Everything Willie Martinez said ahead of Vanderbilt

Tennessee defensive backs coach Willie Martinez addressed the media ahead of the Vols’ Saturday showdown with Vanderbilt.

When you, you look at Vanderbilt and, and what they’re doing offensively now, is it a lot different than a year ago? What, what do you see out of their passing game as you evaluate them?

You can see the experience, you can see the continuity of the guys that played last year. He’s a heck of a player and you can see the confidence, you can see the execution. They look like they’re throwing the ball a little bit more than they did last year and opening up, their offense, for the most part. They just do a great job of executing. I mean, they’re doing similar plays, different formations here and there, but in the end of it, it’s just the execution as a group. 

They’ve been very consistent and it all starts with the guy that’s got the ball right. And he’s doing a great job of leading. And and you can see that obviously in their success that they’ve had moving forward the entire season.

 With Pavia’s ability to run the football, the challenges in the back end for you guys, I mean, what are some things that maybe you’re preaching this week in, in terms of when things break down? 

I know a lot of that is design runs, but a lot of times he just makes things happen off platform. Yeah, he, he does a lot of great things off schedule. Like the, like we like to say, you know, where it doesn’t go in quite exactly how, you know, you’re, you’re practicing it from a standpoint of defending a, a certain route and, and then obviously you can get creative from there. You don’t want to lose contain as, as the pass rush lanes or, and he can, he can be very deadly because he can run on the ball and he can throw the ball, you know, on the run, you know, and for us, you just gotta play discipline.

I mean, basically it’s gonna sound the same thing, but doing our job and, and knowing that there’s an elite player at the quarterback position that can actually do things. You can run the ball as he breaks out the pocket or you can throw it, stay on your guys and being disciplined until you cross the last scrimmage because he’s done a great job of being very creative on the, on the perimeter, you know, behind the last scrimmage and either keeping it, throwing it, you know, so you gotta be disciplined. 

You guys have only had two touchdowns the past two games. What, what has allowed you guys to play a little bit better the last few games?

Yeah, the credit goes to the players. It’s been happening the last three or four weeks. You can see the happening where the confidence level and I think the young with the experienced players, you know what I mean? The young guys that have gotten more reps and the communication has been really solid. It starts there knowing what to do and what we’re gonna check to. It is gonna happen from our back end the most because the safeties have gotta make those checks and those calls along with the star, we’ve just been playing better as a group. 

I think the communication has been really good, you know what I mean? And obviously that made a bunch of plays that we weren’t making earlier in the season. 

What do you think led to some of that improvement in communication? 

I think the leadership  obviously you’re talking about seniors, like Turrentine. let’s start there. Jaylen McMurray guys that are experienced guys. Two guys that obviously have had a really good year on a consistent basis, and then spreading it out to the younger guys and they bought into it. I think they meet together on their own even when we’re out of meetings, and that’s really good to see as a groupl. Again, they do a great job of mentoring each other and you can see that in the last three weeks.

Just how hard is that communication piece to, to develop, particularly in this day and age where it’s a lot of new players every year ’cause of the portal. So maybe you don’t have some of the continuity gear to gear. And as a coach, how do you create the sense of urgency with them that the communication piece is so important? 

I think it starts everywhere you’re at. We’re in a meeting room it’s gotta sound the same way it does in that meeting room and when you take it out to the field and whether it’s walkthroughs and the amount of reps that we take. Like we say all the time, man, the communication has to be given but also has to be received. That’s the complete communication. I think that’s where we’ve gotten better. When you’re trying to make a call to somebody and you’re seeing eye to eye. I think it’s the amount of time that we, whether it’s in a room in our meeting rooms or we’re doing walkthroughs and then taking it when you go to a practice, we just had obviously a really good practice today. 

A lot of it was some really good communication and there was some where we didn’t give it back, whether it’s a corner, whether it’s a linebacker is receiving it and, and giving the signal back to each other that I got it. That’s where we’ve gotten a lot better. 

Ty Redmond seems to have gotten a lot of confidence late in the year. I’m sure all freshmen sort of go through ebbs and flows. How important for him, for his long-term future, for next season, how important is it that he is getting confidence late in his freshman year? 

That’s what it’s all about. You want to be able to know what you want to know what you’re doing, but at the same time too, you wanna be able to execute and you want to have a bunch of plays that consistently you can go from series to series, game to game, and you can see the growth. I mean, my goodness since game one to now, we feel really confident in him, players around him. And you can see it, you can see him more talkative in meeting rooms, more talkative on the field, doesn’t get down on himself. He just keeps a snapping clear kind of mentality. 

At first he was letting things beat him up a little bit, I think like any young player would that’s very competitive like himself. I just think it’s the growth. I think being here, the amount of reps he’s gotten in this league, as good as it is. He’s going against some really good players and he’s making some plays. It’s happening in the games, but obviously we have really good players on offense here, so he has a good feel for whether it’s a tall receiver, whether it’s a quick guy. He understands how to study, each guy’s skill set that’s important where he was just relying on his, his talent level and not really getting to, you know, study some of the guys that he’s going against and he’s doing. Where he’s really, really is grown s trying to, you figure out who is he going against,and then executing.

You mentioned Jaylen McMurray’s leadership. He talked yesterday about how grateful he is to finish his career here at Tennessee. Just how you’ve seen him grow over the past two years and really take on that leadership role with the team?

We’ve been very fortunate with the, the kids that have transferred in and we’re very intentional. We’ve built a standard and expectation here. A culture that it’s high level and we make sure that the ones that we do choose to come here know that. He has been unbelievable since he’s been here. Obviously, every kid wants to play more. We get that but I think at the same time too, you gotta know where you’re at and he’s grown through that process, you know what I mean? 

He’s a very versatile player and that’s why we took him. We knew we could play inside, hecould play outside, but it’s really his attitude, his investment and he’s not just playing on the field and making communication, he’s actually coaching on the off since the day he’s been here. 

He’s been like that. He’s been a coach on the field. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a younger guy, if it’s an older guy, he knows when to insert himself into a conversation and not, I think sometimes guys don’t have that awareness at times. He’s the guy who’s the, you know, a great teammate really is. And he’s earned the respect since he’s been here. I just said it just a little while ago, he has fed off the group. You can see where he fits in by the way, when he got here. But then his growth too as a player. 

He’s grown. He’s had a really good year. That’s really been good for us on the defensive side of the ball because you gotta have a really good player to star position. 

You talk about ties another young guy and your secondary is Edrees. How have you seen him kind of grow from his first game to now his first season as a starter?

He’s grown himself, obviously he very similar. Obviously it’s his second year and when you compare him, to Ty, but it’s his first time ever starting from the get-go. He’s somebody that we count on each and every day with our communication and he’s gotta get it right. He and Dre (Turrentine) are very similar to see his growth, just like I was just talking about Ty, the confidence and the play-making ability that he has produced throughout the season.

It’s really good to see good for him, good for us, he’s a very productive player, a physical player, smart, athletic, and he’s, yeah, very similar to Ty. It is awesome to see that he’s going against some really good teams, really good players, but that’s been really good for us. And that’s been the consistency that we’ve seen here, the last three or four weeks.