What Tennessee OLB coach Levorn 'Chop' Harbin said about Arkansas on Tuesday

What Tennessee outside linebackers coach Levorn ‘Chop’ Harbin said during his press conference on Tuesday, previewing the 12th-ranked Vols against Arkansas on Saturday (4:15 p.m. Eastern Time, SEC Network) at Neyland Stadium:

What he said to motivate Joshua Josephs at halftime during Tennessee’s game at Mississippi State

“Well, what I said, I just try to keep that between us. But I think sometimes guys need a little motivation. If I see it on my part as a coach, if I don’t see them playing at a level they should, that’s my job. So that’s what I’m going to do. If I don’t see you doing your job, I’m going to call you out. It’s just part of it. He understands that he knows I love him. So he responded well. And we’re happy.”

Tennessee players responding well to that kind of stuff

“Yes. All those guys know in the room, they understand that I want the best for them. They want the best for each other. So whenever you call them out, they know it’s legit. It’s not me trying to pick on them or what not. I just want to be better for them and that room to do well.”

What opposing teams have been able to do running the football against Tennessee’s defense 

“Well, as a group, we just got to get together and just shore up our fits a little bit better. Guys got to get out on the block. That’s on all levels. Get off blocks, do a better job of tackling, bodying the guy up and getting him on the ground. We just got to do a better job from from to back in the run. It starts front, ends in the back. But we all just got to do a better job overall. And coaches got to do a better job coaching those guys up.”

The challenge over the offseason to get Joshua Josephs to be a better pass rusher, if they’re seeing that work pay off 

“Well the goal is to get better from week to week. He’s gotten better each week. At the pace I like? No. At the pace we need as a program? No. But he’s getting better every week, that’s the goal. Now we want to see how we can get better from week five, from game five to game six. So that’s the goal, I want you to see progress every week. You have to progress every week to get better, to reach your goal at the end of the year. And he has done that.”

If there was a moment that he started to see Tennessee’s Caleb Herring turn a corner and become a playmaker off the edge 

“Well, it started back in offseason. You saw a little bit more twitch, more attention to detail. And he wants it. I mean, he wants to play well. In that room, they’re all rooting for each other, so that makes it easy in the room. 

Caleb gets a sack, it’s just like Jordan (Ross) and Josh (Josephs) got a sack. They’re all excited for each other and they push each other on techniques where sometimes I don’t have to intervene. When they screw up, they intervene before me. And they all take coaching from each other, and from me of course. But it’s a great room and he’s gotten better every week. And he’s working on the little things — footwork, get-off, playing with his hands and finishing. That’s the key, finishing. He’s been doing a great job of finishing versus the pass pro.”

Tennessee improving in its pass rush despite losing James Pearce

“Well, first of all, Coach Banks got a great scheme that’s very friendly to outside linebackers. Gives you a chance to make plays. Two, the guys have bought in to being one and cheering for the other and coaching the other guy on. And we have changed up technique a little bit, doing everything more conducive to their skill set versus just doing drills or whatnot. We try to do things that conducive to that skill set. And they bought in. 

And right now, they doing, I say as a coach, they doing okay. We got a lot more in the tank. We left a lot of plays on the field, a lot of plays on the field. So we just got to try to make those corrections and do better moving forward.”

Tennessee’s Joshua Josephs seemingly never being content or satisfied

“That’s refreshing, because I’m never satisfied. They’ll tell you I’m never satisfied. So that makes it easy. I mean, he wants to be better. I told the guys in the spring, you want to be a first-rounder, in order to be a first-rounder, you got to get production. The only way you’re going to get production, you got to do it the right way. It’s no shortcuts to getting production. Some people think it is, it’s not. We’ve had guys before that tried to do their own deal and not play within the defense. That’s not how it works. You have to play within the defense and you have to play for one another. And Josh and Caleb and Jordan and those guys play for one another and they play for the guys across the front. They excited when everybody get a sack, when somebody make a play. That’s the most enjoyable thing, seeing those guys excited about each other and not selfish players. And Josh is not selfish. Yeah, do he want to be the first one to the quarterback? Yeah. But if he’s not, he’s happy. Just happy that we’re doing well.”

Seeing Joshua Josephs and other Tennessee pass rushers get results on game days

“It’s very rewarding, number one, because you always want (it). I see him as one of my own kids. You want them to do well. When you know what their goals are and when they’re working towards it, it’s really refreshing, to be honest with you. He’s doing everything we’ve asked for him to do. Trying to maintain his weight, working on the techniques that we ask him to do to get better. And it’s going to be really big for this weekend for the entire front, across the front, for everybody doing their job and only their job. We don’t need Superman out there. We need for everybody to do their job versus a very athletic quarterback (Taylen Green). Remind you a lot of guys you guys remember Vince Young, Michael Vick, that’s what we remind you of. Just a taller, longer version. So, everybody has to do their job this week and we really need for Josh to come through and be a team player, not to be selfish this weekend. And he will (come through).”

What he sees from Tennessee freshman Christian Gass 

“Very smart, number one. He has really good football IQ. A lot of people don’t realize that this is only his fourth week, going to his fourth week ever practicing in college. I mean, he got hurt back in, I think it was late February. So it’s really shocking how well his football IQ is on the field when he hadn’t performed. I think he got a really good skill set being a great pass rusher in the future. He going to be able to play on the second level a little bit, some sam linebacker for us. He’s going to be able to rush off the edge, and he’s a strong kid too. So he understand levels of the quarterback, those things, which is very important, and also how to play on the edge. So I think he’s got a bright future here for Tennessee.”

The development of Tennessee’s Jordan Ross

“Jordan has really gotten a lot better. You don’t see it, on the stat sheet, but he caused a lot of havoc, caused a lot of plays for people, for other guys on the team. And I’m hoping that it finally comes to fruition that he does get on the stat board like he should, because he brings a lot to the table. Very physical, wants to be great, plays his ass off. Unbelievable, man. He plays hard, man. Unbelievable. And I’m very pleased with his progression. He’s still got a ways to go. But I’m very pleased and he just got to keep coming and he will get on the stat board like he should.”

Taylen Green leading Arkansas in rushing

“Well, it’s big for my group and for the entire really first and second level. The inside guys, other guys on the outside and the linebackers, everyone have to do a great job of containing the quarterback. We know that the guys rushing, he gets his rushing yards based off of zone read, getting out the pocket, everybody got to do their job or understand where they need to be at and do their job and not and trust their teammate that he going to be at where he’s supposed to be. And I think we’ll be fine, but it goes back to, them doing their job. And I think with the speed that we have on defense, I think we have a chance to do our job this weekend.”