What Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said about Tennessee on Monday

What Arkansas interim head coach Bobby Petrino said during his weekly press conference on Monday, looking back at his coaching changes during the bye week and previewing the Razorbacks (2-3, 0-1 SEC) against No. 12 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1) on Saturday (4:15 p.m. Eastern Time, SEC Network) at Neyland Stadium:

If he likes the progress Arkansas has made on defense over the bye week

“I like the way that we’ve worked. I think the defensive players did a really nice job of coming out on the field with a good attitude, put a lot of effort into the practices that we had. We’re very attentive to detail. I thought the coaching staff did a good job of really trying to work hard on the details of what we’re doing. So it was a good week of practice.”

What he’s seen on film from Tennessee’s offense this season 

“They’re a challenge. They’ve always been a challenge. They spread the field, but they want to run the ball. So the biggest challenge is how do you defend the pass and stop the run? So that’s something that we’re working hard at, is to be able to understand we have to stop the run first. Gotta get a lot of bodies to the football, tackle well, be gap sound, which we’ve worked really hard at, and play with great effort. So that’s kind of the things that we’ve been emphasizing.”

New Arkansas defensive coordinator Chris Wilson, why he hired Jay Hayes as his new defensive line coach 

“I really liked what I’ve seen from Coach Wilson. He does a really nice job of getting everyone to work hard and understand what he’s asking them to do. I think the communication that he’s had with the athletes has been very, very good. Jay Hayes, I’ve known for years and years and years. I guess we first became friends because he played at the University of Idaho and obviously I coached at the University of Idaho. So that was one of the things that I guess brought us together. But he coached with the Cincinnati Bengals for a long, long time. Marvin (Lewis) was the head coach there and we’ve had a really close relationship for a long time, since we met at I think it was DVC Junior College in California, many moons ago. And then we used to go up and watch him practice at Georgetown College when I was at Louisville. So I’ve known him, watched him coach, watched him practice. He’s a really good football coach. So when he reached out and said he would be really interested in it, it immediately caught my interest.”

The timeline from the defensive staff fires last week to making the Jay Hayes hire

“I mean it was pretty immediate. We had to have a plan on what we were going to do. So Chris was here. I like what we visited about, talked about. I feel really comfortable with him taking over. Shay was here, so him coaching the secondary, he’s been working with those guys and doing a good job. So he did that. And then it was, okay, we need one more guy to help. And then the question was, linebacker, D-line, all defensive coordinators seemed to — I can’t really say all — but they seem to want to coordinate from the linebacker spot because that ties you with the coverage and with the front on meetings, half-line drills, stuff like that. You’re involved in both of them. So it makes a lot of sense. 

“Chris wanted to see if we could bring in a D-line guy. It’s funny because him and Jay actually worked in the same building. So I didn’t know a whole lot about that league (the UFL), but they all practice at the same spot. They work in the same building and they get on a plane and travel together to play each other in the different cities. So that was pretty interesting. But they knew each other and respect each other a lot so it made a lot of sense.”

How his duties change going from offensive coordinator to interim head coach

“Yeah, I mean there’s a lot more to do, that’s for sure. Especially like meeting with the trainer, meeting with the special teams, understanding who’s going to get on the bus, who’s going to get on the plane. Sometimes it’s a lot easier just to call plays and coach the quarterbacks. But that’s part of it. I have experience doing it, so it makes it fairly easy.”

How he looks at moving Arkansas players around or getting more reps for players who weren’t previously on the field much  

“We’ve had a week off. We’ve had not a week off, but we’ve had a week of preparation and then we play Tennessee. So we’re not going to talk a lot about what we’re going to do with individuals and where they might line up in this first game, just to see if maybe we can get a little bit of advantage there.”

If he has crossed paths during his career with Josh Heupel or any of Tennessee’s coaches

“Not really. I got to go up and watch Coach Heupel coach when he was with Barry (Odom). I went up there and spent a couple days at their spring ball and watched him coach and watched him work. But I don’t really know him at all.”

If he expects a high-scoring game based on how these two defenses have been playing 

“Yeah, you never know on those. I’ve went into a lot of games where you thought, oh man, it’s gonna be a shootout and at halftime it’s 10-9. So you never know how that’s gonna play out. We’re certainly, though, I feel like we’ve got to go in and be able to move the ball and score points.” 

 How different his game day duties will be

“I don’t think it’ll be that much different. I’ve been down on the sideline and called plays for years and years. I went upstairs this year. I thought maybe I could get a better look at it. And to be honest with you, get away from the officials and just be able to focus on offense. So I’ve got to do a good job of just keeping my poise on the sideline and focus on calling the plays and seeing the defenses and really understanding what’s going on out on the field.”

What would mark success for Arkansas besides a win

“I want us to do the process right. Do the things that you need to do to win games. And that’s in our preparation and how we practice, how we go about our daily business, how the players are in the building, in the weight room. And then that gives you the opportunity to win. As long as you’re doing the things that lead up, the end result is with a W. So we’re gonna work hard on preparing and doing things right and then getting out on the field and compete. I want everybody out there competing hard and giving us their best effort. ou know, the one thing about being here at Arkansas, it’s always been about being tough and physical and hard-nosed and we got to get to that.”

Being the one who calls timeouts, what that changes

“No, not really. I think, you know, if anything, it makes it easier on two minute because you understand when you are calling a timeout and not when you wanna keep going, when you wanna flow, how it goes. So it actually makes the play calling a little bit easier in the two minute situations, end of half situations, whether you’re gonna go for it on fourth down or not, you’re thinking ahead on that and not just hearing it through the headset. So I think if anything, it makes it simpler.”

What he thinks about the environment at Neyland Stadium

“It’s awesome. It’s awesome. You always want to go into a hostile environment and have fun with it and go. So I felt like at Ole Miss, we did a really nice job of handling the noise, the communication, the knock on wood, didn’t have pre-snap penalties. I thought the experience for Taylen (Green) and those guys were right on. So I feel like we’ll go in there and handle it well. I’m optimistic we’ll go in there and handle it well. It is different. It’ll be louder, it’ll be more hostile than Ole Miss was, but we’ve got to do a good job preparing for it. What that says is that you come off the practice field with a headache every day because that noise you play out there is awful.”

If they’re playing Rocky Top at practice

“No, you don’t play that. But just the noise that you have to make between plays and all that, so you can call the play. It makes for stressful time. But it’s fun.”

Confirming that no Arkansas players have entered the portal so far

“Yessir.”

If he ever thought he’d be head coach at Arkansas again

“You know, it went through my head when Sam hired me and how grateful I am for him to have that courage to bring me back and really can’t say enough about that. I think that that was something that was really special to me. I felt like this is awesome. I get to come back here and give to a place that I certainly left the wrong way. Since this has happened, I really haven’t given it a whole lot of thought. I’ve really tried to focus on let’s just get better today. Let’s make this a place where the players like to come in and feel good about themselves, work hard about themselves, understand that they need to earn it. You know, I think that’s one of the things that they’ve done a nice job of is to show them that they want to make themselves marketable and what their brand is. And I’m excited about how they’ve approached it. I like the coaching staff, how they’ve approached it, too. We all know that we got eight weeks to show what we can and can’t do, and let’s have fun with it. Let’s work extremely hard. Let’s all stick together.”

Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar

“He’s a good player. He’s got tons of experience. He understands defenses and coverages and we’ve got to try to make him uncomfortable.”