Everything Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks said after the Vols second spring workout

Tennessee was back on the practice field on Tuesday for the second of 15 spring workouts. Following practice, defensive coordinator Tim Banks met with the media to discuss the start of spring drill for his defense.

With so many guys having gone through bowl practice how valuable is that experience for guys this spring? 

It’s funny you say that, you know, it felt like we’ve had these guys for a little over a year at this point. I, I think they have been great. You can see the guys, their recall is a lot better then obviously when they first got here, they’ve gotten acclimated with their teammates, I think they’re a lot more comfortable. So, so far so good. You know, obviously we get a chance to play football again, but the off season was really good for those guys.

What more can James Pearce do? And in addition to that, we saw him dropping the coverage in Citrus Bowl, obviously the Pick 6. Is that something that you guys did more with him late in the year, or will you do more with him in that? 

I think we have a system we were able to showcase any of our player’s skillset and he’s no different. We think the sky’s the limit for him. Obviously he’s just a sophomore. I think he’s just scratching the surface on how good he can be. He’s extremely versatile, as you said. You know, everyone’s alluding to the pick six that he had, but he’s shown that in practice. He’s got really good drop skills and ball awareness. We can all get better. I think James will be the first one to tell you there’s a lot of room for improvement on his end. And the good news is he’s working extremely hard right now to take another step. 

Coach, one of you, you talked about the, the new guys, one of those new guys, Boo Carter, who was really good with football in his hands on offense, returning kicks in high school. How did you have to win sort of a battle with the other coaches to get him in your group and on defense and what do you think, how do you think his skillset translates to where you guys want to play him? 

We like to score touchdowns too, so, hopefully we can get the ball in his hands as well. Obviously Coach Heupel was super excited to get him. We know he’s very versatile. There’s a lot of different things that he can do. Right now he’s concentrating on defense and trying to win some playing time and win a job. He’s been good so far. It’s a lot as a freshman as you know, but I think again getting him early, getting a chance to get acclimated has really helped him. But obviously as we continue to put more on his plate, we’ll see how he progresses. But right now I’m super excited about him. We love his skill sets, athleticism, his toughness. But, you know, we feel the same way about a lot of the young guys.

Is that star position maybe harder for a freshman than corner or safety, or how do kind of they compare the learning curve? 

I don’t know. I think they all have a certain level of toughness to it in terms of what they have to learn and have to be able to take to the field. But playing star, playing in the field, safety, boundary safety, it’s all the same. You gotta be able to communicate. You gotta be able to take it, digest it, and be able to articulate it. So we have some guys that are helping him learn that, We’re never gonna try to tie up his mind. We’re gonna try to give him the ability to play as fast as he can and we’ll do what we need to do schematically to help him and the rest of the guys.

Year four here for you in this system, what’s the goal for this defense this spring? What is your top two or three priorities to accomplish? 

You always try to identify where you can improve. The thing that’s always interesting is it’s a new group, so where we might have had some liabilities and you have to play a certain way to help some guys showcase what they can do to help the defense. We’re kind of learning that this spring with all the newcomers and what their strengths are and how we can make sure we’re playing in their strengths. But overall, we obviously want to be a little bit better, with low red zone. That’s one of the things we identified and we think we can be better. We like our scheme, we just got some things that we obviously need to be able to tweak and help us grow in that way. It’s a long list of things no different than we talked about James. Every year we’re trying to grow and get a little bit better defensively. We’ll know a little bit more about our personnel and then we’ll obviously make the adjustments moving forward. 

Obviously turnover’s kind of a part of the deal in college football. You only get these guys for a certain amount of time, but losing so many veterans in one year in the secondary, with some new voices back there in, in terms of getting everyone lined up, communication, how do you feel like that process is going out and do you have guys speaking up and helping that process? 

Guys are working through it. We try to be mindful no different than every year, putting guys in different situations to make them be more vocal. But obviously we lost a lot of veterans back there. But between Dre (Andre Turrentine) and Dre played a lot at the end of the year and we thought he did some really good things, so we’re excited about him, but yeah, it’ll be a transition, but at the same time, I know we’re super excited about it. We feel like we got some really good young talent. We feel like we got some older guys that starting to hit their stride and obviously we got a couple of transfers, so we think the sky’s the limit, right? 

Coach there, there’s a lot of talk about, you know, the helmet, communication for the offensive guys and coordinators being able to talk to quarterbacks right before the snap as a defensive guy. What do you want to experiment with that this spring and and how beneficial do you think it could be for a defensive coordinator to communicate on the field with players, particularly against a no huddle offense? 

 I think just like anything, time will tell. We do see some, some opportunities there. Sometimes you might see something and you want to relay it. You haven’t had that ability until now. So we’re kind of working our way through it, but we do think it can be some advantages taken there. But to tell you exactly where they are right this second it’s hard to say. But it’s just our second day really messing with it getting used to my voice, not saying too much, not saying too little, you’re kind of working through it that way. You gotta understand, can he take what you’re saying and be able to make battlefield decisions?  Who is that guy? So I think there is a lot of moving parts, but  I do think it’s good for football and we’re excited about the opportunity. 

Kinda of going back to that revamp secondary, I know it’s a different league and a new team, new system and all that, but you, you do bring in a guy Jakobe Thomas, that’s played a lot of football. How important is that?

Yeah, it has been great so far. You know, he is the guy that’s played a lot of football, which leads to him having a lot of confidence and you know, he is really fitting in with the room, you know, the guys like him, you know, he’s a big body kid, you know, who runs well, extremely smart. So we’re excited he’s here. You know, we, we think he’s gonna be a great addition to us.

Tim, just what do you see from William Inge and how does he sort of fit on this defensive staff? 

William’s been great. He brings a wealth of experience coaching at every level. And he is been good. The biggest thing for me is the relationship he has with our guys because that’s what it is about building relationships and man, he hit the ground running. The guys love him. He’s a great teacher, just a great personality and we really hit the jackpot with him. So I’m excited he’s here. 

Coming off that injury back in the fall what’s Keenan Pili able to do this spring? Is he gonna be still limited A little bit?

He’s working through right now, you know, so we actually gonna be smart with him. But you know, he’s out there, he’s taking reps and you know, it’s important for us to knock the rust off, but you know, obviously we want to get into to Saturdays, but so far so good. You know, we’re just kind of working him back in, you know, I wouldn’t say he’s gonna take a hundred of snaps, but he is definitely gonna take his lion’s share up and then, you know, we’re excited for him.

Following up on that, the other linebackers that obviously Elijah and Arion kind of banked up too, so is it a big spring for some of the younger guys to get more rest? 

(Jeremiah) Telander, Jalen (Smith) those guys that have been here, (Kaleb) Perry, those guys are going to have a great opportunity in front of ’em and again, it is only been two days, but you can already start to see the maturity and the growth in those guys, you from year one to year two, year two to year three with some of ’em. Unfortunately some of those guys will be limited a little bit this spring. But obviously those young guys we talked about I think it could be a great opportunity for, them. 

On the same note with Keenan Pili, how big is it to have a guy with so much experience back when you have a new position coach there? 

I think it’s big obviously again, not being able to play as much football as he wanted to last year was tough, but at the same time he was around. He got a chance to build with his teammates and build with chemistry, so I know all those guys were excited to see him back on the field and obviously bringing in coach Inge and those guys getting on the same page in a hurry has been been beneficial as well. 

How nice is it to have a veteran like Omari Thomas in the interior defensive line and what do you expect from that group this spring? 

I think we should really have the best defensive line in the country. I feel really good about our depth that we’re building. I feel really strongly about their attitude and determination that those guys have played with. I’m not even talking as much about football, just great guys. They’re great human beings and they’ve really worked hard as coaches we want to see guys develop their full potential. Being able to see these guys go from year one to where they are right now, has been huge and we’re super excited about those guys. 

What do you think you are with competition at corner? I know it’s two days in, but going back through what you did last month, what do you feel like your depth is at corner? How competitive do you expect that position to be between now and and through training camp in August? 

I think it’s gonna be highly competitive. Right now we’re moving guys around. You obviously send the first group out there, the first rep, but then from there you just kind of moving the guys around and with different people. So it’s gonna be competitive, but if I’m being honest, that’s at every position. No different at linebacker. I just talk about our D line and the depth that we have there. It’s a lot of guys who love to run out there first and as I said the first day I got here, you get what you deserve. So, we’re really working hard to build some depth in the secondary, it’s probably a little bit more unknown ’cause of some of those guys just getting here. 

But I love their athleticism, I love the direction like Ricky Gibson is taking right now and just the confidence that he’s playing with. But it’s gonna be a challenge to figure out who the best four, four, or five dbs are particularly at the corner spot. 

Kinda on that note of moving guys around a little bit, it, I may be wrong, it looked like Christian Harrison needs some corner safety, looked like he was a star today. Who are some others that may be are moving around a little bit the first couple days? 

Jourdan Thomas is moving around. We are moving Boo Carter around, all of those guys, quite honestly. I told those guys (freshman), if they’re the best players, they’re gonna earn some playing time if not start, but they gotta earn it. So we’re trying to move guys around and figure out what their best position is. And obviously again, as, as a coach, it’s our job to figure out, what their strength and weaknesses are and put them in the best situations. The only way we can do that is to move these guys around so that’s what we’re doing.