University of Tennessee Athletics
Butch Jones Transcript (3/31/15)
March 31, 2015 | Football
Head Coach Butch Jones
(Opening Statement)
"It is good to see everyone. You all have had a busy day today. I would like to start off and officially welcome Coach Barnes to the Tennessee family. Obviously very excited about him being here. Today was obviously critical every practice is critical but really looking at the film from Saturday, had a lot of work to do. We still have a lot of work to do. Still, our toughness is being born, our football identity is being born. We are being challenged right now. Our lack of depth, particularly in the defensive front and at the running back position is really starting to glare right now and it is extremely evident. So it is very challenging of making it through practice, playing with a high level of physicality that we want to play with but we knew this. This is to be expected. Everyday, like I told our football team, they are putting their identity on video. We have identity files where every player has their identity file. They come in and they watch it. Practice four, I thought we did some good things. But no where were we need to be. But that is kind of where we are at with spring football."
(On freshman quarterback Quinten Dormady)
"Been very, very encouraged by Quinten. I see him making tremendous progress each and everyday. As a coach we have to keep in perspective that he should still be in high school. But I have been very, very encouraged with him. Just his overall knowledge, his fundamentals, he has a live arm. Ben very encouraged by his progress so far. Each day you see him getting better and better."
(On the difference between Quinten Dormady and Jauan Jennings)
"They are too different type quarterbacks. They have different skillets. Jauan [Jennings] continues to progress as well. The thing that I like about Jauan is he has a workmanlike approach each and every day he comes. He works to improve something each and everyday. Just like Quinten [Dormady], just like Josh [Dobbs] as well. But I have liked his mindset as well."
(On the biggest thing he looks for in a freshman quarterback)
"You know that they are swimming with everything. But it gets back to managing the offense, making good decisions with the football, retention of the offense. Once you learn something never repeating your mistakes twice. We talk about being a CEO quarterback and really the big thing for Quinten, even Jauan is owning the line of scrimmage with their voice inflection, with their verbalization of the offense and the cadence. All the little things that mature quarterbacks understand. Those are things that we are really trying to expedite the process, accelerate the process. But again, also, the imperfect quarterback fundamentals. What do they do when a play breaks down. Can they make a first down with their feet? Can they operate the scramble drill. And then accuracy. Just a overall consistency in approach. Consistency in performance each and everyday. But I have been very encouraged by Josh, Jauan and by Quinten."
(On instilling to the quarterbacks that they are one snap away)
"There has always been a sense of urgency with him. Quinten is extremely hard on himself, he digests every single play, which that is what you want in a play. Jauan does the same thing. They are. They are one snap away. I talk to both of them, we are really trying to feed them everything and try to feed them everything so that they have a great basis once spring concludes so they have new things moving forward into summer. So we are throwing a lot at them right now, fundamentally and schematically. Then you put a defense, we are doing more live throwing session and more team pass than we ever have as opposed to [skeleton]. But we are trying to give them a lot of things but again their growth and development is also set a little bit behind just with our overall depth and receiver and running back."
(On Quinten Dormady working to be a better quarterback when he wasn't able to throw)
"Day one, if he wasn't able to throw or do anything with his shoulder he was doing the mental part of the game. He is a son of a head football coach, his father was his coach so he has that work ethic, he has that football intelligence."
(On sophomore wide receiver Josh Malone)
"I see him more mature, I see an inner drive, he is working exceptionally hard. Going to work every day. I see Josh Malone maturing, really trying to pay attention to the fine details of playing winning football and what we expect here at the receiver position and he has done a good job with that."
(On Josh Malone maturing)
"It is part of that growth process. When you look at it, I believe he fifth in the country for true freshmen catches a wide receiver. When you look at it, it is hard coming in as a true freshman and it takes a very, very mature young man, young adult to be able to do that. When you think of it that way, Josh did some very good things but it is just an overall growth and maturation phase that he has been through."
(On experience safeties)
"We do have experience there and we are going to have to rely on them, not only at the safety position but the special teams game as well. But you can never have enough. Stephen Griffin is doing a very good job as well. The thing that I like about those three individuals is there are helping him through everything. They are helping him through the transition. They are coaching him, they are communicating with him on every single snap. Stephen is a very competitive young man. They have been a great asset to the overall defensive back position. We are really lacking in corners right now with having Emmanuel Moseley out, that has really set us back in terms of repetitions. You try to take repetitions off of Cam Sutton just because of the amount of reps that he had last year and it is now becoming a challenge."
(On sophomore defensive back Todd Kelly Jr.)
"He is. Nothing beats live game repetitions. Nothing beats repetitions and experience and TK is continuing to learn. I had to step back too and look at it, we still have a lot of these individuals that are going through their first spring football. So they are learning the nuances of spring football. TK is one of those. But TK is very mature, very confident and I like his approach and he brings a workmanlike mentality every single day."
(On if Emmanuel Moseley has mono)
Yeah, he will be out a few weeks."
(On sophomore Elliott Berry at WILL linebacker)
"Elliott is a WILL linebacker and he has to really take a great role and great pride in the special teams game as well. Elliott can run sideline to sideline, he can run and that is one of his strengths and we can see that this spring. His speed is really coming out."
(On new Tennessee Head Basketball Coach Rick Barnes)
"We had an opportunity to spend some time over dinner with him last night. We are very, very excited. You look at the experience that he brings to this institution. Everything is about a fit. Everyone thought he was a great fit. And the time that I spent with him, I agree with that. I think that he will be a great fit and I think he will do a great job and looking forward to getting to know him and picking his brain a little bit just with coaching and motivation and all the things that go into it no matter what sport you coach."
(On improvements on the offensive line)
"I see a lot of differences. I see growth and development in a lot of areas. First of all, fundamentally, we really focused on their second steps and their footwork, their hand placement. We still need to get lower, we are still playing too high. I also see the growth and development in terms of a strength standpoint, we are much more stronger unit than we were a year ago at this time. We still need to continue to develop that strength, we are not where we need to be. But I see marked progress across the board."
(On the tight end position)
"Neiko [Creamer] is a work in progress. They are all work in progress right now. Even Ethan [Wolf] he is a work in progress. So all three individuals kind of right now are working on their techniques, their skills. But I would define out tight end position, as our entire football team, we are completely a work in progress right now. We are no way, step, form a finished product. We are nowhere where we need to be. The sense of urgency has to continue to them understand the importance of not just every practice day but every off day, if it is in the weight room, if it is video study, we have to get a lot better in a hurry. Some of it is conditioning, some of it is mental conditioning. A lot of our younger players are learning how to fight through the fatigue, they have not learned that yet. A lot of times we talk about toughness and technique and right now we are losing our toughness with our technique because they are letting the mind control everything."
(On sophomore kicker Aaron Medley)
"Aaron Medley is as driven as anyone on our football team. He didn't have a great performance on Saturday and Sunday he went in and worked on his craft all day. I could see a difference in his game and his confidence today. That is Aaron, Aaron wants to be the best in everything that he does. I am excited about him. our snappers and holders are all doing great. We are still truing to find a punter and that will continue to be a work in progress as well. It is going to be a process. Trevor Daniel is a young man that when he works his technique, he understands the operation time, he has a very, very live leg and he has a very strong leg. He can place the ball. Now what we need from Trevor is just consistency on every single kick."
(On who has been working at center)
"A number of individuals, Dylan Wiesman has done some good things. We actually had Jashon Robertson play some center today and Jashon did a great job with it. So again having the flexibility to move individuals around. Brett Kendrick continues to improve each and everyday. I think that unit continues to improve each and everyday. But like I just spoke about, our pad level, our hand placement, our second step, we need to continue to work on that."
(On what he is looking for from defensive lineman LaTroy Lewis)
"Consistency in LaTroy. Technique and explosiveness off the football but also it is an opportunity for him to lead. With all the individuals being out he is doing a good job of leading. Again, just the overall explosiveness, the get off, perfecting his technique that is why it is a big spring for him."
(On if he is getting as much scrimmaging as he would like because of depth)
Not as much 11-on-11. That is the thing that is concerning. We are not able to go a lot of 11-on-11 because of our depth. We are extremely limited at running back. We are extremely limited at receiver. We are extremely limited at the defensive front. That is not a good program to have in the spring. Like I talked about when we started this journey of spring football, we have to be creative but there are only so many things you can do. You learn from playing football. You learn how to take the drills to the field and right now that has been one of the things that we are going to go as a staff and continue to figure out ways to manufacture competitive situations."
(On the battle at middle linebacker)
"Ongoing. Kenny Bynum continues to get valuable repetitions there. Jalen Reeves-Maybin, we continue to move him around. Dillon Bates, Cortez McDowell, all these individuals are gaining valuable repetitions at the linebacker position. Again, it is going to be a work in progress, no one individual is a finished product to say the least. We have to continue, now we are starting to go through the grind of spring football, this is where your toughness is born as a football team. Now you are sore. You have academics, you have a full workload and it has been a physical spring football so far. Now is when you have to rely on our leadership. I am going to challenge our leadership, I am going to challenge our players staff. We need to step up and we need to hold everyone accountable."
