KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 20/20 Tennessee enters Saturday’s rivalry showdown at Florida with one of the nation’s most lethal passing attacks, thanks in large part to its three-headed monsters at wide receiver.
Biletnikoff Award semifinalist Chris Brazzell II, Bryalon Staley and Mike Matthews make up arguably the nation’s top trio of pass catchers with 2,301 combined receiving yards and 18 touchdowns on the year.
Coming into this weekend, UT is the only team in the Power Four that has three players with 600 or more yards receiving (Brazzell: SEC-best 873, Staley: 761, Matthews: 667).
“I think it’s rare, and I think it’s really cool,” wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope said. “I think the amount of production that they have and the success that they have had, I think that can create some complacency. It’s human nature.
“What I’m trying to get those guys to always fight is that complacent thought. We talk about it in the receiver room all the time. That complacency is what will kill you. It stops your process, stops your focus and your urgency. I think that’s just been my message, and kudos to those guys, they’ve been listening, buying in and they’ve been sponges the entire year. So, it’s rare. It’s cool, but it’s still more out there for us to go get.”
The Vols’ passing game will be relied upon to make big plays on Saturday night as the Big Orange look to snap their long drought in Gainesville.
Linebackers Hitting Their Stride
Linebackers coach William Inge also met with the media following Tuesday’s practice and spoke of the development of his room, especially when it comes to the underclassmen like Edwin Spillman, Jadon Perlotte and Jaedon Harmon.
“I would say at this point in time everyone in the room is viewed as a veteran, they’re coached as a veteran, they’re mentored as a veteran and the mindset is they’re a veteran,” Inge said.
“So, when you have an opportunity to go play, the expectation is you’re going to play, you’re going to go play well, you’re going to go make plays and you’re going to be able to do everything you can to help our team accomplish the mission of being able to play great on defense and win football games.”
Full transcripts from Tuesday’s assistant coach press conferences can be seen below.
Wide Receivers Coach Kelsey Pope
On if he is surprised to have three receivers ranking top 10 in the SEC in receiving yards…
“I think the potential was there. I’d be lying if I (said I) saw the amount of production. I think it’s rare, and I think it’s really cool. I think the amount of production that they have and the success that they have had, I think that can create some complacency. It’s human nature. What I’m trying to get those guys to always fight is that complacent thought. We talk about it in the receiver room all the time. That complacency is what will kill you. It stops your process, stops your focus and your urgency. I think that’s just been my message, and kudos to those guys. They’ve been listening, buying in and they’ve been sponges the entire year. So, it is rare. It’s cool, but it’s still more out there for us to go get.”
On his comfort level with Brayon Staley in the slot last December…
“That’s a good question. I think the bigger piece of that question is I think college football has evolved. It’s a lot more of NFL style. And the reason I say that is because, at that level, there comes a time where you have a guy who is experienced, maybe older, and there comes a point in the road where you have a younger guy who’s promising, and you have to trust your evaluation. I think what we do an incredible job of in this building is we’re spot on a lot of times on our evaluations. There are a bunch of young guys in their room — Mike (Matthews), too — he was a freshman last year, who played some. We trusted our evaluations. We trusted how those guys looked last year. At that point, honestly, there was a lot of peace among me, Coach Halzle, Coach Heup (Heupel), everybody on the offensive staff. We felt like we had the pieces we needed. Now, at that point, you have to go work and make it happen, but there weren’t a lot of long faces. There weren’t a lot of guys who weren’t confident in those players, and I think that came from our evaluations. We knew who they were in high school when we recruited them. We confirmed that when they got here and they worked the way they did. When you come to that crossroad where you have maybe an experienced player and a young player, I think you have to trust your evaluation, and that’s what we’re seeing right now.”
On where Braylon Staley is better now compared to September…
“I think route-running for one. He’s much better. He understands angles. He does a great job of sitting in windows over the middle of the field. He does a great job of fluctuating his speed, knowing when to play the top speeds and being able to manipulate defenders that way. I say the biggest leap that he’s taken is just physicality. When he got here, he was obviously a football player in high school, but he ran track, and physicality didn’t come natural. You guys know — just like I know in this league — man, you have to be physical at every position. You see him on some of the stuff where he’s blocking. Against Oklahoma, he’s pinning a guy on the sideline on the ground, and Mike (Matthews) is sprinting for 20, 30 yards because of it. I think that physicality helps him also win routes when you get man coverage and things like that. He’s taken a leap there, and I think that it’s helped his confidence a lot. He’s playing at a high level right now.”
On what made him confident in Chris Brazzell II…
“Oh, I think it’s kind of the same song. Chris has got some rare traits. He’s got really elite ball skills. He’s 6 feet 3 ½ inches, and man, he can run just as fast and as twitchy as you know, a 5-foot-11-inch, 5-foot-10-inch slot receiver. For him, it was making the game slow down and allowing him to be confident in himself and what he was doing. I think that’s the result that you’re seeing this year. The game has slowed down for him. It has become easy, and he’s reacting while the game’s going instead of thinking, and I think that’s what’s helped him a ton.It’s kind of the same song. You know what you guys can do when you recruit them for so long. I think you just have to assess and try to figure out ways to put them in positions to be confident and comfortable.”
On what he is communicating to his receivers to help Joey Aguilar limit turnovers against Florida…
“I think Joey is going to be fine. I think he’s going to figure that out. My communication with our guys is that we have to make sure we’re better. So, in the case it is something that goes haywire, we’ll make up for it. We trust the quarterbacks. We trust what they do in that room. We just have to do our job, and we’ll clean our stuff up.”
On how Chris Brazzell II has responded to being defended differently…
“Absolutely. They tried, and then number four (Mike Matthews), he goes and makes plays. Then, they try to get him, and number 14 (Braylon Staley) goes and makes plays. And you know, a couple of them guys get tired, and number five, Radarious Jackson or Travis Smith Jr., they come on the field and they make plays. I think that’s when you know you have a good group. Their production has literally compounded off each other. Chris isn’t making plays because he’s the only one on the practice field working hard. Braylon is working hard and grinding to get better, and now he’s winning one-on-one matchups. So as a defensive coordinator, I’m looking across the field, and I don’t see anybody on the field that I want to leave one-on-one. Those guys have grown so close, and it’s cool seeing them all be successful. I think naturally, they all know that my success isn’t just me. It’s a testament of the slot receiver or the outside receiver to the opposite side. Those guys are winning their matchups. I can’t be double, so it’s helping open me up and helping me have success. Those guys have matured a lot, they’ve grown a lot, and it’s cool seeing their bond and seeing them all have success right now.”
Linebackers Coach William Inge
On Jadon Perlotte’s athletic ability and how he has grown mentally…
“I think the biggest thing that he’s done is he’s been really good when it comes to him learning all the schemes and all the structures of everything that we’ve been doing. Knowing he missed the wintertime, he’s getting himself caught back up. As we say, he’s been in Navy SEAL training, so we’ve had to have him in the dark, deep waters and allowing him to learn everything and pick everything up. And as you see, as you get towards this time in November, some of the fruits of the labor are starting to come into play and we know that he has a high level of skill and there are some things he can do that you don’t have to coach. That’s what we love about him.”
On Edwin Spillman’s growth and if he is still even viewed as a young player…
“No, I would say at this point in time everyone in the room is viewed as a veteran, they’re coached as a veteran, they’re mentored as a veteran and the mindset is they’re a veteran. So, when you have an opportunity to go play, the expectation is you’re going to play, you’re going to go play well, you’re going to go make plays and you’re going to be able to do everything you can to help our team accomplish the mission of being able to play great on defense and win football games. So, from our perspective with Edwin Spillman, he is one of those guys to where, as a young player who doesn’t have a lot of time under his belt here in this program, we’re continuing to work on the leadership elements of him being able to be a little more vocal. But from an action standpoint, he is exactly what you want on the football field, because he will knock you out and we love it.”
On the challenges Florida presents and the improved tackling offense…
“Looking at their offense, I would say probably the one thing that they make you do is they make you defend every area of the field. They do a great job of complementing a lot of the runs with RPOs or RPOs with them or with complementary runs to be able to match up. So that they stress you to have to be in a sense, perfect, in all of your run fits, but also great with your eye discipline. You can tell they’ve been in every game, maybe outside of maybe one or two where it kinda got away from them. But we have to make sure that we’re at our best when it counts the most. From a tackling standpoint, it’s just something that we’ve just constantly and consistently have been working on as you continue to get through the fall in order for you to be better at things you have to continue to work on them. Those are things that we’ve just continued to work on. We have to and did block out the outside noise and just stay to our process of being able to understand how do you tackle? How do you get better at tackling? And how do you stay on course to be a better tackler?”
On having Edwin Spillman and Jeremiah Telander on the field together and how they complement each other…
“We have two, as you would be able to call them from our perspective, we have two studs on the field. Both of those guys can drive our defense, they can get everyone called, the line and adjusted, they have the ability to make a lot of plays. So, when you have two leaders that can be able to do that, your comfort level is really good and you’re also starting to see an element of athleticism from them being able to make plays out in space. That’s what you want to do as our program continues to evolve. We want to make sure that we continue to get more athletic at our positions, specifically at linebacker.”
On Arion Carter and how the last few weeks of rest benefited him…
“Well, I think it puts him in a scenario where he can really manage and take care of his body. The one thing about Arion Carter is from a preparation standpoint, he’s been awesome and been elite when it comes to that because he’s still the first person in the building. You would not have known that he was not preparing to play a whole football game. There were just some things that needed to be done to take care of him with respect to his body. The one thing that we trust and know is that he’s doing everything he can to get back as fast as he can. We’re trusting the process from our athletic trainers and all the things that they have in play for him and when he comes back we’ll be ready to play him. The thing that it has allowed us to be able to do, some of the other individuals to put them in some limelight scenarios where they have to be able to go play and really get some intensity through repetition during these times.”
On Jaedon Harmon progressing through his first season…
“Same scenario, just when it comes to all of the growth items that they’re doing, so having him on the field it’s wonderful to see him out there being able to get our defense called aligned and adjusted, being able to make plays when he’s out in space and being able to be violent at the point of attack. Those are the things that we’re consistently challenging all of our guys to be able to do. So, to be able to see him continue to take those steps, it’s great because now you know you have another piece of the armor that comes into play when it comes to having more bodies that you could be able to use and have access to.”
