Tennessee football is just a day away from kicking off in the Music City Bowl against Illinois. Ahead of the matchup Vols interim defensive coordinator and linebackers coach William Inge met with the media.
Inge will call plays on defense for Tennessee in the bowl game, but will return to his typical linebacker coaching duties afterward. UT hired Jim Knowles to replace the fired Tim Banks earlier this offseason.
Here’s what Inge said.
More From RTI: Everything Illinois HC Bret Bielema Said a Day Out from the Music City Bowl vs. Tennessee
On if there’s anything he can tell Tennessee players about Bret Bielema after playing with him at Iowa
“Yeah, playing with Top Dog, for sure one thing that you know, they’re going to be a very disciplined, very in tune and physicality is going to be at the forefront of everything that they do. That’s been his personality in coaching, so that’s something that we talk about often early and every day.”
On Bret Bielema referencing William Inge as ‘Billy’ and saying they were buddies in the Iowa locker room
“Some of them probably maybe too hot for TV today. And we didn’t have the internet or phones back then, but the one thing I’m so grateful for, Bret as a teammate, when he was needed the most for me, from my perspective, he was there. When you had a young 17-year-old freshman having a tough time and he was there to make sure that you were still held accountable to the standard and you still did the things that needed to be done in order for you to be better. And that’s why I really appreciate him today because of the things he did when I was 17, 18 years old.”
On the growth of Tennessee’s Edwin Spillman, the impact he can have in the future
“We’ve probably seen from him maybe the biggest jump potentially of anyone on our team from a growth and development standpoint. Seeing him come in, maximize his role, do the things that he had to do it when Arion Carter went down, for him to be able to elevate and continue to keep playing. But the one thing on my end, some of it, it wasn’t a surprise because he was under the wing of Arion Carter. And Arion did a great job of being able to bring the whole group and the whole unit along. And Edwin was really someone who really picked up the benefits and we saw that a year ago, every day he’s going to be able to take a step. He’s one of the first guys in the building coming to work, wanting to be good, wanting to be great and wanting to do all the small things to make his game elevate.”
On what stands out about the Illinois offense and quarterback Luke Altmyer
“Probably the biggest thing is Luke Altmyer has a very strong arm, definitely able to make some of the throws down the football field, makes effective decisions, manages the offense very well. And each receiver has a very complimentary game for each other, whether it’s No. 80 (Hank Beaty), being able to get anything short, the other guys being able to go deeper, being able to go up and get the football. So it is going to be a very good challenge for us and our back seven, to be able to contain them and be able to play well for us on defense.”
On Illinois being last in the Big Ten in sacks allowed, facing Tennessee’s pass rush
“Those are things that you have to be able to do to be able to get them into passing scenarios. And we could assume they’re going to do everything they can to try to stay out of some of those scenarios, where we really have to be good as in what we call your transitional downs, where you can get some of your play-action passing scenarios. So that’s where we really have to go. As we tell our players, that’s where you have to go eat at that point in time and really get them behind the chains.”
On Tennessee having to play younger defensive backs in the bowl game, facing a veteran quarterback
“It’s just like Joey (Halzle) talked about earlier. When you can see the guys allow their talent to continue to elevate and you can put plays on top of plays on top of plays and reps on top of reps. Now you can get the constant development that they’ve been getting (in practice). And as we’ve kind of told them messaging wise, hey, you’ve been here for one year already, some of them that got here last December, so this isn’t going to be very new for you. You just have to go play. You’re playing for your state championship right now, so let’s make sure you’re ready to go play. You have to go execute and you’ve got to go do your job. And we believe in them from a confidence standpoint.”
