Smart Opening Statement
“We’ve got to show a lot of improvement in a lot of areas. I was disappointed in our start to the game.
Anytime you spot somebody seven, it’s not good and we gave up some explosives on defense.
But the positives was we didn’t blink. We got a very emotional team and I thought in the locker room there was a lot of emotion shown. Tennessee has a good football team. I’ve got a lot of respect for Jeremy, his staff, how hard his kids play, how physical they play. They play a really good brand of football and we do, too.
We’ve got to improve in our ability to execute and play with discipline and composure and we didn’t do that all the time today.
There were a couple of costly calls, fourth and 1, we didn’t’ get it and they turn around and score the very next play, and then the touchdown before the half, leaving one out there which could have been a huge back-breaker for them, it gives them huge momentum.”
On answering adversity
“I think we are a well-conditioned team and I think our team has taken pride in the conditioning level. I think our team adjusts well. If somebody gives us trouble with something, we have answers.
We don’t just continue to do the same thing if we’re struggling with things. I’m proud of the effort we came out with in the second half, and the momentum the defense created in the second half, but we are not functioning, we are not executing at a high level and that can cause problems. That’s special teams, that’s defensive execution on fastball exchanges, that’s offensively getting in formation, getting lined up and getting the call.
That can be costly if you play a team that can capitalize on it.”
On the fourth down calls
“If you don’t go for it on fourth and goal from the one, what are you telling your team?
(laughs)…That decision was made a long, long time ago. So, fourth and inside the one on the last play of the half, that decision was made for me 20 years ago. It’s who I am, what I believe. I don’t care what the score is. That’s just what I believe.
On his appetite for risk
“You look at fourth and ones as an appetite for risk, I don’t. I look at it as the law of percentages saying you’re going to make more than you don’t. It’s disappointing we didn’t. I was probably more frustrated with the other one, the first one when we tried to hard count them and draw them off but didn’t get it.
But I feel like with our offensive line we should be able to get a foot. They did, against a pretty good defensive line. They did it and got a first down twice.
I feel like we should be able to do that. We didn’t execute so that falls on me. I’m not second-guessing the decision, I’ll leave that to you guys. If I could go out there again today, I’d do it again.
I’d do that until I couldn’t do it anymore unless someone could guarantee me were weren’t going to make it.”
Question on Podlesny, his range and when did they know that he had the leg?
“No we kicked more field goals this year than I ever kicked in my entire life. We kicked so many field goals that I got sick of kicking field goals. So I knew what he could do. We had the longest field goal competition I’ve ever seen in my life, and he won that competition. So like I told you all a long time ago, he was tried and tested and battle-tested long before he ever hit that field. So he’s got a strong leg. I would appreciate it if he could keep his kickoffs in bounds because that’s a killer. But he made up for it after the dumb penalty, the dumb penalty we had, when he kicked it deep right and put it in the end zone. That was a huge play in the game.”
Start of second half, offense doesn’t capitalize on turnovers, what was message?
“Well I didn’t talk to the team about it, I just talked to the offense about it. I was just disappointed. I told the team after the game we come out, gain all momentum back, and then we let them get momentum back by holding us to a field goal. That chance to put somebody away, that’s what good teams do, man, they get momentum and just run with it. We didn’t do that. We didn’t execute well. We couldn’t run the ball well on those series. We’re trying to wear them down and run the ball a little bit. We couldn’t do that. We actually self-destructed, went backwards like you referenced. Offensive pass interference, holding, chop, I don’t even remember what they were. It was just not in forward, it was in reverse. That’s not what good teams do. We can be a good team offensively, we can, if we don’t shoot ourselvers in the foot.”
Second half defensive changes?
“We executed better. We made some changes at halftime. Coach Chaney was doing a good job. I mean look guys, it wasn’t like they were dominating the first half, OK? I look at it play by play. We snap one over the head and give them seven. All right? They’re not running the ball real well, they throw a deep touchdown pass after a bad call by me on fourth-and-1. So they get another touchdown. Then they beat a guy and were one-on-one out there on the outside and it was a 50-50 ball that we lost, and the receiver made a hell of a play, and the quarterback made a hell of a throw. Sometimes you give them credit for what they threw, and it was not a lack of execution. It wasn’t a lack of toughness. It wasn’t a lack of pressure. It was a good throw, a good catch. And halftime we just talked and said, Hey let’s do something different. Let’s maybe not let them take that risk and throw it over our head because that may be their only chance to win. And we did a better job in the second half.”
Offense: Is the idea to play for the whole game, or is it concerning because the defense may not play the way they have?
“I play complementary football. I want to score every time we get the ball. I don’t want to be conservative and kick field goals. There’s several of those field goals I would have loved to have gone for it if it was fourth and 1 or 2 but they were long. They were fourth-and-long, fourth-and-9, third-and-30 or something. You don’t function that way. So I don’t look at it as, Oh we’re going to play behind our defense. If I was going to play behind our defense I’d kick a field goal on fourth-and-1 at the end of the half. I look at it as we need seven, and to be the team we want to be we need to be explosive offensively, and in order to get to where we want to be offensively we have to improve. We have to improve. People are going to score points in college football, guys. They’re too good. The really good teams, they score points. And defensively hopefully we can continue to get better. And hopefully offensively the guys will buy into if we do the little things right we can be good.”
What stands out is the camaraderie they have about them and they take pride in being good. They don’t have a bunch of primadonas. They’re a lot of guys contributing. The atmosphere that’s created on defense, we’re not letting much go. We’re not going to let them in and they hold everyone accountable. They did score today. They scored two touchdowns, but at the end of the day they were really good throws against pretty good corners.”
Why can’t offense play with same pride and character?
“I think they do. I don’t think our offense executes. I don’t think our offense doesn’t play with pride and character. The pride and character is they had 10 in the box at the end of the game and we ran the ball down their throat. That’s some pride and character. They had more guys than we could block. Two more than we could block and we still blocked them and ran the ball. I think they do have pride and character. I don’t think we execute well right now offensively. We have everybody playing in a new offense, but we have several freshmen trying to get experience and they make mistakes but they make plays. Jeremaine Burton makes a boneheaded mistake but then he turns around and make a 43-yard run. We’re trying to develop explosiveness and execution at a high level. Maybe give Tennessee credit too. I think they tried not to give up big plays and they did that.”
On Stetson getting guys involved in offense. Game plans?
“You take what the defense gives you. They played a lot of split safety coverages and we see a lot of split safety coverages especially with George out there. You’ve got to take what they give you and play to your strengths. If they are going to play split safety coverage we’ve got to be able to run the ball. And if theyr’e going to play split safety, we’ve got to hit some things down the middle and I thought we did that. I thought we were able to do some of that today but we also shot ourselves in the foot sometimes.
On everybody except for UGA and Bama with losses in SEC.
“I didn’t realize that. I don’t take anything from it. It’s brutal, man. I cannot give enough credit what it’s like to play week in and week out in this league. It is something else. There are so many good football teams in our league and they’re so physical. You used to get, I hate to say it, but it felt like a week off. That’s is no longer that way in the SEC with the schedule we’ve got. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I take pride in that. When you talk to NFL scouts and general managers, they’re like yeesh. You’re league is so different than so many of the others.”
Thoughts on Stetson Bennett over the last two games...
"Well I'd go watch this tape to make that answer. I think he's getting better. I definitely think he's getting more confidence. He understands coach Monken's system better and better and where his eyes need to be and his decision making. He's made some plays with his feet. I would like to see him improve by sliding some and not taking the shot he took, but he's a competitor. He's always been that way. We've got to continue to help him and kind of play complimentary football. We've got guys running who can help him but if we can't get lined up and execute at a high level, it makes it hard."
How agitating was George Pickens' unsportsmanlike?
"It's just disappointing. It's silly behavior. It's immature, just like two guys running down to celebrate with Jalen Carter. That cost us a Tennessee game already once. What are we thinking? We show that once a year to talk about when you buddy scores, celebrate on the sideline with him. When somebody comes out of bounds and you squirt water at them, what are we? Are we seven, eight years old? I mean, come on. Let's play football. Let's don't be silly."
Mark Bradley would have gone for it on fourth and goal from the one-yard line...
"Thank you. Thank you Mark. I want you to know that analytics would have absolutely, absolutely slaughtered me for kicking a field with a chance to get seven over three. Especially in a game that was shaping up to be high scoring, I mean, come on. Let's be honest. Now they may not agree with me on the fourth and one on the other part of the field. I know my dad would be mad at me, punt the ball and play defense, but got suckered into that one."
Alabama next week and turning the page...
"Same as we always do. I mean, I'll be up first thing in the morning, watch this tape, figure out how we can get better. You know, a lot of people will brush this game off and try to go to the next one. You can't do that because what are they going to do all week? They're going to watch our tape deeper than we're going to watch our tape. When you go in and watch the tape and move on, they're watching your tape from Sunday to Friday. So you better watch it and try to anticipate what they're going to see."
Kendall Milton's performance and growth...
"I see our guys bounce off of him. You know, he runs against our defense and it's like nobody is really fired up about tackling him. I keep thinking, well, it won't be that way in the game but it is. People bounce off of him and he's physical, he's tough. The thing is, he takes shots because he's tall and he takes some shots. He's got to keep his pads down and protect the ball better. I think we all saw that one run, he took two hits and they were ready to blow the whistle and he got seven more yards after the two hits. He's probably the type backs that he gets better as he gets more carries and we've got to do a good job of trying to balance that out. Ultimately he's got to protect the ball. He's got a target on his chest now where he's got to protect the ball."
Stetson Bennett working through progressions and pass protections...
"Well he's always been really... He really understands coverage, so he knows where he supposed to go with the ball and he can work it across very similar to Jake (Fromm). He got to watch Jake do that. Jake was really elite at that. Those things, he is advanced at that. I think the little things of changing the protection, looking at what play, somebody disguising the coverage well, he's growing with regards to the way he handles that. He can't hold the ball for a long time when we're in certain protections, he can't hold the ball. He held the ball kind of early on one of the third downs. I think we took a sack on it, but he's got to protect the ball. That's a big part for him is giving our defense a chance to go out there and play by protecting it. But hey, I'm proud of his growth, I'm proud of his execution, his ability to get us lined up, and distribute the ball. Because one thing he has done is spray it around a little bit."
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