What Rodney Garner said on Tuesday about Tennessee's struggling defense

Everything defensive line coach Rodney Garner said during his press conference on Tuesday, discussing No. 14 Tennessee’s struggles on defense ahead of facing No. 17 Oklahoma on Saturday night (7:30 Eastern Time, ABC) at Neyland Stadium:

How he feels about Tennessee defensive front both against the run and in the pass rush entering the final month of the season

“Well, I would say I don’t think anybody’s pleased with where we are at this moment. Obviously the last couple of games, I think we haven’t played up to the standard that we expect, that the kids expect. And obviously we’ve got to do better, everybody, as players, coaches, everybody. We’ve got to coach it better and we’ve got to execute it better. So we’ve got to fit it on all levels. It’s never going to be about one level. I mean, run fits it starts first, second and third level. Everybody’s got to have ownership in it and understand, hey, when one guy doesn’t do his job, the stress that it puts on everybody else. But we’ve also got to be better teachers and make sure that we’re stressing that.” 

Ethan Utley getting some more snaps for Tennessee at Kentucky, where he is in his development

“I think he has progressed. Like all those young guys, obviously you want him to come in instant, ready-made. It’s just hard to play at an elite level in this league as a young guy. I do think Ethan’s going to be a really good player. Obviously as he continues to mature and get stronger and understand the speed of the game and the slow down and the physicality portion that’s much different than what he experienced in high school. I think that he will continue to get better just like the other young guys that are progressing that way. But we’re excited about the future. Obviously we like to accelerate everyone as far I always know the development and all that, but it is a process.”

Tennessee’s defense getting Daevin Hobbs back recently

“Obviously, getting Hobbs back has definitely been a boost, from an athleticism standpoint. But same thing like I’ve been stressing to him, watching the film from Saturday, the last two games — he’s only been back two games. Obviously, we’ve got to get his fundamentals better. He’s got to play behind his pads a lot better. You can see his athleticism, the way he can run around and fly and make things happen. But he’s got to play with better pad level and better physicality. That’s what we need from him on the run. And then obviously, last week, being on that turf, his foot got a little bit aggravated. It was hard for him to stick his foot in the ground right there. But he fought through it. We’re proud of him from that standpoint. But like I said, we all have to get better. That’s all across the board.”

How much of Tennessee’s defensive struggles are fixable 

“All the things are fixable. And that’s the thing, when you’re sitting there and you’re watching the film on Sunday and you’re watching it with the guys and you’re going through it, you see the plays that you’re giving up, man, and I know that’s what’s frustrating. A lot of it is about what you’re doing, how you’re self-inflicting things. And so we have to be more attentive to details and understand that you have to take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves. So fix it when it’s small and it won’t ever become a big problem. And so that’s the thing that’s encouraging about it, that you know that these are things that can be corrected, that must be corrected, because that’s what you expect of yourself. That’s what this program expects of us, and that’s what it should be. We are an elite program. We expect the players to be on the elite level. And we’re not meeting that standard. We’re not coaching at that level. We’re not doing anything at that level. So the room for improvement is there. So I think everybody’s prideful. Everybody wants to be really good. So it’s a challenge that we’ve got to meet head on. That’s what being a man is, as far as growing up. And you have to face challenges and you can’t run away from it.”

The challenges of red-zone defense

“Like I said, if we just sat there and talked, we got to play better at all levels and not just in the red zone, before you get to the red zone. It’s all areas, all field zones. We’re just not executing at the standard that we expect and what it takes to play at a championship level. So we have to accelerate that and we’ve just got to fix the minor details. We’ve got to fit everything properly from a rush lane standpoint to a run gap fit, to just doing the minor details of everything, everybody doing your job, staying locked in on your job. Don’t start overpressing. Because things may not be going right, man, you’re trying to do somebody else’s job, and then you give up something even bigger. So just playing complementary football on defense, and I tell my guys on all three levels, the front’s got to think about second level, second level’s gotta think about third level. Everybody’s got to play complementary and understand what their jobs are and make sure they’re doing their jobs at an elite level. And if we can get all those things tied together, then we’ll play back to the standard that we all are accustomed to.”

What is the standard of Tennessee defense

“Well I think since we’ve come here, I think we sort of changed our identity and I think we’ve been able to play some good defense in our time here. But we were never satisfied that we played better and then obviously you always want to be better and get better. Nobody wants to regress and nobody’s looking for excuses. We have a job. We got to do our job at a high level. I mean, as coaches we got to coach it better, and we got to do it better.”

If Tennessee opponents are doing more, different things to slow down Josh Josephs

“Well I think there are a couple of times where Josh was very close last week. It’s not just Josh, you know, the other three guys on the front that are rushing they’ve got to be doing their job at a high level to allow him to finish on top of his rush. We’ve got to have the push up the middle. We’ve got the other edge guy coming off, making it happen too. So it’s like I said, it’s complementary, and it’s not just on one guy. I mean, when you sit there and see it, yes, this is a great league. There are a lot of great coaches. Everybody’s going to scheme every week to try to take guys out. But that’s been the way it’s been since day one. So that hasn’t changed. But we can see that you’re close, but close doesn’t count. What do we got to do to finish? All right? And that, and that’s, that’s what we’re focusing on this week. We’re playing a very good football team this week. Very good players, great quarterback that’s dynamic, can make a lot of things happen. Big athletic offensive line. So it’s going to be a challenge. We’ve got to be very conscientious of our rush lane  integrity. We’ve got to be able to tackle. We’ve got to be able to finish. And we’ve got to finish the play. And that’s the bottom line. And we’ve got to be able to get off the field on third down.”

If the whole Tennessee defense shares the sense of urgency that he is speaking with

“Oh, yeah, man. These are same coaches. The same young men, all right? So we see it. We just got, we got to get it done, all right? And nobody’s interested (in) well, you know, we’re young here, this and that, that doesn’t matter. That’s just the league that we’re in, aight; It’s a bottom line business. It’s bottom line. I mean, so we’ve got to get it done. I think everybody sees that. I know we as a staff see it, and I know we’re all looking in the mirror. That’s where where it all starts. That guy looking at the back at you, that’s where it all starts. So I know I can be a better coach. I think everybody on the staff thinks they can be better coaches. I think everybody in those locker rooms think they can be better players because they’re all very prideful men and they want to be elite and they want to be the best at their jobs.”