Where are you at on the quarterback, um, query right now? Qu- conundrum, you know, controversy, whatever you wanna call it.

Well, I think right now Tennessee should approach the Arkansas game with George McIntyre as the starter.

Tennessee has to get Faizon Brandon healthy.

And when his health issues, his shoulder, whatever's going on is brought up, I almost immediately see a response of, "Oh, were his eyes hurt?" Faizon Brandon is a fr- he's a freshman quarterback who has, to this point, played in two SEC games.

Going into the Auburn game, he had made one SEC start.

It obviously did not go well, and then he did not get normal preparation for the Auburn game.

Eric, I've already said my opinion that I think it's at least fair to question why Faizon started, and my opinion is that he probably should not have started the game against Auburn considering the lack of preparation.

Me neither.

You know, this week it's kind of been the whole – And who's more to blame, Faison, the quarterback, or the offensive line for the 10 sacks, 12 TFLs, and the 24 total pressures that Texas applied according to Pro Football Focus? When you were watching the game in real time, when you went back and watched the tape, what were your takeaways in terms of what went wrong for Tennessee up front?

Well, the conversation does have to start with the offensive line.

Last week on our 12 to 3 show on the Sports Animal, Jason Swain and I were asked, what's your biggest concern going in? Swain, without hesitation, said protecting Faison Brandon.

And when he said protecting, that included the offensive line.

But he talked about you're protecting a freshman 18-year-old quarterback in a number of ways with the literal protection from the offensive line.

with a run game that helps him out, with play calling that sets him up to be successful.

And none of that was on display, really.

But how can you get better from one week to the next? And Josh, I think it starts with who's out there and who's healthy.

That's gonna be a tall task there with some big beef in the middle.

Yeah, I'd say that's, that's easily my biggest concern for Tennessee, is how Tennessee's interior, its offensive line is gonna play, especially at right guard and at center.

And Wendell Moy, I think Tennessee's staff would say he needs to be the all SEC performer they believe him to be, and probably hasn't been that in the first three games of the season.

I will say on the outside, this is why Tennessee signed and paid Davis Sanders Jr. what it did.

Four games against Texas and the best teams in the conference.

He was that kind of player as a recruit, has that kind of ability going into this game.

But if Texas on the interior is able to win consistently, that will create problems for Tennessee trying to run the football throughout the game, and that could potentially create real problems for Faizon Brandon.

But give me a lean, give me a thought, kinda, kinda where are you at right now if Tennessee and Texas played in two hours?

how big of a loss is ethan davis starting tight end for tennessee and does this loss do you feel like the injuries are starting to pile do you have a concern about the end i know injuries are part of it but like are they starting to pile up a little bit too too quickly for you

anytime you get season-ending injuries especially early on in the season it's too quick but i can't say that that's going to lead to more injuries there are a lot of guys that went down on saturday night that That was not reassuring to see that, but a lot of guys coming back in, maybe that was.

That's why when Tennessee had the long touchdown run, I said this on Josh and Swain, but the DeJuan Morris touchdown, nobody was hurt, and I don't think it's a big deal at all.

But I would have gone into victory formation because I'd already seen a couple of offensive linemen go down.

I'd seen players on both sides of the ball go down.

I wasn't going to take a risk of one more defender falling into one more knee or leg, and I didn't even know about it.

when I thought that at the time.

part of it is

How do you think he's going to fare in an environment that, sure, it's not going to be like Tiger Stadium or Brian Denny or Ben Hill Griffith or whatever, but it is going to be his first true road game, and this will be the most hostile environment he's ever played in in his life.

Yeah, I think he'll do well.

I think Josh Heupel and Joey Halsley will have a good plan to try to help him early on.

I thought early on against Furman, no matter the opponent, getting him into some kind of rhythm early where he could find success more easily was a really good thing.

They could have taken some shots down the field right away.

And maybe they would have connected.

And maybe he could say, hey, I threw an 80-yard touchdown pass in my opening drive as Tennessee's quarterback.

Go to your strengths, play those linebackers, and that's at least what Jim Knowles did in game number one.

What would be success to you on Saturday outside of Tennessee just winning big?

Well, winning comfortably along the lines of scrimmage.

Tennessee should be able to do what it wants to along the offensive line and up front on defense.

This is one where you line up man to man and Tennessee should have an advantage at every single spot.

I think everybody recognizes that.

And with Faison Brandon making his debut, I will not be surprised to see some mistakes either by him or with the way the offense has run at different times.

But you'd like to see Faison take command of the offense.

What are some aspects in this football game, maybe specific position groups or players that you're wanting to see something from this week?

They got to go out there and do it, of course, but they're going to have help.

Yeah, I would just be very surprised if Faison Brandon has a bad season.

I don't know if he'll stay healthy.

You can't predict injuries, things like that.

But Faison in this offense, I think, is going to succeed.

I don't have Hendon Hooker 2022 expectations.

There are levels of success.

Where are you at on right tackle? And I guess the tight end position entering or exiting fall camp.

Yeah,

okay.

I know Elijah and I were talking about this earlier today, just to kind of piggyback off of patient acquisition, patient loss, retention, all of that.

Let's say you get into a practice that you love in a bunch of ways, but they're short on patients by 10 or 15%.

Or just what you said, whatever your practices are could be in stark contrast.

They're abrasive to staff or patients.

For whatever reason, you're either losing patients or not bringing in enough every month.

Josh?

You know, it's kind of a yin and a yang.

Yeah, it's easy in the middle of August to get stuck in the forest with what's going on because so much of the attention is on yourself and other teams are dealing with their own challenges and you can't compare yourself and what you're doing directly to the other teams while they're doing their own thing behind closed doors in almost every case as well.

I don't think there's elevated concern about the defensive front or the defensive line.

I think that we knew coming out of last season that Tennessee had to replace some important guys that had played a lot.

And part of that is going to be done by asking young players with a lack of experience to step up and take on bigger roles.

With that will come inconsistency.

And Rodney Garner is never going to sing the praises of his defensive line in the middle of August.

But I've got questions behind them now.

It was just swung back and forth all night.

Yeah, that's exactly it.

Um, I mean, I back Moorey and, you know, so much faith in him to, um, to kick those, so just unlucky and, um, yeah, it's a game of momentum.

We always talk about that and, um, yeah, we had it on occasion and then lost it.

Um, yeah, feel like that was really the game, like being able to handle momentum.

If we were able to do that a little bit better, like nip it in the bud before, you know, they kick three goals in a row, um, yeah, we'll be reviewing that for sure.

But, um, you know, you, you got off him a couple of times, or you were in the area of doing that by kicking those two goals, especially that great one from the center square.

Uh, yeah, I mean, he's probably the best player in the comp.

It was just swung back and forth all night.

Yeah, that's exactly it.

Um, I mean, I back Moorey and, you know, so much faith in him to, um, to kick those.

So just unlucky and, um, yeah, it's a game of momentum.

We always talk about that and, um, yeah, we had it on occasion and then lost it.

Um, yeah, feel like that was really the game, like being able to handle momentum.

If we were able to do that a little bit better, like nip it in the bud before, you know, they kicked three goals in a row, um, yeah, we'd be reviewing that for sure.

But, um, you know, you, you got off him a couple of times, or you were in the area of doing that by kicking those two goals, especially that great one from the center square.

How do you reflect on that one? I know you've had a really good run of form coming into this one, but, um, you get a good taste of what you'll come up against this Sep- in September against the Lions, for sure.

Yeah.

Uh, tough game today, obviously.

Um, just not good enough in a lot of areas.

Um, basics really let us down.

Um, we spoke about execution early.

Um, you know, it's mo- demoralizing, uh, if you...

it, it's a big thing to learn, uh, going forward.

What other position battles have your eye here in fall camp that you hope to hear more and more about and are intrigued to see how it all plays out?

Well, position battles, I'm curious with that third wide receiver spot, which is one we've talked about a lot.

I think there's a lot of excitement around Radarius Jackson entering his second season.

TK Keys is a very talented true freshman.

That also includes the question, "Hey, how much opportunity will he get?" Because we have not seen true freshman wide receivers play much in this offense under Josh Heupel, but that could be different this time with TK Keys.

Again, let's see.

Let's see how that competition plays out.

But d- does not having Ariyon Carter change anything for you in that week two match up at Bobby Dodd with Georgia Tech?

How did it feel out on the ground?

Um, yeah, I mean, they, they were playing very well and, um, it was a frustrating game.

Felt like we couldn't get much momentum.

Every time we started to look on top, they'd, they'd peg us back.

So yeah, credit to North.

They were really up for the fight and [clears throat] like the way they moved the ball, um, yeah, was frustrating early.

Um, but I think we have, we've got some pretty amazing players, like Wiz was incredible today.

I know the Hawks love playing down here, and is that enjoyment really reflected by the playing group? You like coming to Tassie?

How did it feel out on the ground?

Um, yeah, I mean they, they were playing very well and, um, it was a frustrating game.

Felt like we couldn't get much momentum.

Every time we started to look on top they'd, they'd peg us back.

So yeah, credit to North, they were really up for the fight and [clears throat] liked the way they moved the ball.

Um, yeah, it was frustrating early.

Um, but I think we have, we've got some pretty amazing players, like Whiz was incredible today.

I know the Hawks love playing down here, and is that enjoyment really reflected by the playing group? You like coming to Tassie?

Again, you can talk NIL, it was not cheap and all that more, but this is one of the biggest recruiting wins of the Josh Heupel era for sure.

Yeah, this is a big-time get.

To beat Ohio State for David Gabriel Georges is a massive win.

If Ohio State really wants him and Ohio State really wanted him, that tells you something, knowing the level that Ohio State recruits.

And Josh Heupel does continue to win with some of his top targets.

David Sanders Jr. was one of those top targets against Ohio State, and the Vols won there a little more than a year ago.

And to get David Gabriel Georges in the fold, he is a big-time talent.

The online chatter with these two fan bases has been unreal for quite some time now.

Yeah.

By the way, that's the way a lot of coaches are.

Some just can back it up more than others.

And Will Stein's a new fir- he, he's a first-year head coach.

He's been the offense coordinator, so now he has to prove it as a head coach.

Josh Heupel has a more proven track record with the success he's been able to find at UCF and at Tennessee, and what he did previously as an OC.

But again, uh, it's similar to if you ask Brent Venables, "Hey, why are you gonna be good defensively at Oklahoma?" He may not say, "Because of me," but because of everything he's done, they're gonna be really good on defense, and he knows how to put the personnel in place.

Anything else stand out to you early in the week at SEC Media Days?

Tennessee being a wildcard team, I get it because of those two areas on both sides of the football.

Yeah, we need some new descriptions for quarterback roles.

You're right.

Game manager just has this negative connotation.

But after a game, if you win and we say, man, the quarterback did a great job of managing things out there, that would be viewed as an obvious compliment, right? So we need to update what we say here.

I think the floor for Tennessee's quarterback position is higher because of what we've seen from Josh Heupel, how good of a job he's done at both UCF and Tennessee of getting different players ready.

That's somebody like Hendon Hooker who took over in 2021 after not winning the job to then exploding in 2022.

But, you know, knowing the situation and how Nico's tenure ended at Tennessee and knowing kind of the play you got for him, I think it's easier to say, well, yeah, it's absolutely David Gabriel-Georges right now, and we'll see if Tennessee can get to the finish line.

Again, maybe a company man or whatever you want to call it, but I don't think any of these have looked bad so far.

No, there's not been a uniform where I said, I don't know about that one.

So I agree with you on the Lady Vols basketball uniform.

I think it looks terrific.

I'd heard some of what you mentioned there about the baseball uniform as well.

I said last week, I don't think it's going to be too noticeable, some of the changes, but I thought that was a good thing going in.

This is not some of the Adidas concerns we talked about or that fans expressed more than 10 years ago before the switch to Nike.

Outside of quarterback, because that's going to dominate the conversation, what else is going to be the hot topics for Josh Heupel's club and Tennessee football and SEC media days in Tampa here in a few weeks?

We just finally have some finality to it, and that took place over, I guess it was on Friday.

Right.

Tennessee staff has already been planning for a football season without Chaz Coleman.

So what became official was really just a matter of it happening.

And it did.

But that still means Chaz Coleman will not be a part of Tennessee's football team.

So when we talk about Tennessee saving money and not owing him a ton because they had backloaded the contract.

I mean, it stinks, and fans want to know, when can this stop? And you hope it doesn't happen again, but ultimately, I think for the most part, Tennessee's going to handle these situations right, though they're all three different.

But how do you see that defensively? And do you have a different number one or last place compared to me?

Well, linebacker's easy at number one to me.

I think I might go – Corners and safeties before I get to the defensive line positions because of depth.

I think that the players that were brought in through the transfer portal and young players who still have the potential to help this year, not counting Ty Redmond.

Redmond is a reason that I would probably go corners number two, what he might be able to do.

this upcoming season.

I know that's still based on potential, but I think he produced enough as a freshman, especially as the year went along, to look at production and potential to get excited about Redmond, plus guys that have come in through the transfer portal, Kay and Lee, what he will be able to do.

What say you?

... and, and everyone does, but you have to bounce back, don't you? What do you do to be able to do that?

Um, I think a lot of work.

I think it really, really helped me, having that game, um, personally back, um, couple of years ago 'cause it really highlighted some things I needed to knuckle down on and work on and, um, I feel like it's made me a better player overall.

So yeah, I guess in a way, trying to turn it into a positive as much as it feels terrible at the time and you wanna go into your cave.

But, um, yeah, had so much, like, support from coaches and our club psychologist to try and get things going for me and, um, yeah, happy to be here.

[laughs]

Gold Coast hadn't won one in the second half, and you scored four-four from it.

Um, I mean, there's momentum swings.

... and, and everyone does, but you have to bounce back, don't you? What do you do to be able to do that?

Um, I think a lot of work.

I think it really, really helped me having that game, um, personally back, um, couple years ago, 'cause it really highlighted some things I needed to knuckle down on and work on and, um, I feel like it's made me a better player overall.

So yeah, I guess in a way trying to turn it into a positive as much as it feels terrible at the time and you wanna go into your cave, but, um, yeah, had so much, like, support from coaches and our club psychologist to try and get things going for me and, um, yeah, happy to be here.

[laughs]

Gold Coast hadn't won one in the second half and you scored four-four from it.

Um, I mean, there's momentum swings.

We definitely had momentum at times, but so did they, and that's a massive part of footy, especially when you're sort of competing in finals and against the top teams, is being able to control momentum and, um, when it's on your, on your side, trying to capitalize as much as you can, but also knowing what you can go back to when it's on their side.

um you get one of those safeties hopefully to come inside and Tennessee's still trying to pursue DJJ because I mean there's a lot of highly touted guys still left on the board don't get me wrong but it's never great when you look up there and see you know your team is not inside the top 25 or really inside the top 15 to be honest what do you make of recruiting rankings right now and then just overall in this era of college football

Well, I view it differently than I did 10 years ago because the ability to acquire talent is different and recruiting is not everything.

Everybody's going to take a different approach.

Now, if you look at Tennessee compared to the SEC, that's where a lot of the comparisons are going to come back.

We can look at the national ranking, which matters, but a lot of times it's about what else is happening nationally.

in the conference against these teams that you're going to face every year.

And Tennessee has a lot of ground to make up there.

So for him to... forfeit what would have been five million dollars or whatever i know he's still gonna take some you know based on what he's been paid so far but just to say hey i'm just gonna i'm gonna get out of this the big 12 soon texas tech i mean everybody hates me right now i'm just gonna go to the supplemental draft i mean again that's his bet he's got to lie in it i understand that but i thought this was probably the best possible outcome and i thought it was a massive win for the big 12

Yeah.

OK.

But but U.S. citizens, we're going to be paying tax.

And to me, that's that's crazy.

Yeah.

Because I can you know, I considered, you know, you know, taxes are ridiculous.

And that's that's the main reason why I left California is because of taxes.

It's terrible.