University of Tennessee Athletics
Butch Jones Transcript (10/7/14)
October 07, 2014 | Football
(Opening Statement)
"I thought a very productive start to the week. It is great to see Zach Fulton out here, last week we had Ja'Wuan James. I think it speaks volumes for Knoxville, the University of Tennessee and our football program when these individuals in the National Football League have a week off for a bye week and they chose to come spend it with us. Very proud of these young men and to have them back, obviously, Ja'Wuan last week and now Zach here this week, really excited for them. I will just answer any questions that you may have."
(On Marlin Lane not at practice)
"He has had an ankle injury. We fully anticipate him being back for the game. Rolled it in the game and he will practice tomorrow. So all precautionary. He had practiced, practice, treatment, in and out."
(On Jordan Williams)
"Very valuable. He has really taken on a leadership role. We thought he performed, had his best game of his career Saturday. He is playing with a lot of confidence right now. And you play with a lot of toughness. And you are exactly right, we kept battling through it, he did a great job with rehab and he came out today and was 100 percent and really gave great effort, had a mentality to go back to work today."
(On Trevarris Saulsberry)
"He played 37 reps and really gave us some valuable reps at the one-technique and we are going to need that because Owen Williams is out this week. He had surgery on his thumb so he will miss this week. So having Trevarris back is a huge benefit and bonus for us."
(On if there is lack of confidence on the offensive line)
"Don't need to, if you are a competitor and you believe in what you are doing. I think when they say `lack of confidence' I think that is an excuse. If you are competitor and you work exceptionally hard you build confidence in your body of work throughout the course of the week doing everything necessary to play winning football. When somebody says a lack of confidence, I think that is an excuse. These players have great confidence, they demand from themselves, they expect to do well. It is a work in progress and I liked the way they came out with the mentality, again it is that appetite for winning. What is our appetite for winning as a football team, every position, every individual in this football program."
(On Owen Williams' timetable to return)
"Yeah, it could be a week to two weeks. We will see how he progresses. We will go through this week, cut the cast off, and we will see how he is doing."
(On Evan Berry getting reps at running back)
"Yeah, just experimentation. He had all the reps at defense but every chance we had with individual periods and after practice. Again trying to find a spot for him to utilize his speed."
(On Derrell Scott)
"Really liked his approach. His approach to practice, he adds another level of quickness and speed to our backfield. Again, I liked the progression that he is going through right now. Again, he is an individual who has missed some valuable reps throughout the course of time. To have him back right now healthy will be a bonus and add another dimension to our offense."
(On Derrell Scott's running style)
"He is very quick, he is very elusive, he is a downhill runner, very, very quick with the ball in his hands. Makes quick decisions, can make you miss and has good burst and acceleration."
(On seeing the youthness in development)
"I do and it depends on your opponent, it is all relative. Again, these are 17, 18, 19 year old individuals who haven't had the luxury of going through the development phase of a college strength and conditioning program. But that where we are at in our program, as you hear me say, it is what it is. But you see it, that is why we have been very, very diligent in the weight wrong, that is why we have been very demanding in the weight room, that is why I have been proud of these individuals. They understand it. They get done with the full day of academics, a full practice load, and they are the first ones in the weight room working on their strength levels. They take a great pride in that, we have a long ways to go with that but they are very, very determined to continue to improve their strength levels throughout the course of the season."
(On depth)
"We just need depth. Were it really, really kind of manifests is throughout the course of a long season is the volume of repetitions on game day. We still have individuals having 75, 80, 85 reps and over the period of time in a long season, a grind of an SEC season, that takes its toll on a football team. When an individual gets 30, 35, 40 reps he stays fresher. We have had that luxury with Curt Maggitt, Curt Maggitt I believe played 35 or 36 snaps on Saturday and he was in the weight room yesterday and he says `Coach, this is the freshest and best I have felt since my time here,' in week five. And again that is a by product and it is all relative to the repetitions that he has on game day. That is how you get stronger but with individuals, your body, it is nature, it is a wearing out process. That is why the rest, the recovery is very, very big. You look at the programs that win consistently, you look at the volume of repetitions, when you have that depth, you are able to do that."
(On Curt Maggitt's freshness)
"I do. I think he is rested, I think he is fresh, he has fresh legs and it shows on game day."
(On Justin Worley's performance in the red zone)
"There hasn't been a common theme, the one is just an overall decision process, is making good decisions with the football. Managing the football game it is first-and-ten, we expect that from a senior quarterback, throw the ball away, as we say, `put it on the shelf, play second-and-ten' that is football. A quarterback is in charge of that football and that football holds all your dreams, goals and aspirations. He understands that, throw the ball away. Some of it is decision making process, some of it is other individuals around him. We have to start doing a better job of making plays on the perimeter. When the ball is in the air we have to own the ball in the air. It is not having negative yardage plays in the red zone. The one time we have a screen play, he is supposed to take a three step drop, he thinks we have out leveraged the defense, he doesn't take his three-step drop, the end, now it folds, when we should have been throwing, the jailbreak to the field it is a walking touchdown. So all those things, playing quarterback is the most difficult position job that there is in all of sport. You have 2 to 2.8 seconds to make a split-second decision, your fundamentals, your mechanics, take care of the football and everyone running at you trying to tackle you. That is why it is a difficult job but for the most part he has done a good job of really limiting the mistakes but in the red zone everything is magnified. The speed aspect of it, the field shrinks and then again we have to go back to winning the red zone."
(On Justin Worley)
"The great players demand more from themselves than any coach can ever demand. If I have to go to him and demand more of him and it is more important to me than it is to him then we have the wrong guy. That is not the case. It means everything to him, he internalizes everything, he replays every play in his mind from practice and in the game. That is really the storyline of most of these individuals on this football team, they live this game. That is what we talk about, `live it, love it, like it.' You need to live it in our program each and every day. Justin is one of those individuals that takes great pride in his performance."
(On Cameron Sutton)
"He is playing with a lot of confidence right now. He has really improved his technique, his man coverage skills. We talk about as a defensive back, the ability to find the blind spot, find the ball in the blind spot, he can turn, he can locate the ball, he can high point the ball and he is extremely, extremely competitive. He is as hard a worker as we have in practice."
(On Michael Williams)
"Mike was back out there, full practice, again competing. Same thing with Jalen, he had limited contact but we do that with all of our running backs just because of the volume of hits that they take. But again they practiced and it was business as usual."
(On Pig Howard)
"Alton made some good catches for us but where Alton needs to take monumental strides in moving forward is his overall consistency. Everyone just looks at stats and he had some great plays but also the end of the game, we needed him to stick the nickel, push, stick and take the middle of the field because the middle of the field was wide open. That is the thing, as the quarterback, praise and blame it is all the same, when a quarterback throws an interception all eyes are on him and sometimes it is the receivers painting the picture for the quarterback, our protection or running backs or tight ends. Alton made some great plays for us but we need overall consistency in his play from route running from rep one to all the way to the end of the game."
(On Josh Smith)
"He will not play this week, no."
