Tennessee OC Joey Halzle. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics. Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle briefly met with the media in Nashville on Monday afternoon as the Vols prepare to face Illinois in the Music City Bowl on Tuesday evening.
Ahead of the matchup, Halzle discussed George MacIntyre’s preparation as a backup and the growth of young players over the last month. Here’s what Halzle said in the brief press conference.
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On Tennessee freshman quarterback George MacIntyre becoming the backup QB in this game, the bigger role he could play in the future at that position
“George has done a great job. When first got to bowl prep, he was taking (backup) reps too, so this didn’t get just thrown on out of nowhere. He was a guy that we knew that we needed to take December and use it basically as a new spring ball for him, so he could get started and start getting those reps coming out of that. ‘Hey, I’m a redshirt guy now I’m pushing into a guy that’s going to be competing for playing time in the future.’ So he’s done a great job handling it. He’s a really competitive kid, really smart kid. Mature beyond his years. His pedigree, with a lot of college football is in his blood, and he’s been around it his whole life. So he handled it the way I expected him to — mature business-like. And I’m really happy with where he’s at right now. Feel comfortable if he has to go in the game then he’ll go play.
On how Tennessee players have taken this month and the bowl practices to grow
“Yeah, I think it’s, it’s like what I was saying about George, you see it across with all our young wideouts, young backs, O-linemen. You get 15 practices to go do a lot with and you’re not right in the game playing right at the beginning. So you see guys that, maybe have been on some scout team or down the depth chart a little bit really feeling that they got another chance to go get out on the field right now. And you’re seeing that talent take back over it. It puts the competitive nature right back out there on the field. So it’s a fun time for us because we get to get a really good look at what is in our building after a year of being in the program, these young guys, okay, they’re not young anymore, so now who do we really have? What are they really like? And it’s a really fun energy to be around.”
