Butch Jones talked to the media for his weekly press conference on Monday.
He updated injuries, personnel changes moving into this weekend and rehashed the end of the Vols’ loss against Florida.
Injury Update
Jones updated the status of Todd Kelly Jr., Cortez McDowell and Jauan Jennings in his comments on Monday.
For Kelly, there is no timetable for his return.
“We do not anticipate (him returning) right now,” Jones stated. “He’s undergoing second opinions…he’s meant so much to our football program. He’s out indefinitely.”
McDowell, according to Jones, has a similar injury to what Jennings suffered against Georgia Tech. He will not return to the field this season.
“Cortez McDowell is out for the year,” Jones said. “It’s a wrist injury. We’re going to miss him from a defensive standpoint and a special teams standpoint as well.”
Schematically, losing Jennings means that Jones has to alter some of his play-calling. Against Florida, Jones says that he missed his big target on the outside, who is done for the year.
“Jauan is out for the season. Very unfortunate,” Jones said. “In terms of the short yardage situation, they did a good job moving the front. We have to do some things to get the ball out on the perimeter. Where we’ve struggled is third and two and third and three. That will also be a point of emphasis this week.”
Moving Forward…
It’s hard to move past a heartbreaking loss, especially when it comes against one of your biggest rivals. But Jones is trying to lead his team forward to start another week of preparation.
“We all hurt,” he said. “We’re angry, now it’s what you make of it. How do you become better because of this? It can galvanize you and bring you closer together as a football team. UMass isn’t going to feel sorry for us. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us.
“The details will not be ignored, I can promise you that.”
Jones has been pleased with the way his team has responded to a rough weekend. He’s seen good signs that his players are ready to move forward, and get over the loss to the Gators.
“All of our players were in the building yesterday. They hurt, but they also understand what’s at stake. They’re conditioned that it’s a long football season. You’re going to have natural adversities…football is life, and it never goes as planned…we have to move on and get ready to go,” Jones said.
In their last 11 games, the Vols are 6-5. But according to Jones, nothing has changed. Tennessee is still going about their business the same way it did when the Vols started 5-0 last season.
“I think that’s just the nature of our competition that we face week in and week out,” Jones stated. “We’re doing the same things, it’s the small details. Depth of our football team…where did those come in terms of the season? The expectation here is to win every single week.”
Breaking Down the Loss
As Jones looks back at some of the mistakes made by his team on Saturday, he clarified some of the decisions made by the coaching staff.
For instance, he called a run on first and goal from the one-yard line. But when Quinten Dormady tweaked his knee, he didn’t want to ask Jarrett Guarantano to go under center when he’s never practiced that before.
So Tennessee went back to the run, but again, Dormady checked into a pass play based on the coverage he was given at the line of scrimmage.
Here’s Jones’ full quote on exactly what happened:
“We had a run play call. They were 70% pressure football team. Would we have liked to run the football there? Absolutely. We didn’t think it was fair to ask Jarrett to run an underneath center snap. When we get the ball down there, we need to run the football.”
The quarterback position was under a close watch by the fans and coaching staff alike. Quinten Dormady (21-for-39, 3 INTs) didn’t have a great day, but Jones put to bed any talks of his junior quarterback being benched.
Jones wants to see more plays on the perimeter from his wide receivers.
“The quarterback is always a byproduct of individuals around him, and we had way too many missed assignments on the perimeter…when you have mental errors, that gives you no chance to be successful. He can’t compile a mistake, and try to make up for the missed assignment. The QB is a byproduct of the players around him,” Jones said.
