Butch Jones asked about suspensions and scrimmage, post-practice 8.18

On Wednesday’s scrimmage…

“Well I think first of all, just from a game management standpoint, our coaches were able to go in the press box — a new staff, the ability to communicate with our players, try to create game-like situations. We exposed them to many different situations that they’ll face, probably throughout the course of the year.”

“It was great to get in Neyland Stadium and play football and that’s what this team needed, was to play football.”

“We have a long way to go and it’s just the overall discipline to execute, the ability to focus, especially when it’s the eighth or ninth play of an extended drive. Focus at the end. It’s all about owning your conditioning. A lot of many great teaching points and situational football that we have to get corrected.”

“I thought it was productive but, again, we’re no where we need to be game ready. We’ll do it again at some point in the next couple of days, because we need that, but just the focus and the small details. Little things like in the run game of six inches of crossing the T on the front side linebacker. Little things like that. Or a six-inch hand stab by the defensive lineman. That’s the small details that we talk about and we have to get a lot better in a hurry with those.”

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On who the playmakers might be…

“I think that’s ongoing. You just don’t have to be a skill player to be a playmaker. We need more playmakers. We need more explosive plays. But it’s starting to reveal itself.”

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Is the defense ahead of the offense, or the offense ahead of the defense?

“It’s give and take. And that’s what we’re talking about: consistency and performance. I think our offense, the development overall has been set back a little bit with just lack of continuity and consistency. We’re getting everyone back now and that’s why the next couple days are absolutely paramount in terms of getting the rhythm, the spacing, the timing down.”

“Defensively, I liked a lot of things that we’ve done, but again it’s the small details. How do you leverage the football? How do you run to the football? Our block destruction at the second level. Those are all things that we have to take great strides in improving.”

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How many snaps did you get?

“Yeah, we were good. That was one of the positives too is we were able to gain the valuable repetitions. It was about 85 snaps, give or take a few. We were able to do some live special teams that aren’t included in those snaps as well. We had some individuals gain some quality reps and we came away where there are no injuries, so that’s always great as well.”

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Is that Peyton’s first time seeing the new offense?

“It’s really not the new offense. It’s the Tennessee offense, not much has changed there. Maybe just some run schemes, some more gap schemes and things like that. Obviously a different passing game, with some nuances. But it’s Tennessee’s offense and Peyton has seen it before. But anytime you can have Peyton Manning back it’s great. He spent a lot of time with our team.”

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On Shawn Shamburger…

“In terms of Shawn Shamburger, he’s an individual who has really stepped up in the last few practices. He really made his presence known at the corner position the other night. I like the way he filled in run support. We challenged him with some deep balls and he was able to play the ball in the air and find the blind spot, which we talk about turning your head in coverage. He’s an individual who is pushing our older players.”

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Is there a chance of suspensions for the opener?

“I know there’s a lot of rumors out there and I don’t comment on rumors. If there is a suspension, I think we’ve been pretty consistent and we’ll talk about that.”

Would you wait until game week?

“I don’t know. I’m still… we’ll see. But there’s a lot of rumors out there, I know that.”

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Did anyone other than Shamburger stand out?

“Will Ignont is another individual linebacker who’s really coming on. LaTrell Bumphus, we have to continue to gain valuable repetitions for him. Theo Jackson is earning quite a bit of playing time at the safety position. He’s doing a good job there.”

“We still have to figure out who our kicker is going to be. They’re in a battle right now and that’s just going to come down to overall consistency.”

“Josh Palmer continues to do very good things, pushing some older players at the receiver position as well, so I really like what I see. To have Marcus Tatum get the quality reps that he was able to gain the other night, I think was invaluable as well.”

“There was a lot of positives, but again, just like I told our football team we need leadership and maturity the next couple of days. Obviously we start school here next week, so we have to come, we can have no off days. your mental conditioning is at stake each and every day. Our leadership. And we have to come out here and every time we leave the practice field, we must be a better football team.”

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How much time have you had to put in for this particular opponent?

“Well it’s a challenge because the first thing you have to do is you have to install your base defense because you’re only going to see this offense one time the entire year, and we have a short turnaround playing a Monday night game. So you have to make sure that you balance your time. You have to make sure your base defense is in. You have to be able to execute your base defense then you graduate on to a scheme for Georgia Tech.”

“Obviously, they’ve run that offense for so long, they know where to attack you. So, it’s a balancing act for our players. You have to rely on the maturity, then it’s also the fundamentals and details of their blocking schemes and how you play the blocks that are critical as well. It’s not just the scheme but it’s the fundamentals and details as well.”