What Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said about Joey Aguilar's play vs. Syracuse

Everything Tennessee Football offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said during his press conference on Tuesday, looking back at the 45-26 win over Syracuse in Week 1:

What he liked from Joey Aguilar after watching the tape

“Fundamentally, in the pass game what I really liked about him is he did everything we were working on through that brief offseason that we had together. Tracking his targets, getting out to his throws, especially to his right. It didn’t revert back to old habits now that it’s live fire, now it’s live bullets. He just was the same guy. He’s got that same calm heartbeat throughout. That’s what I love about this guy. When he takes the field on game day, no different than what he takes to the field in practice. And we’ll just keep pushing to keep cleaning up all of our footwork in the run game, just accelerating all that. Keep bringing that to an even higher level. But really, really happy with the way he took the field Saturday.”

Tennessee’s tempo in Week 1 

“Our tempo is a part of our identity, but what we’ve always told the guys is our tempo is a weapon. It’s not something that we’re going to do if it doesn’t make sense. So there’s multiple times where you guys saw us change in formations, going from wide to tight, tight to wide, all of that type of stuff. And that’s something that we’ve added to our arsenal that we feel really good about. When the tempo is not there to be had, whether you take a negative, whether there’s a penalty, something that knocks you off that. And nowadays, with the new rules, anytime you go out on your own sideline it slows you down. So we’ve been working all offseason on how how do we keep creating advantages even when we don’t have our tempo, so our tempo stays an advantage, it doesn’t just become a regular thing.”

Tennessee showing some different offensive looks against Syracuse

“As soon as the season ended, it was like, all right, what’s the next growth in the offense? What do we need to do to keep improving? And we felt like by showing some stuff like we did (Saturday) and really growing the package, we got a bunch of different ways to attack the defense. Like you saw us go wide and fast and hit a big one up top to Braylon (Staley). You saw us get tight and move people around and hit big shots on that as well. So just the offense is always growing. It’s our job to put our guys in the best situation possible and whether that’s wide, tight, fast, slow, moving, not moving, you know, we’re going to do that and let our guys have the best chance to go play at a high level.”

How much confidence they get as a staff from operating well in Week 1 with new personnel and new offensive wrinkles 

“Yeah, a bunch. It’s one of those things, we really like the group we took the field with, but as your point, there were eight new (players), so what do we really have? So leaving the field on Saturday, we know we got a tough, smart, competitive team. And if you fill your locker with a bunch of guys that are tough, smart, and competitive, you’re going to have a chance every Saturday. So they grasped the stuff we were doing at a really high level. We don’t anticipate that changing. So the guys that we roll out there with every Saturday we feel like give us a competitive chance that we win.”

The fumble lost in the first quarter, how much he attributes that to new players playing together for the first time in a game

“Yeah, it was exactly as you said, it was a miscue. It was two guys that are on different pages right there. And that’s, again to your point, that comes with time, that comes with reps. That was both of their first drive in the game together. They had no spring together to do it, they got a little bit of summer, but again, a lot of fire is a little bit different. So something like that If that happens in a win, man, it ends up being a real positive because now you get to learn from it. You don’t have to learn from it from the side that it costs you a ball game. So just getting us all on the same page. And that’s always a push whenever you’ve got a team that you want to call it young, even though they’re not all young age, they’re young playing together, getting that cohesion is always a huge part of what we push for every day.”

If Star Thomas surprised the Tennessee staff at all with his performance

“Man, he was really impressive. Again, a guy that we saw a lot of flashes from in practice. But until you get to do it on game day, like he hit a whole different gear. His ability to go catch the ball, dopes the guy on that scramble drill, he went and got the touchdown. We thought he could do it, but to see it was really big time. So watching him play, just another weapon in the offense that we can feed the football to and get in space and create problems from the other teams. It’s an exciting option to have that guy.”

If Tennessee has young players who they felt had earned playing time but didn’t get it vs Syracuse.

“I feel like there’s a really talented young roster here and now I am talking about the actual young guys that are year one or year two here. A lot of them did get on the field but we feel really confident with all those guys getting their chance that they’ll come out and show out at a high level. Again, throwing those guys in trial by fire— sometimes it’s a necessity but a lot of times we’re truly young players letting them kind of feel their way in getting them under the lights, getting them in the big situation, but not throwing the whole game on, like right from the rip, allows you to have a whole season where guys can come in and be actual contributors, and you’re not killing someone’s confidence in a week one when— (it’s) different from high school football in Atlanta against a power five team.”

Tennessee running backs being used in the passing game, if that was a point of emphasis this offseason

“Yeah, again, it was in the offseason study, like what can we do to be better? Like that’s always what you do as soon as January hits, no matter what the previous season looks like, how can we be better? And we felt like being more multiple, including the backs in the pass game, including the backs in wide sets, and getting them out in the space, it does nothing but help us. We like all the backs. We like them carrying the football in the box, man. Why don’t we like them out on the edge running with the football? Now they, to your point, have to have the skillset to be able to do that and we feel like they do. So getting them in space, getting them in grass is something that we’re looking to do. How do we do it every week? What’s a creative way we can get a guy a ball in grass and let him go play?”

His assessment of Tennessee tight end Ethan Davis

“Yeah, we had him a couple times. Didn’t end up connecting to him. One time the ball went in another direction that he ran a beautiful route on. I feel like he’s a guy that can create mismatch opportunities for us, especially as you get closer to the end zone. He’s a big time player. Did an elite job blocking in the core. That guy has come a long way blocking. He had a big time game, so did Kits(elman) had a couple big time catches for us where him and Joey actually got on the same page. Two of those were broken plays that they just got on the same page on. One a big first down, one a big touchdown there to seal it at the end. So I feel like that room is operating at a really high level. They’re coached very well. They’re all ready to play in multiple different spots that we have for them. So it’s a room that we can use again in competitive advantages on Saturday.”

The biggest improvement he wants to see from Joey Aguilar from game one to game two

“I think it goes back his decision making was really, really good. Just felt like a couple of them got a little accelerated on the run-pass stuff where we’re reading conflict players and all that type where we got a little accelerated and we weren’t as accurate as we could be in those situations. If we grow in that area, the completion percentage jumps up, the yards per attempt jumps up. So quarterbacks know, we always talk about that type of game. We create the runs after catch with the accuracy of the throw. If you’re a little bit off, even subtle, it shows with how much the receivers can stretch them on the back end. So we’ll just keep growing in that and just defining our eyes, defining our feet. That’s something that every quarterback has to continually improve on because it happens so fast. There are so many different looks, especially when we’re pushing the tempo. It’s just a more difficult thing than I think people realize. So he handled it at a high level, but again, love to see it even grow more.”

Joey Aguilar completing passes to eight different Tennessee players

“That is something we’re priding ourselves on. There’s not just a guy. There’s a place for this guy, a place for that guy, a place that you just call and who gets open gets it. But it is a testament to how hard Joey has worked. He’s put in so much time with these wide outs, so much time as a guy who lives in the film room. He’s up there with Landry or Jared, our two other quarterback coaches, going through cut ups, going through personnel tape, going through the call sheet. You’re rarely in the building when he’s not in there getting some kind of work in. He prepared at an elite level. Don’t expect that to change. And that’s why he played at a really high level on Saturday. Every Saturday is different. You got to go out and reprove it every time to take the field. But the preparation that he put in, the film study, the work, all the extra walkthrough time, it’s shown on Saturday.”