University of Tennessee Athletics
TaxSlayer Bowl Teleconference Transcript
December 07, 2014 | Football
Head Coach Butch Jones
(Opening Statement)
"I would like to thank Rick Catlett and the entire TaxSlayer Bowl committee for giving us this tremendous opportunity to compete in such a great bowl game and great bowl experience. This will mark our program's 50th bowl appearance and I think it is very fitting that it occurs in this great bowl game. So I would like to say thank you on behalf of our alumni, all of our student-athletes, all of Vol Nation, our athletic administration for making our night, our holidays and I look forward to getting down to Jacksonville."
(On the bowl announcement and the team's reaction)
"We found out right around 5:30, Dave Hart informed myself that we would be in the 70th Annual TaxSlayer Bowl. Obviously we were very, very excited. We had just had a bowl practice, our players had left the building and I called an emergency team meeting and the players came back in. It was just very, very fitting to have the opportunity to tell them of what a great opportunity that they would have. I think it is very fitting for our seniors and everything they have been through in our football program, to be playing in such a historic bowl game as this. So they are appreciative for everyone but it was a great, great day for us."
(On the significance of playing a game in a highly recruited stated)
"It is. It is of great significance. Right now on our active roster we have 13 players from the state of Florida. Florida is a big recruiting area for us. I think just the overall ability to be playing in a January bowl game, a bowl game that has such great tradition and notoriety as the TaxSlayer Bowl. There are so many benefits that comes with it. It is a big recruiting area for us. I think this just provides more momentum for us in the building of our program and also in our recruiting efforts as well."
(On preparing for a team for a bowl game)
"Right now it is also challenging, just like Coach Ferentz, we are in the middle of recruiting. But we will go to work when our coaching staff gets off the road in terms of recruiting. Iowa has been a program that I have followed closely for many years. Really, really respect the job that Coach has done. He has been very consistent. They are one of the programs that we model our football program after here at Tennessee in terms of toughness and a mentality which they have in their football program. Iowa is a program that I have watched from afar, I watched them over a number of years having been at Central Michigan and Cincinnati. I have tremendous respect and it is going to take a great effort on our part."
Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Dave Hart
(On his experience at the TaxSlayer Bowl and what he will tell the team)
"Expect a first class experience without a doubt, the people, the events, the stage, the setting. It is a first class experience in every way."
(On the new bowl assignment process in the SEC)
"The process is certainly complex and it is new. I have to give all the credit in the world to the job that our conference did, for our commissioner Mike Slive through Mark Womack and Larry Templeton who were heavily involved in the process. They had a tough job to do and they did it extremely well."
TaxSlayer Bowl President and CEO Rick Catlett
(On the bowl selection process and picking Tennessee)
"Dave [Hart] and I are very good friends and have been for a very long time and we had been talking for several weeks now about the possibility of making this happen. Again, kudos to the new system and the way Commissioner Slive and his staff handled the process.
"I would also add that dealing with the Big 10 and Gary [Barta], we have been having the same kind of conversations the last several weeks. I thought Commissioner and Mark Rudner and his group at the Big 10 also handled it very well.
"As most of you on the call know we had a choice of going ACC or Big 10. I think we locked into Iowa. I laughed with Gary, on September 1st, they said who is going to play your bowl game? And I said, `Iowa'.
(On his expectations for fan base attendance)
"Traditionally we have two of the best brands in college football and we are excited about that matchup. We also have two fan bases that have proven over and over again their support for their teams, not only during the regular season but clearly at bowl time. I think that speaks for itself over the last 25 years and we are very excited about having it and we look forward to EverBank Field being the right atmosphere and being full of both Iowa Hawkeye and Tennessee Volunteer fans. Just looking forward to a great football game between two great universities."
