KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – With a road battle on the horizon and a fresh AP Poll signaling a matchup between ranked foes, the 24th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers completed their Tuesday practice at Haslam Field in preparation for No. 17 Pitt. A pair of coaches took the podium following practice in defense coordinator Tim Banks and quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle.
Halzle had lots of praise for redshirt-senior quarterback Hendon Hooker in both his understanding of the system and his ability to read keys and execute when the lights shine brightest.
“He’s at the point right now the way he’s playing, you got an open book with him, you feel comfortable. He’ll operate anything you put him out there (in),” Halzle said. “We have that kind of bond and rapport now where we can call anything. He trusts us that what we’re putting in the game makes sense and then if it doesn’t work for either one, we can pull it, which makes it on our end a lot easier to game plan on the front end.”
Ball State was a building block, a litmus test of sorts, with the defensive game plan on dropping eight and forcing the Big Orange to find the holes and take advantage. As the 59 points showcase, that test was passed with flying colors.
“Whenever people are playing the drop eight stuff, it’s a good lesson in having to shop windows, to work bodies, there’s just bodies everywhere,” Halzle continued. “You got to feel space, that’s what we’re all based on is feeling space anyway. It’s a good thing for him (Hooker) to see that early in the year because someone else is going to try it at some point … You can’t get bored with your team’s success. You got to keep taking what’s there and keep pushing it aggressively down the field.”
The defense also displayed its prowess, not allowing a Cardinal score until the middle of the third quarter. That development and growth was something coach Banks mentioned all of fall camp, but his side is still evolving, even after a strong start.
“We showed some flashes in terms of what we want to be and what we’re capable of being,” Banks said. “(Ball State) did a good of getting rid of the ball quickly, but when (the quarterback) held it, I thought we applied some pressure. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. But I thought for the most part, those guys did a good job of executing what we asked them to execute.”
The lopsided score line also allowed some younger guys to see meaningful action and that experience may hold great value for the Vols as the year progresses and the defensive snap counts climb.
“We tried to rotate guys early, not just at the end of the game,” Banks added. “Particularly on the back end, that has not necessarily been a thing that we did in the past. You saw Wesley Walker out there a ton, and we obviously played a ton of corners. We tried to get guys up front in terms of the rotation, as well, early. We felt like we got guys in the game early enough that they felt like there were some real meaningful minutes they were contributing to.”
The Vols will return to the practice field tomorrow as preparations for the Panthers continue.
Full transcripts from both coaches, along with quotes from DL/LB Tyler Baron, DB Jaylen McCollough and OL Cooper Mays can be found below.
Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks
On how the defensive line played Thursday night…
“For the most part, we showed some flashes in terms of what we want to be and what we’re capable of being. Those guys (Ball State) did a good of getting rid of the ball quickly, but when (the quarterback) held it, I thought we applied some pressure. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. But I thought for the most part, those guys did a good job of executing what we asked them to execute. To answer your question, I felt fine coming out of the game in terms of what was out there and the opportunities we had.”
On tweaking the defensive scheme against Pitt…
“In reality, we obviously want to sack them. We want to get as many takeaways as we can. But I think the most important thing is to win. At the end of the day, we felt like we had enough mechanisms in our toolbox to be able to get the win, and obviously, that’s what we did.”
On what Tennessee can expect from the Pitt offense…
“They’re an experienced group up front. They’re big. A lot of guys have played a lot of football. They do a good job of putting four hands on guys and moving guys off their spot. 77 (Carter Warren), the left tackle, is extremely athletic and has done a really good job in the past of protecting the quarterback. We have a lot of respect for those guys up front and their program as a whole, so we know we’ll have our hands full.”
On Tamarion McDonald’s performance on Thursday…
“I thought he did a good job. For the most part, he was very consistent with what we asked him to do. From man coverage, he graded out somewhere around 80 percent. In zone principles, his eyes were in the right places – getting the interception early – I thought he did a really good job considering that was only the second start of his whole career. We’re pleased so far with what he’s brought to the table.”
On how Kamal Hadden has grown and how he played on Thursday…
“I think Kamal is really coming along. He’s a kid that hasn’t played a ton of football – obviously (played) at the junior college and he was banged up a little bit last year – but we like the direction that he’s headed. He’s maturing, understanding the whole complexity of our defense and where he needs to be. He’s always been a tremendous athlete. Now, it’s just understanding the finer details. He’s worked really, really hard for that during the offseason, and you guys started to see a little bit of a glimpse of that Thursday night.”
On if they were able to play more bodies Thursday…
“We tried to rotate guys early, not just at the end of the game. Particularly on the back end, that has not necessarily been a thing that we did in the past. You saw Wesley Walker out there a ton, and we obviously played a ton of corners. We tried to get guys up front in terms of the rotation as well early. Even the linebacker position where we’re a little bit limited going into the game. We felt good. We felt like we got guys in the game early enough that they felt like there were some real meaningful minutes they were contributing to.”
On Warren Burrell and Christian Charles…
“With Charles, you could see that was his first time out on an island. Once he started to settle down within the game, I thought he started to play better. He’s a tremendous athlete as we’ve already documented, but playing corner is new for him. He’s getting better. By the end of the game, I thought he was really comfortable with what we were asking him to do. It was a little bit uneventful for Burrell. He did exactly what he needed to do. (Ball State) only challenged him a few times, and he was up for the challenge most of those reps. We feel like Burrell had a really good camp, we thought he did his job Thursday night, and he’ll obviously have even bigger shoes to fill, or to play at, going into this next venue. I know he’s excited about the challenge, and so are we.”
On Elijah Herring and Joshua Josephs…
“They look like freshmen, but they’re uber-talented, very athletic. Joshua Josephs is a kid that’s long, athletic and probably plays a little bit bigger than what his actual size is. I thought he did some good things, but when they’re freshman, there’s going to be some things that we have to correct. Only experience can teach them, so to speak. I thought being able to get those guys some first-game reps will only bode well for us moving forward.”
On Aaron Beasley’s growth…
“Obviously, we didn’t know a lot about (Aaron) Beasley last year, and he ended up starting a bunch of games for us and had a tremendous spring. He was good. He’s always very consistent. We know exactly what we’re going to get out of him. He doesn’t say a whole bunch, but at the end of the day, I know guys on our defense respect him, his work ethic and how consistent he is day-in and day-out. I thought he did a good job of flying around, hitting the ball and being active in coverage. He affected the quarterback on the very first play that led to an interception. He’s a guy that we know we can count on. We are happy we have him.”
On how Elijah Herring and Joshua Josephs earned early playing time…
“I think with (Elijah) Herring, he made tremendous strides coming out of spring. He’s a big kid, strong and physical. He’s still learning the nuances of playing inside linebacker, but he worked hard enough and showed enough consistency in practice where we felt like we needed to carve out a role for him. We don’t see that changing as we continue to move forward. (Joshua) Josephs is a kid that plays a little bit bigger than what his actual size is. He’s uber-long. He has some explosive qualities. Again, the consistency. The stage has not seemed too big for those guys during practice. As we continue to go throughout the season, we think being able to plays those guys early and getting them more reps will only help us coming down the stretch of the season.”
On tackling and physicality…
“I think the physicality was good. I didn’t have a problem with how physical we tried to play. We are never as happy as we want to be after a game. Did we tackle at 100 percent? No, so we’re disappointed that way. Did we tackle well enough to win? I think so. We didn’t look out there and say, ‘We are a bad tackling team,’ coming out of the first game. To think that we have arrived, I would not say that either. I think the more you play and tackle the better we’ll get, and I don’t think we’re any different. We’ll continue to get better at tackling, but I was not disappointed coming out of the game in terms of our tackling.”
On third down defense…
“The numbers said we graded out on third down. There are some things we want to do better in terms of how we affect the quarterback, whether it’s pressure or rotation in the coverage packages. Overall, I thought we did well enough to win.”
On Pittsburgh having a new offensive coordinator and quarterback…
“They do have a new offensive coordinator. That’s always a little bit tricky, because you’re studying another opponent to get ready for them and you watch the one-game sample. We talk about it all the time, you always expect the unexpected. We have to lean on our training. I think Coach Narduzzi has been there long enough where those guys have a culture. I think they have some core values that they believe in, and I don’t think this offensive coordinator will deviate away from that. These guys want to be able to run the football, protect the quarterback and throw the ball down the field. We’re excited about the opportunity. We have a tremendous amount of respect for their program. We’re excited to get down there and get to it.”
Quarterback’s Coach Joey Halzle
On Hendon Hooker’s growth since the Pitt game last year…
“Similar to what we talked about at the beginning of fall camp, Hendon is a completely different guy. His confidence, his fundamentals, his development since that point, he’s a completely different quarterback. From mental side, physical side, the entire aspect of playing the position, and that’s why you’ve seen the success and the growth kind of using that game as a jumping up point from last year.”
On his assessment of Joe Milton III’s performance vs. Ball State…
“He played extremely well. Hate to use the word flawless but he played at an extremely high level out there. It gave us a bunch of confidence. Today, with the transfer portal and all that, it’s hard to have two high-level quarterbacks and Joe showed us that we have two very good options at quarterback, and we have a ton of confidence playing him.”
On what impresses him most about Pitt’s defense…
“Extremely aggressive in the way that they play. They’re sound. They play within their scheme at a very high level, but within that they play extremely aggressively every single snap and extremely physical. You’re going to have to show up and take everything that you get with this one.”
On how much more they can do offensively this year due to Hendon Hooker’s understanding of the system…
“Yeah, with Hendon, he’s at the point right now the way he’s playing, you got an open book with him, you feel comfortable. He’ll operate anything you put him out there (in), and the other thing is what we’ve talked about on his confidence side of it – he will now let us know, if he’s like ‘hey, I’m not comfortable with that, I don’t like that’ – and we know if he’s saying that, it’s gone. He’s not just saying it because he’s uncomfortable or he’s worried about it. He’s like, ‘nah, I don’t like this, it doesn’t fit. I don’t like how it’s timing up.’ Cool, it’s out. So, we have that kind of bond and rapport now where we can call anything. He trusts us that what we’re putting in the game makes sense and then if it doesn’t work for either one, we can pull it, which makes it on our end a lot easier to game plan on the front end.”
On Hooker having to come in last year’s game off the bench and how the play calling changed…
“The conversation with him was just like, ‘hey man, you know whenever you’re the backup quarterback, I experienced the same thing, you’re always one play away. We knew this was a chance, here’s what we’re doing, here’s what we’re seeing, go take it.’ We didn’t have a separate game plan between him and Joe (Milton). We had what we had, and we called it, and were basing on the looks we were seeing. That part, there wasn’t much of a difference, and it was just really the conversation, you can’t make it too big of a deal. This is always an opportunity in football that this could happen. Here it happened and go play.”
On Hendon Hooker’s rhythm in the season opener being a little off…
“I’m guessing you’re talking about the couple of high balls that he went early? It was just a couple of mechanical things. His base got wide and he caught his toe cleat a couple of times and sailed it. Usually stems from the first game of the season, trying to play maybe a little too fast. Try to get the ball out on the edge, right now. Calm it down and we actually worked on it during the couple off days and then he’s out there on the field today and he was ripping it all over the field. It wasn’t uncommon, it was just something that we had to see, correct and move on.”
On the importance of the run game when going against a physical and aggressive defense like Pitt…
“The way they’re designed is they’re designed to stop the run. That’s what they pride themselves on. With everything you do running the ball against them, they try to make it tough sledding. You can’t turn it into an air raid game and just drop back and throw it 50 times. But they are going to put everybody in the box and try to stuff the run game and force you to do it. So, we have to have a good scheme, and then really just, you’ve got to move bodies up front. It is what it is. It’s still what this game comes down to is blocking and tackling. (If) we do that at a high level, we should be successful.”
On the mindset of being the backup quarterback…
“It’s a tough spot to be in because you have to prepare as the starter with a quarter of the reps that the starter is getting, as it should be. He’s the one that’s taking the field, he’s got to get the most. He’s (Joe Milton III) done a really good job of making sure that he is mentally focused every single time we take the field. He goes through his calls, he makes every call even when he is not in the game, so he’s really embraced that, OK, I understand because it happened to him the other way of how quickly this can switch, so he is always ready to go. That’s why I said on the front end, we feel confident rolling him. We do not have a separate (game plan), if Joe’s in, it’s this, if Hendon’s in, it’s this. If for whatever reason he’s in there, you’re calling it and you’re rolling. And that’s what he’s earned in the way he has prepared.”
On his assessment of the other quarterbacks that played Thursday night…
“With the young guy Tayven (Jackson) going in there, the main thing is it’s tough going in there in that situation. Just trying to operate under the lights, you want to call everything the correct way, stay in your reads the correct way, and there’s always the freshman hiccups which are in there. What I like about Tayven is that his best practices in fall camp were in Neyland Stadium. He went out there and the moment wasn’t too big for him. He’s the gamer, that’s the type of guy he is, that’s what I liked about him in the recruiting process. You saw that on Thursday night as well. Gaston (Moore) and Navy (Shuler) went in (and) we had the fumbled exchange with Navy in there on the snap, but we saw what it was, corrected that. All those guys had a great camp. The guys that were here had a great spring and we trusted them to go play. It wasn’t just like throwing a dog a bone. We trusted those guys to go play because they know our offense, they’re dialed into what we’re doing, and they went in and played pretty well.”
On how comfortable it is to have Joe Milton III and Hendon Hooker and their good dynamic…
“It’s extremely comfortable. Joe and Hendon are really good friends, like legitimately off the field extremely close friends. They’re happy for each other when they’re doing well. You don’t have Joe in there saying, ‘ah man, I would’ve made that throw.’ If you don’t have Hendon in there when Joe does something well saying like, ‘ ah man, I hope they don’t (play him more).’ There’s none of that. Hendon is our starting quarterback. He’s our guy right now. Joe is extremely happy for all the success that he has and whenever Joe is in the game, Hendon is extremely happy for all the success that Joe has. And that is a culture that coach Heupel has tried to cultivate from the day we got there in the entire locker room, and it’s absolutely permeated down into the quarterback room, as well.”
On Ball State sitting back and not allowing Tennessee to score quickly…
“Whenever people are playing the drop eight stuff, it’s a good lesson in having to shop windows, to work bodies, there’s just bodies everywhere. You got to feel space, that’s what we’re all based on is feeling space anyway. So, it’s a good thing for him (Hendon Hooker) to see that early in the year because someone else is going to try it at some point – don’t know who it’s going to be but it’s going to show up again. With that said, we’re still going to attack, we’re still going to dictate the way the game is played on our side of the ball, regardless of the style of the defense. They were playing soft, it’s like cool, we’re not going to do anything that’s foolish and just try to launch it down the middle of the field. They were giving us the short stuff and we were taking that thing all night. Whenever they’re giving it to you, you just keep taking it and move on down the road. Eventually, you get somebody in a 1-on-1 situation like what happened in the fourth quarter, and we hit Jimmy (Holiday) on the dig rolling in there and he’s goes and gets off the field. You still have all the same opportunities, it’s just him understanding the type of game it’s going to be. You can’t get bored with your team’s success. You got to keep taking what’s there and keep pushing it aggressively down the field.”
On if the game plans are any different for Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton III…
“Not really. We’re rolling out there with what we’ve got. We are really confident in the plan, and it stems back from the first question about what you have with him (Hendon Hooker)? We’re wide open with him, and we feel like Joe (Milton III) can operate in the same way, so we’re not having to say, ‘this guy can do this, but he can’t do that, so if he’s in we can’t call this but if this guy’s in, we can call this.’ There’s none of that going on. We’re calling it and we’re playing it because we have confidence in both those guys to take over.”
Senior DB Jaylen McCollough
On facing Pittsburgh’s new quarterback Kedon Slovis…
“Both of those guys, (Kenny) Pickett and (Kedon) Slovis, are great pocket passers and they like to put the ball on their receivers and let them run. As far as the safety position, we are going to have to have great eye discipline looking at our keys and just trusting what we say. I would say our eye discipline will have to be on point.”
On what to expect against Pittsburgh…
“We know that they will try to attack in some of the ways that they were successful with last year. We come to work every day and trust our preparation and what the coaches are telling us. We will go in and be ready to play. They will have some wrinkles, and so will we, but we will be ready to play.”
On Kamal Hadden and Tamarion McDonald’s success against Ball State…
“Those two guys work hard. They are always in practice making those plays, so when they came into the game, it was not a surprise. I was proud of those guys and the way they executed. They took advantage of the opportunity when it came.”
Junior DL/OLB Tyler Baron
On Ball State getting the ball out quickly to eliminate Tennessee’s pass rush…
“It’s tedious going against a team that has a scheme trying to get the ball out and run a lot of screens. We have to keep rushing. The breaks are going to come sooner or later, so we need to keep doing our thing and keep working on ourselves.”
On the defensive line’s ability to fight off cut blocks…
“We definitely have to be a lot better at handling cut blocks. Just being able to ricochet and getting back down the line to make plays on the sidelines. We need to take a step there, but it’s a tough deal so we just have to keep working on that.”
On Pitt having lots of senior experience and team chemistry…
“Just like us, they are a very experienced group. They are really well coached and play very physical. They are going to do a lot of different things, such as bring an extra tackle or two into the game. We are going to have to line down and play physical. We will have to play vertical and not as much east and west.”
Junior OL Cooper Mays
On Pittsburgh’s defensive front…
“I am really impressed on where they are at. We kind of expected that they create disruption. That is their biggest thing. They have got a lot of guys that maybe aren’t as big as we are used to but they are difference makers. They create a lot of chaos in the backfield and try to get up field vertically and kind of take your space. They are really athletic and make plays with their athleticism and that is what gives people struggles.”
On how motivated he is this for this year’s matchup after missing last season’s Pitt game with an injury…
“I am really excited. It is going to be really good test for us. Like I said, they are a pretty athletic group and I kind of pride myself on being pretty athletic too. So, I am excited to see the challenge. They have a lot of good guys.”
On finding comfort when playing on the road…
“I’m very prepared. I finished out the year with a lot of away games last year in some pretty big environments. I played against Florida, Alabama and Kentucky on the road, and some pretty hard games. I think we are prepared.”
-UT Athletics
