#VolReport: Vols Ready For Gamecocks

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Head coach Butch Jones updated the media on the Vols’ quarterback situation following Tuesday’s practice. After Justin Worley was sidelined for Saturday’s game vs. Alabama, Nathan Peterman started and was relieved by Joshua Dobbs, who played the final three quarters of the game. This week Jones is listed all three as “or” starters with an open competition among the three.

In terms of Worley, who is battling injuries, Jones said Worley is still under evaluation.

“He is still a work in progress,” said Jones. “He threw the ball a little bit today but not the velocity he is going to need yet. But he took all the mental reps, didn’t miss any reps in terms of overall but it is just the velocity right now. We still have until the end of the week but if we were to play the game right now he wouldn’t be able to play.

“We’ll reassess everything and see where he’s at. You know, what’s the status of his shoulder. So, we’ll put a lot of that in the bye week. But with him, it’s day by day. You can kind of see now day by day how does that equal out to over time and how it progresses.”

Jones added that if Worley, who started the first seven games of the season is healthy, he would draw the nod in the return to his homestate.

“It’s how his body handles the rehabilitation and does his body continue to improve, which it has shown a little bit slowly or does it not,” said Jones. “Then you’re talking about surgery and other things like that. We’re trying to get him ready for this game. There is a chance that he could be but you never know. It’s still early on in the week, so we’ll see. But if he’s ready to play, he’s going to play. We’ll see how that goes.”

In terms of Dobbs, Jones said he is preparing the same way he has all season.

“Business as usual,” said Jones. “That is Josh. Very humble, very workmanlike approach, so about the same.”

Dobbs gained a lot of attention and respect for his play last Saturday in tallying 267 total yards of offense.

“He does have some swagger,” said Jones. “He does have his own confidence in the way he presents himself. So for me to stand here and tell you he doesn’t, I mean, he is Josh Dobbs, our players respect him for that because he has confidence and he displays it. He just displays it in other ways as well.”

O-LINE BUILDING CONFIDENCE

Coming off of one of their best performances of the season, Tennessee’s offensive line says they are feeling confident and encouraged after seeing their hard work translate onto the field.

“It gives us a lot of confidence,” said junior center Mack Crowder, “but we just have to keep in mind our mindset that we went into that game with and bring that same mindset, same mentality into every game from now on.”

“Moving the ball against the defenses we’ve played in the past, obviously that gives us a lot of confidence just going forward because that’s great competition, and we play great competition across the SEC,” said senior tackle Jacob Gilliam, who was back in the lineup playing with a torn ACL suffered eight week ago. “But being able to move the ball against that front that was, coming into the game, pretty highly touted, it’s a confidence boost for us O-Line guys.”

The two veteran linemen say the unit’s improved play is the result of hard work being put in each and every week of practice this season, and while their hard work is finally paying off, there is still much to improve on.

“I feel like everything just came together for us as an offense,” said Gilliam, who played 83 snaps, in his first full game of the season. “This game was just a culmination of all our, the offensive line’s hard work, and it just finally showed.”

“You know, after looking at the film, we saw that we definitely improved a lot more. I have to credit that to last week’s practice,” Crowder said.

“We’ve been getting better every week and we’ve just got to continue to grow, because there’s a lot of….there’s still things on film that we can do better. And nobody’s perfect, so we’re just going to go back and continue to work on it and continue to get better.”

A BOWL IS THE GOAL

Linebacker Curt Maggitt and defensive back Brian Randolph realize the importance of every game. Both outspoken upperclassmen and leaders of Team 118, the pair continue to strive toward a guiding their Volunteers to a long-awaited bowl game, a milestone their program has not witnessed since the 2010 Music City Bowl.

“It’d mean everything to us,” Randolph said. “That was our primary goal coming into the year was to get a bowl game and win a bowl game. Getting there has been the foundation of our program to get us back to where we need to be.”

When asked about the mindset of the Tennessee’s team this year, Maggitt describes his teammates as playoff-minded. And while it can be difficult not to look too far ahead over the course of a season, the redshirt junior keeps to his team’s mantra of taking everything one game at a time.

“That’d be great for the program but we’re not going to focus on the `down the road’,” Maggitt said. “The focus is just this one, doing whatever it takes to get the job done. The focus is just on this week. We have a good vibe.”

Admittedly, a lot rides on just this one game. Looking for their first road win of the season, the two added that a victory in Columbia would not only further motivate their defense but provide the entire team with an extra edge for the remainder of the season.

“We have a bye week next week so this game is just, empty the bucket,” Maggitt said. “Put everything into this game.”

“A lot of us have pride and a lot of us aren’t used to losing,” Randolph said. “Coming here, we just want to get things turned around and be the Tennessee [team] that we know we can be. It gives us a lot of motivation. We still have a lot to play for.”

TAILS NEVER FAILS?

When it comes to winning a coin toss, the Vols aren’t so lucky. In 13 out of the last 14 coin tosses, Tennessee has lost. The one they won? That was Curt Maggitt’s call against Ole Miss.

“I won that one,” Maggitt said with a smile. “I always call heads. I’ve been told to always call heads when I was young. My rec league coach always said to call heads. When I hear people call heads, I’m like `yeah.'”

Against Alabama, Maggitt passed the torch to let a fellow captain make the call but without the winning result. Who’s to blame?

“They switched it to me. I called it and then this week I let A.J. [Johnson] get it.”

SOUND BITES

Here are sound bites from #Team118:

FRESHMAN RUNNING BACK JALEN HURD

»(On success running against Alabama)

“Dobbs did a great job giving the whole offense a different look. He did a great job of running, and you know, that opened things up a little for me, and the offensive line did a great job blocking, as well, along with the wide receivers. They made great blocks on the perimeter on Marlin’s long run and many of my runs.”

»(On the importance of having a good game offensively)

“It’s definitely important. Definitely important just to show everybody what we can do, and most importantly, prove to us as a team that we can do that. We have playmakers and we can make those big plays and things like that.”

FRESHMAN WIDE RECEIVER JOSH MALONE

»(On his first touchdown against Alabama)

“It felt good. It was probably one of the better feelings I’ve had, just getting in the endzone. As an offense, it was just good breaking that little cold streak we were going through.”

»(On his biggest improvement)

“I probably feel like my route running, just overall has gotten better. I’m starting to get open a lot more than at the beginning of the season.”

SOPHOMORE WIDE RECEIVER MARQUEZ NORTH

»(On the offense’s performance against Alabama)

“We just had a lot more energy. We were all prepared – I know for a fact the receivers, we took pride in watching a lot more film that week.”

»(On Josh Dobbs’ improvement and performance)

“He’s a prideful guy, he’s going to get better. A lot of positives. He also made a lot of mistakes, so he’s going to always get better with his craft. He’s my roommate, so I know everything about him. He’s gotten better with his leadership. He’s gotten bigger, his arm-strength and just strength all-around.”

JUNIOR OFFENSIVE LINEMAN MACK CROWDER

»(On what has earned Brett Kendrick playing time)

“[He’s been] just staying consistent, really. Not getting beat very often, you know, trying to be physical, and being smart, not having any missed assignments and things like that.”

»(On the team’s consistently good effort)

“That’s one of the things that we definitely pride ourselves on. You know, we’re going to try to finish people off on every play and we’re going to wear them down psychologically and physically. That’s what Coach Jones teaches us, and that’s what we kind of pride ourselves on as a program.”

SENIOR OFFENSIVE LINEMAN JACOB GILLIAM

»(On Kyler Kerbyson’s versatility)

“Kyler, he’s a heck of an athlete, man. He’s playing everything. He can play center, guard, tackle – left, right – it doesn’t matter to him. I really admire the fact that he’s so dynamic and can play so many positions.”

»(On his first full game played this season)

“It was my first full game back, and really the first full game I’ve played all year since I didn’t play the full game against [Utah State]. It was a little different. I’ve just got that normal game soreness. It’s just kind of one of those things where you get a feel for it – you know, you’re a little more winded, but nothing you can’t handle.”

SENIOR DEFENSIVE BACK JUSTIN COLEMAN

»(On the defenses across the SEC)

“Obviously the SEC is a hard conference. Everyone looks down on Tennessee sometimes but we know we have a pretty good defense. All we have to do is execute the small things. We have to make tackles on the back end. The d-line has to give a good push for the linebackers to make tackles and defensive backs to make interceptions and whatever to win.”

»(On South Carolina’s offense)

“South Carolina, you can say when they’re passionate about playing, they can put up points. When you mess up, they find to make it explosive because that’s what happens in the SEC.”

JUNIOR DEFENSIVE BACK BRIAN RANDOLPH

»(On Gamecocks quarterback Dylan Thompson)

“He doesn’t make any mistakes. He limits the mistakes that they have and he runs a fluid offense. He always gets them ready to go, it seems. He doesn’t give away any pass or run reads, anything like that. He’s very mechanical.”

»(On the pride of his defensive unit)

“We definitely take a lot of pride in our defense. We know that we can play with the best, like you’ve seen against [Ole Miss] and the second part of the Alabama game. We’re just focused on putting a full game together.”

SOPHOMORE DEFENSIVE LINEMAN COREY VEREEN

»(On the last four games of the season)

“With this last third of the season, we’re trying to go 4-0. Every game’s a new opportunity, every week’s a new opportunity. We’re just trying to do our job every single week. We’re focusing on South Carolina, and South Carolina only.”

»(On his biggest improvement this season)

“I’m a lot quicker, I feel like last year I was a little bit slower just because I was trying to get used to playing and stuff. I’m a little bit quicker this year. Just transitioning from high school to a division one, SEC level, that’s a big difference.

SENIOR DEFENSIVE LINEMAN JORDAN WILLIAMS

»(On what to expect from South Carolina)

“They’re a heavy running team obviously. They have big, solid offensive line. An SEC O-line. They have some solid running backs, so it’s going to be a tough week.”

»(On taking pride in their defense in the SEC)

“Being the top conference in the nation, playing in that every week is tough. It’s tough seeing other teams that people say this team went undefeated or 9-3 and they don’t play anybody throughout the year. We play an NFL game every week. It’s tough but there’s also a sense of pride.”

JUNIOR LINEBACKER CURT MAGGITT

»(On defensive lineman Corey Vereen)

“He’s a guy that’s unselfish. He has gotten better as the year has progressed and he’s a guy that a lot of guys respect and look up to, just with the way he carries himself. You’ll never see him on the bad list. You always see him in the weight room doing extra, watching film and he’s a great person, too. He’s funny and just a cool person to be around. I think as a whole unit, we’re a close-knit group.”

»(On measuring his own progress as a player)

“I think every player has an idea of whether they’re getting better or worse. That’s just talking to your position coach, having that relationship and watching extra film. All players know. For the younger guys, they probably don’t know as much. So, it’s up to the older guys to help them stay along track.”