Postgame Quotes: Vols 45, Virginia Tech 24

Sept. 10, 2016

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Tennessee Head Coach Butch Jones

(Opening Statement)
"Well first of all we'd really like to thank Bristol Motor Speedway for, what a spectacle. Like I said out there, I don't think this will be duplicated or replicated. All the hard work and effort that's gone on for many, many years, planning and staff to pull this off. It was an incredible experience for our student athletes and will be something they will remember for a lifetime. And how about our fans? Our fans really came out. I told our kids it is very, very special to represent the University of Tennessee.

"They played in front of over 250,00 fans in the first two games. That's something that's very, very special. We didn't start out like we wanted to obviously, down 14-0, but I really liked the way we responded. We got a big turnover and then we were able to capitalize off that. I thought (if you) take away the one kickoff return, I thought we did a good job in terms of special teams. We were finally able to run the football and play Tennessee style of football.

"Really proud of our players, again I'd really like to thank everyone, our fans, our tremendous fan base - just an unbelievable spectacle. I think the reality hit our players when we came here yesterday for the walk through with all the campers and trailers. Again this is truly a special evening we'll remember for a lifetime."

(On what changed along the offensive line)
"Well we had some individuals that earned some playing time through their individual reps during practice this week, and Jack Jones was one of those. Again we're just looking for a spark, looking for some combinations up front. I'll know a little bit more when I get back and watch the video. Again, I thought our players really stepped up, we were able to run the football, but it was something that they earned playing time through their course and week in preparation."

(On the challenge of playing at Bristol)
"Well that's a great point. I don't know that you could ever really prepare for something like this until you get here. Just with everything - the crowd noise, everything going on. We talked about focusing on the task at hand, playing a very good Virginia Tech football team, and football comes down to one on one battles. I hope we have some good teaching tools to go back and how you focus on the task at hand. The game started very, very fast. I didn't like the way we started, but again, I liked the end of it. We'll have to learn how to have intensity for 60 minutes and not have lulls. That'll be a point of contention that we'll work on through next week as well."

(On what changed defensively after the first quarter)
"We played assignment football. We gave up two big chunk yardage football plays. We had a couple misfits, and that's what happens when you don't fit the rut well. The balls going to spit out of there and those are things we need to get corrected immediately. It can't happen to play winning football. Again, I liked the way we responded being down 14-0, and we've talked about hunting the football and taking the ball away on defense and that's been one of our main priorities. We were able to do that this year. We talk about playing complementary football and taking the ball away on defense, and that takeaway ended in seven points and not kicking a field goal. I thought we were able to do that and seize some momentum that way as well."

(On the importance of scoring a touchdown after recovering the fumble in the second quarter)
"It was absolutely critical. Football is game of momentum, and when you get momentum from a turnover, the defense's goal is to hold you to three points, and for us, we have to go score seven and grab the momentum when we're able to do that, and I thought that was big for us."

(On the impact of the crowd after Virginia Tech took their 14-0 lead)
"When you're locked in a zone, you really don't hear it. We had beaten ourselves, credit them for taking advantage of it, but we just stayed the course and followed the course and kept playing. I knew that we needed a big play. We needed to get the momentum flipped. We needed to get some momentum going, and we were able to do that."

(On keeping the team focused after falling behind 14-0)
"We always talk about staying the course, and we really just have to learn how to start faster. But again, 14-0 in this type of environment - crowd going crazy - it could be intimidating. But they embraced it, and we made some plays when we needed to in critical moments of the game."

(On Dobbs running the ball more this week and updates on the injuries to Tennessee players)
"It's always part of the plan, but on every run play, there's three or four different options and reads, and I thought Josh did a good job reading and some were pre-called runs as well. As we all know they're a difficult defense to prepare for with the multiple looks they give and stems that they give you, but I thought for the most part, from what I could see from the sidelines, we did some good things to counteract that. In terms of the injuries, it's too early to tell right now, they're preliminaries, they're ankle sprains. I'll know a little bit more when we get back to Knoxville."

(On Josh Malone's big plays so far this season and how that helps the offense)
"It opens up things a lot. When you can push the ball down the field, it gives you so many options to choose from. Josh is playing with a lot of confidence right now. He's worked exceptionally hard, and I'm really proud of him. You talk about momentum plays and splash plays, and we needed his touchdown catch this week just like we needed it last week. So he's worked exceptionally hard on the deep ball; there's an art to catching the deep ball. And I thought Josh Dobbs did a good job of putting the ball where he could go get it as well."

(On defensive line depth play)
"It's all about keeping them fresh. Those individuals have worked hard. It was great to get Shy Tuttle back into the mix. He had a big fumble recovery for us as well. But, again, we're going to need that depth as the season continues to progress. It was great to get them, get Darrell Taylor and some of those other youngsters in there that really haven't played much."

(On Micah Abernathy's play)
"Micah's a very good football player, but he relies on his habits that he creates through his lifestyle, through his work ethic, and through practice. He's one of those individuals that has great consistency in performance every day. I think I said it last week - you know what you're getting with Micah every single day. He has great instincts for the football. He's around the football. He's really helping us win football games right now. He's also turning into one of our leaders in the back end of our defense."

(On why Josh Dobbs was able to do more)
"I think it was combination. We won some one-on-one matchups out on the perimeter. The big touchdown with Jauan Jennings was big for us, capitalizing on that field position. We talked about it all week long, we had to hit some big splash plays. We had to hit some vertical balls because they play a lot of man coverage and they always outnumber you on the run game. So we had to step out on the perimeter, and I thought our kids were able to do that.

"I think from a protection standpoint, Josh was able to set his feet a little bit more. Then, the one throw to Alvin, that's Josh being Josh. That's two players making a play. That's what makes Josh special. But I think he was able to set his feet more in the pocket. And then obviously we were able to call more designed quarterback runs for him tonight."

(On Kendal Vickers forcing a turnover in the 4th quarter)
"(It was) Big. They had the ball in scoring position. They had some momentum. Our defense had been on the field for a little bit, so to be able to get off the field and create that turnover was big. That's the thing for me that I'm really pleased with, again, it's the defense being able to take the ball away. That's something that we didn't do much last week. That's something that's been a point of emphasis for us, and we were able to do that. That's great to see. We're going to need that as the season continues to move on. That was a player making a play, and striping the ball, and obviously getting population to the ball to recover it."

Tennessee QB Joshua Dobbs

(On being down 14-0 in first quarter)
"We talked all week about being patient, they (VT) came out and changed up their look. Our defense did a really great job all night giving us great field position, giving us great opportunities to capitalize with turnovers; it gave us a lot of momentum to finish off the game."

(On his reaction towards the defense after the first touchdown)
"We were going to have their backs; to keep putting us in good situations and we would definitely take advantage of them moving forward, and that's what we were able to do throughout the night."

(On the offense clicking in second quarter)
"We knew that we were going to have to score more than 14 points if we wanted to win this ball game. It was that expectation and that confidence throughout the unit. We were able to be patient and execute to take advantage of those situations."

(On the difference in run game between the first two games)
"We did some different things this week in the run game. Our offensive line played with a mentality to own and dominate the line of scrimmage to help myself out, Jalen, Alvin; J.K. (John Kelly) came in to have a good touchdown and end the night. Give credit to those guys, coming off last week they picked up their level of play, their intensity level, and dominated throughout the night."

(Talk and time table for this game)
"It definitely lived up to the hype, 156,000 is absolutely insane. It's a game that will go down in history. I remember my freshman year when they announced the game and knowing that you'll be a senior when this game comes around; how big of game, stage, opportunity this will be. It's been a day that's definitely circled. As a team and individually, I was able to make the most of it and we were able to make the most of it."

(Where they are after two games; big picture)
"We're 2-0, that's our goal. At the end of the day, every time you step on the field you play to win; and that's our expectation when we step on the field. We're right where we need to be. We'll take the good and fix the stuff that we will need to improve and prepare for next week."

Tennessee LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin

(On Virginia Tech's strong first quarter on offense and how adjustments were made)
"It was really just about settling in, a lot of those plays that they hit on us in the first quarter were our mistake and I feel like we weren't settled into the game in the first quarter and once we settled in we played really great defense."

(On the injury of Darrin Kirkland Jr. and younger guys filling in large positions)
"Yeah we just have that next man up mentality and we showed that last week when Cortez (McDowell) had to play for me and I still feel like the whole room has a job to do and I talk about my motto a lot and it's to be smart and tough and those are the two things that you have to have to get on the field. I feel like everyone in our room has that because when someone goes down we know we got that next man up mentality and they are going to take care of business."

(On the motivation of the spectacle and motivation of an early exit last game and how to channel that)
"As a team we are focused on each other and we came here yesterday and we saw what the stadium was going to be like. Even at home we play in front of a lot of people and we play with a lot of crowd noise at home for the defense, so I didn't think it was going to be a problem for us at all. I don't think we were distracted by the moment or anything like that. We came out and we had a good game"

Tennessee DB Cameron Sutton

(On getting to play in the Battle at Bristol)
"It was an amazing experience. It is something that we will never forget and will always cherish for the rest of our lives. We can look back 10 or 20 years from now and say that we were a part of this. Obviously, coming out on the winning side only adds incentive to that. Like I said, it was an amazing experience. We kind of knew what to expect [with the atmosphere], but we didn't let it overwhelm us. At the end of the day, it was still a football game. We had to go out there and do our job. We had to execute on both sides of the ball and on special teams. We just had to settle in and play our brand of football, and we came out victorious."

(On the defense creating opportunities)
"Being disruptive and trying to make plays on the ball is something we speak about every day. When we get opportunities, we have to capitalize on them. When you have guys swarming around to the ball, good things happen for you. We were swarming tonight. With the opportunities we had, we made the most of them."

Tennessee RB Alvin Kamara

(On the spectacle that is the Battle at Bristol)
"We already knew what it was going to be like. We talked about it all week. We knew what the environment of a race track was gonna be like. We just tried to keep focused throughout the whole game and not let the environment dictate our emotions and how we played. We just tried to stay focused"

(On staying focused after falling behind)
"It just starts with the huddle. We walk into the huddle and we get focused. I mean it is football. We have to make plays. I look at Dobbs and Dylan (Weisman) and all of the lineman and I tell them that our job as the offense is to score points so that is what we keep saying. We have to score and we have to make plays. At the end of the night we made big plays. When Dobbs had the ball in his hands and (Josh) Malone made some good catches."

(On Dobbs making plays)
"In my opinion he is the best. He is incredible and our program speaks about 63 and that is 6 seconds and 3 great strains so we keep playing until we hear the whistle blow. The play Josh made is a great example of 63, to keep working and keep working."

Tennessee DB Micah Abernathy

(On recovering fumbles tonight)
"With the fumbles I was in the right place at the right time and I like to be a consistent player and I thought I brought that to the game for my players and my coaches. Looking at week one and week two I was just trying to be consistent on the field. We were just flying to the ball and TK (Todd Kelly Jr.)had a big hit and so did Vickers. We were just flying to the ball and that is something that we stress in practice and we tried to do it in the game"

Tennessee RB Jalen Hurd

(On team's mindset on not panicking when you got down 14-0)
"Well, like you said, they started out fast and that's something that we didn't do. Me, Dobbs and Alvin were just sitting there talking to our team, talking to ourselves saying just be poised, don't worry, be patient and just play."

Virginia Tech Head Coach Justin Fuente

(Opening Statement)
"First of all, I'd like to congratulate Coach Jones and Tennessee on the victory tonight. He's got a good football team and those kids played hard. They deserved to win. I'm proud of some things we did out there today, and I'm not really happy about some other things. Obviously, we turned the ball over entirely too many times. At times, we lacked discipline out there, which is very disappointing. That falls on me. I liked the makeup of our guys. I know we're going to be ready for a conference game next week. I know that's what we'll do. We've got to do a better job of preparing and ultimately, playing. We didn't really give ourselves a chance to win."

(On addressing the fumbles)
"Well, obviously it's reared its head in huge ways the first two ball games. We've got to do a better job. We've obviously got to do a better job either teaching or understanding or emphasizing ball security. We're inadequate to say the least right now. We'll look at it and come up with a plan, but what we're doing, what we've done in the past, hasn't been an issue. Obviously, we need to change or modify it in order to give ourselves a chance."

(On the crowd and the atmosphere)
"First of all, I think the event in its entirety was fantastic. The atmosphere was incredible. The stadium was beautiful. Impact, it's a loud place to play. Obviously, that can affect your emotions and your communication. I don't think it was a huge hindrance one way or the other. I think we were pretty prepared for that. For what it's worth, I thought it was a beautiful setting and a beautiful arena to play in."

(On missed tackles and difficulty versus Tennessee tonight)
"I don't know. I'll have to look at the film and see, but that tailback is a big, powerful and talented young man and their quarterback runs the ball well and has good speed as well. I thought for the large part of the game, we did a really good job. You've got to give more than one hat to big No. 1, that's for sure. At times, we did that. There were just some times where those turnovers created a short field and some bad situations."

(On starting Kyle Chung at center)
"Well, the one that was over the quarterback's head was pretty bad. Yeah, it was a performance promotion I guess you could say."

Virgina Tech Associate Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator Bud Foster

(On errors made during the game)
"It sets you back a little bit. We had some momentum going, and they created some plays themselves, and that put us in a tough spot. I thought our kids for the most part played really hard but we gave up a couple of cheap runs. It goes back to them, they executed and we didn't. We had a couple of guys that didn't execute on defense and that was a disappointing part. The turnovers are a part of the game, and we stepped up at times and made some big plays, and then had times where the short field will catch up to you. I thought our kids fought hard until the very end. I talked to the team and told them that that's not who we are, we play for 60 minutes. We gave ourselves a chance with the pick, and we kicked the field goal and gave ourselves a chance there. We score there and that makes us 31 and 17 and we were only 14 down. We score there and we put ourselves in a good position. We gave up a run there by the quarterback, and we had an end chase the dive when he's supposed to be chasing the quarterback. We have to execute when it's all said and done, and we didn't do that today."

(On Tennessee being a tough matchup)
"The matchup is just the nature of the game nowadays. The disappointing thing to me was when we gave up two runs when guys should've been sitting with the quarterback instead of chasing the dive. We had a safety that should've been sitting for the quarterback, but he was chasing the dive. Those were the things that occurred with both young players, but we can correct. They worked hard and were disappointed, but you have to give credit to Tennessee. They executed and played hard and we didn't when we needed to. We'll regroup and get ready for ACC competition, which we've got a tough ball game ahead. This is tough because we didn't perform like we wanted to."

Virginia Tech QB Jerod Evans

(On turnovers and fumbles being an issue of mentality or practice)
"I think it's both. It's a mentality to not want the ball to come out of your hands, and it's an effort thing in practice. We have hard practices on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It is how mentally tough as a unit we are when we go through ball security drills that we do day in and day out. I know as a leader I will do a better job of making sure that my guys are in tune."

(On Tennessee's defense)
"Yeah, they're very talented. We just have to do a better job of executing what we have already had in our game plan against Tennessee."

Virginia Tech RB Sam Rogers

(On the mistake that caused the first fumble)
"I didn't see that one, I was blocking. I was out blocking the sweep."

(On losing the first quarter lead)
"Tennessee is a great team, hats off to them. They did a great job the entire game. I think we made a lot of mistakes and shot ourselves in the foot continuously, and you can't do that against a really good team because they'll take advantage of it. Against Tennessee, you can't turn the ball over like we did, make the mistakes like we did, and can't have penalties like we did. They didn't give us a chance once those things started happening. At the beginning, I thought we didn't do those things and executed well and put points on the board, and then things started going downhill."

(On the atmosphere at Bristol)
"It was an incredible atmosphere, and it was so fun. This was something that I'll remember for a long time and that I can tell my kids and grandkids about. Once you're on the field you take pride that it's still a football game and the field is still the same size. You have to try as much as you can to block that out and feed off of the situation where it's good. You can't let yourself get too high or too low, and we did that. We got ourselves up too high. We were up 14 to nothing and didn't stay on the course. You can't do that against a good team."

(On losing in practice before the game)
"We didn't have a great week of practice, for whatever reason that is, I don't know. Senior leaders have to step up and be more vocal on those days and make sure that we get it right. No one likes this feeling, no one likes the feeling of giving away games so we have to get that right this week."

Virginia Tech DE Ken Ekanem

(On Tennessee's lineup switches and changes)
"Nothing much, I mean, we're still getting after the quarterback, no matter the lineup, so I'm very proud of how our defensive line played. It's just about getting pressure on the QB. Hats off to Tennessee's offense."

(On bringing positivity as a leader)
"The way I've thought about this game is that we didn't lose tonight. We lost Tuesday, Wednesday, and Monday during practice. As a senior, and the other seniors on the team, we have to hold ourselves accountable on actually being productive and making better practice habits. The seniors have a lot of work to do to get this team going in the right direction."