“We’re responsible for what we create so we’re looking forward to that”, Volunteers coach Butch Jones said.
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Tennessee defensive line coach Steve Stripling believes the ninth-ranked Volunteers are more locked in for its game against Appalachian State than MI was in 2007.
The game starts at 7:30 p.m. and will be aired on the SEC Network. Most of the team’s stars, including Jalen Hurd, Alvin Kamara and Jalen Reeves-Maybin, wore precautionary green jerseys, but Tennessee’s platoon of recovering defensive lineman- Shy Tuttle, Alexis Johnson, and Kyle Phillips- were all in full-contact whites. The Mountaineers went 11-2 past year and made their first bowl appearance, a 31-29 Camellia Bowl victory over Ohio.
Thursday marks the first-ever meeting between Tennessee and Appalachian State despite just 160 miles separating the two campuses.
“In today’s modern spread tempo offense, the offensive numbers have improved or inflated over the last few years”. They have won 17 out of their last 19 contests.
“There may be new schemes that you haven’t seen or haven’t prepared for so you have to rely on your training and you have to rely on your communication”. We’ve all been here.
“If you look at the quality of opponents that we have before our bye week (Oct. 22)”, Jones said, “it’s one of the toughest schedules in the conference”.
DE Derek Barnett – Arguably the best player on the UT defense (Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Cam Sutton are definitely in the mix for the distinction) and a highly-touted National Football League prospect for 2018, Barnett led the defensive line with 56.5 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, and ten sacks in 2015. If I see something wrong, I’m going to speak up, and I feel like my teammates respect that. I am excited for our fans and student-body as well. You know what I’m talking about. “You soak in these things and enjoy the moments day in and day out”.
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Other highlights of the day include Dobbs demonstrating his growing mastery of ButchSpeak and Jarrett Guarantano and Zac Jancek getting thrown into the Circle of Life, which sounds hilarious but maaaaaybe something we don’t want to make too much a habit of? They have a very good quarterback, he is good enough not to throw into a bad situation and he uses his legs rather than his arms. It’s good to know that everybody is going to be contributing. We have a lot of weapons out there and now people won’t be out there playing too many snaps or more than they need to. “It’s a long season so it’s really good to have”.
