With a trip to play Florida in Gainesville this weekend, Tennessee football linebacker coach William Inge met with the media on Tuesday to give his thoughts.
He was asked about Jadon Perlotte, the health of Arion Carter, the Gators’ offense and more.
Here’s what he said.
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On the comfort level with Jadon Perlotte
“I think the biggest thing that he’s done is he’s been really good when it comes to him learning all the schemes and all the structures of everything that we’ve been doing. And knowing he missed the winter time, he’s getting himself caught back up. As we say, he’s been in Navy SEAL training, so we’ve had to have him in the dark, deep waters and allowing him to learn everything and pick everything up. And as you see, as you get towards this time in November, some of the fruits of their labor are starting to come into play. And we know he has a high level of skill. And there’s some things he can do that you don’t have to coach. And that’s what we love about him.”
On if he still looks at Edwin Spillman as a young player
“You know, I would say at this point in time, everyone in the room is viewed as a veteran. They’re coached as a veteran, they’re mentored as a veteran, and the mindset is they’re a veteran. So when you have a chance, opportunity to go play, the expectation is you’re going to play, you’re going to go play well, you’re going to make plays, and you’re going to be able to do everything you can to help our team accomplish the mission of being able to play great on defense and win football games. So from our perspective with Edwin, he is one of those guys to where as a young player who doesn’t have a lot of time under his belt here in this program, we’re continuing to work on the leadership elements of him being able to be a little more vocal. But from an action standpoint, he is exactly what you want on the football field because he will knock you out and we love it.”
On what stands out about Florida’s offense
“Looking at their offense, I would say probably the one thing that they make you do is they make you defend every area of the field. They do a great job of complementing a lot of the runs with RPOs or RPOs with complimentary runs to be able to match up so that they stress you to have to be in a sense perfect in all of your run fits but also great with your eye discipline. And you can tell they’ve been in every game, maybe outside of maybe one or two where it kind of got away from them. But we have to make sure that we’re at our best when it counts the most.”
On improved tackling
“From a tackling standpoint, it’s something that we’ve just constantly and consistently have been working on as you continue to get through the fall in order for you to be better at things, you have to continue to work on them. And those are things that we just continue to work on. We have to, and did, block out the outside noise and just stay to our process of being able to understand how do you tackle, how do you get better at tackling, and how do you stay on course to be a better tackler?”
On what he likes about Edwin Spillman and Jeremiah Telander on the field together
“We have two, as you would be able to call them from our perspective, we have two studs on the field. Both of those guys can drive our defense. They can get everyone called on the line and adjusted. They have the ability to make a lot of plays. So when you have two leaders that can be able to do that, your comfort level is really good. And you’re also starting to see an element of athleticism from them being able to make plays out in space. And that’s what you want to do as our program continues to evolve. We want to make sure that we continue to get more athletic at our position specifically.
On what he likes about Edwin Spillman and Jeremiah Telander on the field together
“We have two, as you would be able to call them from our perspective, we have two studs on the field. Both of those guys can drive our defense. They can get everyone called on the line and adjusted. They have the ability to make a lot of plays. So when you have two leaders that can be able to do that, your comfort level is really good. And you’re also starting to see an element of athleticism from them being able to make plays out in space. And that’s what you want to do as our program continues to evolve. We want to make sure that we continue to get more athletic at our position specifically.”
On where Arion Carter is right now
“Well, I think it puts him in a scenario where he can really manage and take care of his body. The one thing about Arion is from a preparation standpoint, he’s been awesome and been elite when it comes to that because he’s still the first person in the building. You would not have known that he was not preparing to play a whole football game. There were just some things that needed to be done to take care of him with respect to his body. The one thing that we trust and know is he’s doing everything he can to get back as fast as he can. And we’re trusting the process from our athletic trainers and all the things that they have in play for him. And when he comes back, we’ll be ready to play him. And the thing that it has allowed us to be able to do is some of the other individuals put them in some limelight scenarios where they have to be able to go play and really get some intensity through repetition during these times.”
On freshman Jaedon Harmon
“Same scenario just when it comes to all of the growth items that they’re doing. So having him on the field is wonderful to see him out there being able to get our defense called on the line and adjust it, being able to make plays when he’s out in space and being able to be violent at the point of attack. Those are the things that we’re consistently challenging all of our guys to be able to do. So to see him continue to take those steps, it’s great because now you know you have another piece of the armor that comes into play when it comes to having more bodies that you can be able to use and have access to.”
