Watch: Tennessee OC Joey Halzle talks prep for new-look Arkansas, Joey Aguilar and more

What Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said during his press conference on Tuesday, looking back at the bye week and previewing the 12th-ranked Vols against Arkansas on Saturday (4:15 p.m. Eastern Time, SEC Network) at Neyland Stadium:

Tennessee’s prep work for Arkansas and the new Razorback defensive staff

“Yeah, it’s been super deep. You can never write anything off, right? You got a bunch of guys that are doing it for the first time now this season. It kind of has a feel like the first game of the year, where you have what they’ve done, what you think they’ll do, but you also have to be prepared for really anything, because they’ve had two weeks as well. They had the bye so they can get whatever they want installed and ready to go. So just early in the ball game we’ve got to call sound football plays that you’re not getting too super specific with and just let your guys go play really fast.”

What he remembers from Arkansas defensive coordinator Chris Wilson during his time at Oklahoma 

“Really good coach. Was always my defensive line coach when I was there. High-energy guy. A guy that will definitely get his guys ready to play, understands the fits, understands how the whole thing hangs together. So he’s a high-level coach. He’s done it at the highest level in the NFL. So nothing but respect for Coach Wilson.”

If looking at UFL or USFL film to study the new Arkansas coaches is similar to looking at standard college football tape

“Yeah, it is. You’re just trying to find out like, alright, what does he tick with? How does he play it? How does he like to call these situations? It’s less about the exact plays that he’s calling and more about why is he doing this? You’re just trying to figure out the guy because you don’t have five, six weeks of tape like you do on most guys by this point of the year. So you got to watch everything. You got to make yourself try to understand why he’s doing what he’s doing. Because here, the UFL is different than college. How does he see his personnel? All that stuff is just kind of up in the air. So you can’t get an exact picture of this is what exactly I think is coming, but you just got to get an idea for what you think is coming and then let your guys adapt and, like I said, at the front end let them play fast. You can’t hamstring your guys trying to prepare them for nine different defenses. And now we’re playing. So that’s the trap that you can’t fall into. And so that’s been the message to our guys, whatever comes out and it looks like, play really fast and compete at a high level.”

Some points of emphasis for Tennessee’s offense coming out of the open date

“Yeah, we’ve done a good job, but we’ve also got a lot to improve on. There’s just a lot on the field that we’re leaving in every ball game. We come off and we have our unit meeting on Mondays and the feel is the same for our offensive unit. It’s, man, we left a lot out there. There’s a lot more that we can do. The last ball game (at Mississippi State) we left a lot in the tight zone. We had a chance to score some points early in that ball game and maybe change the way it played out in the back end. We didn’t. It was good to see the guys fight through that, but finishing drives and taking advantages of the plays that are there, not minimizing opportunities. You’re playing good football teams every week in this conference. If you’re taking points off the board yourself, you’re helping the defense out. These guys are too good. You don’t need to help them. 

If Tennessee’s tempo on offense is even more important against an Arkansas defense that is undergoing changes 

“Yeah, the tempo for us, it’s like I said, it’s always been a weapon. But (you’re) exactly right. If they’re doing something completely new, like let’s push the gas a little bit here and see if we can create some eye violations. And on the same breath, you’re walking the line with your guys of if it’s something they have not seen before, we need to make sure that we’re ID’d correctly. We need to make sure that our eyes are in the right spot too. So it’s kind of walking that line early of not letting off the gas, not playing slow, but also making sure that we’re targeted the right way and that we’re not talking ourselves into negatives.”

Braylon Staley stepping up in the slot for Tennessee

“Yeah, Braylon’s been huge for us. He was a guy that we felt all off-season when the question was, how are you going to replace the production that left the building? And he was a guy that we felt was a big part of that, that we really liked through last season, we really liked him through all fall, all spring ball. So we thought that was a guy that was going to step up. Again, just like a lot of our team this year, they just hadn’t done it yet with live fire. But to see the way that he’s responded right from the jump, he’s been a huge part of what we’ve been able to do. A big body in the slot that can run. He’s got the long wingspan, the great ball skills. So he’s a guy that allows us to be really free in the slot position.”

How confident he is Joey Aguilar will be able to adjust midgame

“He’s really comfortable with it. It’s like most people play us, not what they’ve shown anyway. So we get new looks every single week, and he’s been great about adjusting on the sideline, whether that’s protection changes, scheme changes, whatever we’re doing. His blood pressure doesn’t rise. So he’s a guy that’s not gonna panic about it. He’s not gonna stress about it. He’s gonna work all week. He worked all last week to make sure he gets himself as prepared as possible. But when the inevitable happens and he has to make that change, it’s not going to spike his blood pressure. So I don’t see it being a huge issue for him.”

Getting Tennessee’s run game going

“I think it’s a lot of what I was saying earlier with the scoring and stuff, it’s been good and we’re still leaving a lot out there on the field. We do feel like we got areas to not minimize runs, whether that’s at the back position, the quarterback position, the o-line, the tight end, wide out blocking, however it may play itself out. It’s also an offshoot of, like you said, we ran it so efficiently last year. You could see a lot of people’s main thoughts coming into this year was don’t let them run the football. And that’s why I think the passing game is also playing off. That’s why you got to have everything working. And however it presents itself, we’re ready to go try to win a ball game in that way, whether it’s running the football, throwing the football, whatever it takes to go get the job done.”

Joey Aguilar’s improvement during the bye week

“It’s been a big thing. It’s not like you’re going back to spring ball in a bye week, but you can take a little bit off the scheme and focus on like, alright, let’s get our mechanics in where as you’re going through a game week, you’ve got to get all the reps just worried about the scheme where are we going with the football, where are our eyes disciplined. So for him, it was alright, let’s make sure that we’re getting our body in the right position. He’s exactly right, getting his throws out to his right. That’s what we’ve talked about since the beginning, since he first got here. He’s really refocused that. He’s had a great couple of weeks of practice, so I’m excited to watch him take the field on Saturday.”

Conversations with quarterbacks about when to take risks, when not

“For us, our motto in the quarterback room is we’re going to play extremely aggressive, but we’re not going to be reckless. And that’s been since day one, since I walked in this building from the first quarterbacks that were here. We have to be aggressive. You can’t worry about making mistakes. You’ve got to go cut it loose. But that doesn’t mean we just throw the ball up. So it’s walking the line of extremely aggressive but not reckless with the football. You’re reckless, you’re putting the team in a disadvantage, you’re aggressive, you’re putting us in a big advantage. So we have to play that way. 

“It’s like I was saying earlier, the defenses are too good that if you’re slowing yourself down, if you’re afraid to pull the trigger because you just don’t want to make a mistake, you’re going to be a step behind. So we’ve got to be willing to cut it loose. We just can’t put it up for grabs, put it in negative situations where now we’re having to be the defensive player on the offensive side of the ball.”