Tennessee football: Butch Jones’s week 3 2017 press conference notes
Tennessee football head coach Butch Jones held his weekly press conference ahead of the Volunteers’ showdown with the Florida Gators this Saturday.
Related Story: 3 reasons for concern after Vols win vs. Indiana St.
It’s officially Florida week, and Tennessee football head coach Butch Jones took the podium Monday for his weekly press conference to preview the game. The elephant in the room was where they would play it due to the hurricane.
Jones noted that as of now, they still expect to play it in Gainesville. But that could change at any point.
Click here to see the full press conference.
With a 2-0 start that drew numerous concerns, the Vols are now set for SEC play. And Jones addressed the good and the bad in this presser.
Here are five takeaways from his media session.
1. Good news on the injury front
-The Vols will be back to full strength in the slot with Tyler Byrd, Latrell Williams and Josh Smith all expected back.
-Marcus Tatum, Evan Berry, Baylen Buchanan Austin Smith, and Eli Wolf are all questionable for Saturday. However, that’s better news than it could have been especially with Wolf, who looked to suffer a gruesome injury. However, it’s just a sprained ankle.
-Justin Martin could have returned on Saturday if he were needed, which Jones noted then. So he should be good to go as well.
2. Nothing new on the quarterback situation
Butch Jones gave basic coach speak on quarterbacks Quinten Dormady and Jarrett Guarantano on Monday. It appears as if Dormady’s the clear leader. But he didn’t say how he would use the quarterbacks on Saturday against Florida in The Swamp.
He just noted Dormady’s improvement from Game 1 to Game 2 and the valuable reps that Guarantano got.
One thing Jones added when it comes to X’s and O’s was that Dormady doesn’t have to be a great runner in his system, but he needs to be efficient. Him being able to get four yards or more on a keeper would be enough, showing he can make it as a pocket-passer in the system.
3. Lack of defensive pressure mostly a scheming issue
Jones didn’t come out and simply say it was due to this, but he kept alluding to it and mentioned the offensive schemes of Georgia Tech and Indiana St. It came across as if he was trying to explain that those schemes were the reason for the defensive tackles’ struggles in the first two games.
He didn’t offer an explanation for the defensive linemen lining up a yard off the line of scrimmage in this game just like the Georgia Tech game, even going as far as to say the Vols always line up off the line of scrimmage. But that’s just not the case when you look at last year’s film.
Once again, it appeared to be a scheming thing. The best guess here is Bob Shoop was trying to avoid injuries before Florida. And it’s not all doom and gloom for the Vols.
4. Positives at defensive end
Despite the issues when it comes to getting pressure, Butch Jones noted the positives at defense end. He praised Kyle Phillips above all other defensive linemen for how he emerged this past week, but that’s not the only story.
Jones added that Deandre Johnson and Matthew Butler are closer to working their way into the rotation, and it’s worth noting that Johnson had the best game of anybody on Saturday statistically.
Next: Role reversal for Vols and Gators this year
5. The bad news
Butch Jones did not run from the doom and gloom despite mentioning the positives for Tennessee football. He did not that the Vols did not play physical enough on defense and missed some big plays on offense. Also, the final point was that they had no takeaways on defense against Indiana St. but two offensive turnovers.
Simply put, he admitted the Vols have to get a lot better before they face the Gators. And it wasn’t basic coach speak either. That much is very clear.