeler gives great details and delivers his comments with passion. Whether it was describing Peyton Manning’s emotions when the Vols lose a football game or his well-remembered “fart in a skillet” comment, Ekeler is certainly one of the coaches that fans and the media wait for during camp.
While speaking on Saturday, Ekeler talked about the mentality of the special team’s room and how the staff is using freshmen on the special teams unit to jumpstart their production and comfort on the field.
Ekeler also spoke about Tennessee punter Jackson Ross, return man Dee Williams, and much more.
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Check out everything that Ekeler said on Saturday morning below.
Special Teams Coordinator/Outside Linebackers Coach Mike Ekeler
On evaluating the special teams and kickoff units…
“We have some great competition right now. Special teams as a whole, this is year three. Our guys understand the techniques, they understand the teaching progression. So, where we are at is where we should be in year three, but it is an endless pursuit of perfection, and we are not there yet. We will never be there, but I love our group. We have great speed, we got guys that will put their damn face on you, (and) we got guys that understand the importance of it. The culture that (Coach Heupel) and everyone has created in this building, it has been phenomenal on teams, and we are only going to continue to be better. The standard, I have said it before, I’ll say it again, the standard is to be the damn best. We are never stopping. It’s always looking for things to tweak. The kickoff job, we got three guys that are neck and neck right now. You have Charles (Campbell), you have Max (Gilbert), and you have Josh Turbyville. Those guys all have really strong legs. We have great competition now, and it is not settled at this point.”
On the process of relaying the importance of special teams…
“It is pretty simple, it makes you a complete football player. If you have any aspiration of going on to the NFL, you might like to become a surgeon on special teams. Our guys understand that, and they see today, for example, we showed clips of (Princeton) Fant on kickoff return for the Cowboys. Yesterday, we were showing P-Fant on kickoff. We show those guys every single week. We showed them (Cedric) Tillman on punt return. Did those guys play that while they were here? No. But did they train, did they learn the skills, and they are transferable not only to their position, but to transition and get them prepared to play on Sunday? And let me tell you, we got guys fighting for damn spots on our teams.”
On the comfort level of Jackson Ross…
“Rossy is a special dude, and I think he is extremely comfortable. He works his tail off. The guy is a pro. The guy is a phenomenal athlete. This summer, he goes and runs (the 40-yard dash), we time him, (and) he is in the 4.5’s. I kid you not, I think he could be a starting wide receiver for us, he is that athletic. He might look like an accountant or something, but the guy is uber-athletic. He claims he has the third-strongest arm on this team behind Joe (Milton III) and Nico (Iamaleava). For me, the guy who signs my paychecks, I am going to say the fourth behind Heup, also. So, he is pretty special. He has a great disposition, but he has a pro mentality, and he was. You have to remember, he was a pro (in) Australian rules football for three years, so he has that type of mentality. I absolutely love the guy.”
On what he sees in Dee Williams…
“He is confident. He understands his role. He is going to have the opportunity to be the best return guy in the country. He has earned that, and he has the instincts, he has the ability, and it’s like an offense. When you have a great running back, your offensive line blocks a little bit harder. They know all they have to do is just give you a crease, and that’s what those guys understand on our return units. All they have to do is just get it started and he will do the rest. The guy is a real one. But we have a bunch of them too now. Squirrel White, he is real. Cam Seldon, he is real. [Dylan] Sampson, he is real. We have a bunch of those guys, which we should.”
On how close they are to deciding kickoff returners and the influx of athletic freshmen coming in…
“Kickoff return first, we got about four or five guys who are working on returner and off returner in that role. We feel good about that. We got Dee (Williams), we got Cam (Seldon), we got Dylan Sampson, we got Will Wright back there working, we got some guys that we feel confident with. From the freshmen standpoint, one of the really cool things if you look back since the time we got here, we’ve taken freshmen and we’ve put them out there. We played them on special teams from the jump and developed them and got them game reps right there, got them acclimated. So, when they go in on offense, they go in on defense, they are like, ‘hey, no big deal’. They are already ready to rock and roll. That’s kind of how we look at it as a staff from a special teams standpoint, we develop those guys there. To answer your question, we got a bunch of them. We got a bunch of true freshmen, a bunch of those DBs, receivers, Ethan Davis tight end. You got John Slaughter, you got (Rickey) Gibson, you got (Jordan) Matthews, you got (Cristian) Conyer, we got some guys who are doing some great things. Caleb Herring is out there rocking and rolling on a couple of units. It’s really cool. Love our freshmen, love their mentality. They love the game and they’re only going to get better.”
On if they can prepare with the special teams unit for the new playing turf at Nissan Stadium…
“You know what, I’ll be honest with you I didn’t even know there was a new surface. I don’t worry about that. I know we’re going to roll the ball out there, it’s going to be 100 yards. I don’t care if it’s turf, I don’t care if it’s grass, I don’t care if it’s dirt. We’ll be fine.”
On if it’s an easy sell to get freshmen to play on special teams at the start…
“I’ll go back to three years here. Our best players sit in the front of the meetings on special teams. They may not all play on special teams because they don’t come off the field on offense or defense, but those guys are knee deep in it. When these freshmen come in, who do they look up to? They look up to those guys, our team leaders. Our team leaders are the ones – freaking Bru (McCoy) is in there busting his tail – all these guys are out there. I don’t have to say a word, those guys set the tone. It’s the way it should be. You walk in that meeting room, it’s like a dang cult man. I say one word, and 85 guys in unison will finish it for me. That’s how we train them. They get in there, they feel it. It’s pretty cool. I enjoy it.”
*Transcript via Tennessee Athletics*
