The Tennessee Vols

Tennessee Head Coach Derek Dooley (Opening statement)

“Let me start by giving Montana a lot of credit. That is a good football team. We
knew it coming in here. They whipped us at the line of scrimmage the whole
game. That is a real tribute to them. They are a veteran team with some big physical
guys, and we did not run (the ball) the way it needed to be run. So, we need a
little improvement there but we did make some big plays in the throwing game
which stretched the game out a little bit early. That was good.”

“It was a good win. They all are and they are all never easy. But there is a lot of
work to do, and we need to make a big jump from game one to game two if we
want to be competitive next week. We made a ton of mistakes, a lot of them from
young guys. We have to go look at the film, clean it up and show some improvement
next week.”

(On the running game)
“We were hoping we could run it a little bit better but Montana did a good job.
They have all seniors and juniors on defense, and you could tell. They did a lot of
stuff – moving, shifting, blitzing – and they are physical. (Tauren) Poole had 100
yards and averaged four yards a carry but we were hoping to run it a little bit
better than we did. “

(On Tyler Bray)
“Tyler did a good job. He was poised out there. There are still some plays he could
have done better but for the most part he managed the game very well. He had
three touchdowns, and we have some guys who can make some big plays on
the perimeter.“

(On playing against the no-huddle)
“There were a lot of mistakes. We settled in pretty good. There were some times
when it got a little edgy on the no huddle when we were late lining up. I thought
we managed it a lot better than we did last year.”

(On the first-half fumbles)
“We have not had the wet ball work we needed to. Every time we had lightening
when it rained so we were not able to go outside, and it showed a little bit
earlier. We were not protecting the ball the way we needed to. Fortunately, we
did not have a turnover. Sometimes that’s luck and sometimes it means guys are
running to the ball.”

(On the weather delay)
“It is all in how you manage it. It is amazing but I think this is my sixth coaching
where we have had a lightening delay. So, it is like old hat to me. The guys managed
it really well. They were relaxed, and they just shut it down in the locker
room. I was pleased with them for being as young as they were.”

(On the play of Marlin Lane)
“Marlin showed what I thought he would. He has some good ability. He scored
a couple of touchdowns and made some guys miss. He had some good tough
runs, and he is going to get better and better.”

(On the big plays of WRs Da’Rick Rogers and Justin Hunter)
“They have both being doing it all camp. They both have big play ability, and
we are going to need them to have a lot of big plays this year for us to win some
games. They showed you a little taste of what they can do. We have to do a great
job as coaches to put them in position to catch a lot of balls.”

(On senior defensive back Art Evans)
“Give Art a lot of credit because he had a lot of reasons to shut it down last year.
He went through a tough time last year, and we signed all of these DBs. But to his
credit he has never complained. He has never griped. He has just gone to work.
He made probably the biggest play of the game. They had kind of inched back
in it. He played the bubble the way we want him to play it, and he got rewarded.”

(On his orange pants)
“I admit I was inspired when I saw “The Color Orange.” There’s nothing better
than old footage. I just remember seeing the old footage of the coaches out
there and they all had orange pants on. So I asked Fraiz (equipment manager
Roger Frazier) if he could get a pair of orange pants. He didn’t think I’d wear
them. He thought I was wasting my money. So Fraiz got it done and I felt like,
let’s put it on. I’m not at the blazer yet. Everybody else wanted me to wear white
shoes and a white belt. My wife intervened on that. That’s why you never do
anything without asking your wife.“

Senior TB Tauren Poole

(On the flea-ficker play)
“Normally it doesn’t, but I say him out of the corner of my eye and normally you
aren’t supposed to pinch it, but I pinched it anyway. I tried to turn around as fast
as I could and you try and make a play to make a play and I did.”

Sophomore QB Tyler Bray
“We saw them when we were watching film and we were working all week in
practice to make these combinations ready for the game.” Got some young guys
in there tonight and we got them some experience so it helps us out a lot to get
everyone experience. Glad we got out of there with a victory. We were running
the ball, throwing the ball and it was just a really balanced offense tonight. We
were just trying to finish.

“We did okay, there were a few throws I should have made and a few reads I
should have made different. I kind of left Da’Rick out to dry and I didn’t like that
at all and I owe him one for the next game. Tauren ran the ball great, we ran play
action and that’s what we wanted to do.”

Senior DT Malik Jackson

(On Montana Offense & Tennessee Defense)
“I think we played very well, you know the young guys really had a great week
of practice and everyone knew what they were doing pretty much. With their
tempo it got pretty hectic, but once we settled down and got there tempo down
it got easier. We had some problems in the beginning but we worked it out.”

(Different than what you expected)
“We knew that they ran plays every 13 seconds, but once you get in the game
and get a team that really runs, it gets hard, and I come out the first series huffing
and puffing and you just have to get it used to it. It’s the first game of the season
and we were just happy we went out there and got coached up and everything
fell into place.”

(On not having any scrimmage work)
“I felt pretty good out there. I felt the weeks of practice more seriously and went
pretty hard this week. I work my butt off this week and the game was pretty easy
this week.”

(Surprised by the size of the offense of Montana offensive line)
“I thought they were bigger, they looked athletic, but I guess that is what you can
say about any team on video. It was surprising, but they were still very good and
I wish the best for them.”