University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols 'Move Forward' To Western Carolina
September 14, 2015 | Football
Sept. 14, 2015
By Brian Rice
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
UTSports.com
The phrase was in play again on Monday as Jones broke down the game against Oklahoma and the coming meeting with Western Carolina in his weekly media luncheon in the Ray and Lucy Hand Digital Studio.
Tennessee moved forward from the opener against Bowling Green to fix many of the issues that were present in that game to face the Sooners. Similarly, the Vols will now focus on handling the close game situations from Oklahoma that they will surely face again this season.
"When this journey ventured, we spoke as a football team, and as a part of the competitive nature of this football team, we will be in a lot of close games," Jones said. "There are going to be a lot of games that take on this personality. Moving forward, where we haven't been competitive in the past, we are competitive now. That is progress. We are working there."
Progress does not make the ultimate result on Saturday night easier for his football team to accept.
"We expect to win immediately," Jones said. "We expect to win every time we step out onto the football field. It's a week-to-week season. We talk about a snap-and-clear mentality. We are going to learn from it."
Quarterback Joshua Dobbs saw plenty to build on in reviewing the film from Oklahoma, but is now focused on using that as momentum as the Vols face the Catamounts Saturday.
"It was a tough loss but we can't dwell on it or look back on it, we have to move on and learn from it and better ourselves," Dobbs said. "Our goal is to win, just like every game. This game is important because it's the next game. We have to come out and compete and be ready to win and move forward."
Jones saw the signs of dramatic progress in his defense from week one to week two. That lesson is one that he wants the rest of his team to embrace as they look to correct their mistakes and make progress into next week.
"Last week, we talked about our pass defense, about all 11 individuals working together as one," Jones said. "The throwing game is exactly the same. It starts upfront with pass protection. It starts at the running back position as well as the tight end position, and then out on the perimeter, being able to beat man-to-man coverage and tight coverage and creating separation. Those are all things that go into being a very efficient throwing team. We had too many drops and too many drops at critical moments in the game. That is all what it takes to play winning football."
Defensive back Cameron Sutton saw that progress first-hand in his unit. Like Jones, he wants to see the lessons of Oklahoma help the team in the long season ahead.
"It is adversity, it's a tough loss for our football team, but we don't dwell on that," Sutton said. "That game doesn't define our season, we have a lot of games left in our season and we're excited about the direction we're headed. We prepare each week like the game is our last."
