For those of you who didn’t listen to Butch Jones on Vol Calls Wednesday night, you missed a lot of Butch Jones—and the usual suspects were at a minimum. That said, here are my paraphrased notes, some of which are obviously coach speak but there’s a good bit of information to be had also.
- Oregon is a tremendously gifted and talented football team. They are 31-3 at home in the last five years. This game is a great challenge but also a great opportunity for our football team.
- A third of our football team is making their first road trip. (Think about that one for a minute.)
- We need to do a great job of mixing tempo and keep our defense off the field.
- Looking at Oregon’s first couple games they are a quick strike team but also make plays on turnovers and special teams. There’s speed in everything they do.
- We can’t turn the ball over but need to make Oregon beat us. We must make them drive the football.
- On Tuesday the team practiced in full pads in 90-degree-plus temperatures and were presented with loud and chaotic (hostile) noises. We cracked, but it’s a teaching tool. Autzen is arguably the loudest stadium in the country, plus we are playing a very talented team. Wednesday’s practice was much more workmanlike. These things are critical as we continue to learn how to win.
- Leverage: We can’t have lost leverage football plays. We will know how good a tackling team we are on Saturday. We will be in one-on-one matchups and at the end of the day, football comes down to winning those matchups.
- Our wide receivers are still a work in progress. We are young but talented. We expect to see a lot of man-to-man coverage this weekend. We are still learning and understanding the game and the nuances—the physicality, but the future is exciting. We made significant progress at wide receiver between game one and game two.
- Justin Worley is going through the maturation phase of being a starting quarterback. There was the one throw in the red zone that he needs to learn from but in the second half he really asserted himself. His overall growth and maturation is encouraging.
- In practice we use noise to try to make our players as uncomfortable as possible. We’re teaching to focus on one play at a time and on what we can control.
- We are progressing and are ahead of schedule.
- We preach turnovers every day. You have to live it. There are so many techniques to making the quarterback uncomfortable. Sapp had the play of the game against Western Kentucky: ball disruption and starting the lawnmower. We take great pride in working on falling on fumbles as well as scooping and running (think Max Arnold) When there’s traffic, get on it.
- Daniel McCullers was double-teamed a lot. We are going to need him to play big Saturday. We need him to control the line and we challenge him each and every day.
- Jacques Smith will be available and has practiced all week. We’ve felt his presence from leadership standpoint and he gives us another person on the edge.
- Curt Maggitt isn’t ready if we had to play tomorrow but is making strides.
- Everything about us is going to be tested: toughness resiliency leadership and discipline. But it’s a great measuring stick.
- There isn’t much difference between the offenses of Tennessee and Oregon, but their quarterback has 4.4 speed and their running back has 4.3 speed. They have speed everywhere. Discipline will be key; not giving up big plays. The storyline of Oregon this year has been: they get a turnover, score, have a big play on special teams and suddenly it’s 21-0. We need to be consistent—not too high or too low, just consistent.
- As for how much contact our players have during the week, you learn how to swim by getting in the pool. We go full pads on Tuesday, shells ( thigh and shoulder pads and helmets ) on Wednesday, and Thursday is polish day with no contact. We have to be physical each and every day. Great coaches can judge where their team is, so sometimes that schedule comes down to knowing your team.
- Each and every day we just have to focus on being a better football team. We have to focus on the process. We have to develop every player to be the best player and person that they can be. And we have to recruit the best players and kids.
- The biggest concern right now is our secondary: we have youth at corners and youth overall. Therefore, we have to be a great tackling team and can’t beat ourselves. Depth is limited. We have to keep everything in front and can’t give up big strike plays. That will be key.
- We lack depth everywhere. That’s why we stress so much about taking care of our bodies. We can’t afford to lose anyone.
- Against Oregon, we have to get the game into the 4th quarter and then anything can happen.
- We will wear orange pants and white jerseys on Saturday.
- Against Oregon, we to take our time to finish plays. We can’t get too wrapped up in playing too quickly.
- On travel: We are going into the mindset that it’s a 3:30 game. Everything is still going to be on Tennessee time.
- Whenever Tennessee wins the toss, we like to defer. We like to create momentum to start the second half. It’s a way to impose our will.
- On defense Oregon has high NFL draft picks on the defensive front and they are very skilled in the secondary. They are very big up front. Bottom line: there’s a reason they are the No. 2 ranked team in the country. They haven’t given up a point in the second half which tells you they have great depth, too