Tennessee football is turning the page to its new defensive staff after the firing of Tim Banks. Not only is Jim Knowles taking over as defensive coordinator, but he’s bringing in Anthony Poindexter as his co-defensive coordinator in Knoxville.
On Tuesday, Poindexter met with the media after practice. He was asked about working with Jim Knowles, installing the defense, his personnel and more.
Here’s everything he said.
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On how the install has gone at Tennessee compared to installing the same new defense last year at Penn State
“We’re much farther ahead as a defense with the players, but as a staff as well. We’ve all been with coach (Jim Knowles) now, at least myself and AJ (Jackson) and a couple other guys for two years. A couple of the guys have been with coach (Knowles) for a long time. So, now we’re all cohesive. We kind of know what coach (Knowles) wants, how he wants it to look and we are light years ahead of where we were a year ago.”
On what light years ahead means
“I’m just saying, like in order for the players to know the defense, the coaches need to know it well too. And they can’t be learning while the players learning. So right now, myself, the guys that came with coach (Knowles) know it. We know the defense, so we go to the meetings knowing the answer before he gives us the answer. So, and now that just gives you more confidence as a coach when you’re coaching it to your player. When you know it inside and out, then now your delivery is just different. It’s just different.”
On what he has seen from Edrees Farooq and transfers Dejuan Lane and TJ Metcalf
“Just as a group overall, I’ve been totally impressed with the group of safeties. They’re all smart. They’re all football guys. They all got toughness. Edrees (Farooq) had a great spring. He’s doing fantastic. Obviously, Dejuan (Lane) knew the defense, but his growth of just being a year older is impressive. Dylan Lewis, he’s doing a great job. He’s really come along. TJ Metcalf, he wasn’t in the defense. He done picked it up fast. But Sidney (Walton) and TJ and all those freshmen too. I got impressive moments as far as attention to detail, wanting to come learn the defense every day and wanting to practice. These guys love to practice. They love the competition. I’ve been impressed.”
On what it means to be a safety driven defense
“He’s (safety) got to make a lot of calls. So, they have to be intelligent, not only as a good football player talent-wise, but they got to be mentally sharp. Fortunately, right now, these guys are pretty sharp. They’re pretty sharp. They’re on top of their stuff. And like I said, they come every day wanting to learn. So that makes it easy as a coach.”
On Edrees Farooq not backing down from competition with several new safeties brought in
“Well, this day and age, it’s hard. It speaks volumes to him and what he feels about this program and the staff that was here. He’s just a good character kid. You’d be around him for five seconds – like, man, this is a good high character kid and he loves Tennessee. It’s been impressive what he has done this spring.”
On meeting guys like Sidney Walton and Dylan Lewis, not knowing them in the recruiting process
“I come in with a clean slate. You know, people try to tell you about a player, this, that and the other. And like I told them all when I met with them for the first time, “Y’all don’t know me, and I don’t really know you. I’m going to make my own impression on you. I’m not going to listen to somebody say this is who this kid is. We’ll create our relationship and you’ll figure out who I am, I’ll figure out who you are.” And I’ve been thoroughly impressed with all of them.”
On his thoughts of Jourdan Thomas and his journey
“The first time we met, we gravitated to him because our stories are very similar. Same knee injury. I just didn’t hit the nerve, but exact same injury. So when he heard my story and what I had to go through to get to this point, I think he started saying, “Man, my journey ain’t going to be as hard.” And I listened to him, and he is a faith-driven kid, and you just listen to him. I’ve learned so much from him just about being a good person and how he’s handling this whole situation.
At least I was graduating. I ain’t have years left in college at least. He had years left in college. So now you got to reprogram your brain to say, “Man, like I can’t play this game anymore. What am I going to do? And I want to be a part of it.” So, it’s just been impressive being around him every day and trying to help him become a really good coach and he is helping me become a better coach. He prays for me all the time, so that’s good. That’s good.”
On if he has ever coached a 6-foot-4 safety like freshman Joel Wyatt
“I actually have. I was at Connecticut. I had a 6-foot-4 safety, 220 pounds. Kind of reminded me of Joel. I’ve been around this kind of guy. Most of the time when people see guys like this, “Oh, he got to be a linebacker.” He’s not a linebacker. He’s a safety. He can move like one. He can run like one. He’s just young. He’s like all those young players. They got to learn the system, learn how we practice, learn how to be in college. But I’ve been impressed with him. I’ve been impressed with Jowell Combay and Luke Thompson. They’re all doing a great job.”
On the chemistry with the defensive coaches and Derek Jones at cornerback
“I’ve been knowing DJ (Derek Jones) for a long time, so we’ve been knowing each other 20 years. It’s an easy fix with me and him. I’ve been knowing (William) Inge for a long time. Me and him met at Purdue, had the same recruiting area, so we’ve been around each other quite a bit. Everybody knows the legendary coach (Rodney) Gardner. I met him when I was a baby coach. I was scared as hell of him. I ain’t even know what to do when I saw him, because you just heard the stories. But I think we got a great room. All our personalities are a little bit different, but it’s a good mix, and I think we bring out the best in each other.”
