What Kelsey Pope said about Tennessee's wide receivers on Tuesday

What wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope said during his press conference on Tuesday, as No. 17 Tennessee prepares to go to Kentucky for Saturday night’s 7:45 p.m. Eastern Time start on SEC Network at Kroger Field in Lexington:

The growth of Tennessee wide receiver Braylon Staley

“Braylon’s a fierce competitor. I think that shows on Saturday. Every time he shows up in the building, he’s got the same mentality. I think that approach is what helps him be successful. I think that approach is what gives him so much confidence. And when you do that every day, even when games don’t start right or practices don’t start right, you’re able to bounce back because you create enough habits. You create enough sweat equity to be able to bounce back and persevere through some of those situations. So I think for starters, his approach and his mentality every day is trying to find a way to get better, I think is what contributes most to that.”

Chris Brazzell II’s approach going into Alabama after catching one pass against Arkansas

“I really saw the same approach. I think as a wide out, sometimes you get it your way, sometimes you don’t, and you gotta always expect it, and if it don’t, you gotta roll with the punches. I didn’t really see a different approach. I think he came into the Bama week with a really good approach, which he’s done for the most part this year. We look forward to getting that same approach and that same mentality in practice every week.”

Tennessee not being able to rotate much at receiver due to youth, injury

“I think they handle it well. I think they all want to be out there. I think, especially, we had two young guys last year that didn’t get as many snaps as they wanted to. Now they’re in the position that they asked for. Obviously you do see it late in games, but what we try to do as coaches is try to slow our tempo down, try to get in and out of personnel to try to maybe save their legs here or there. So you can do some things schematically they call in to help them. But those guys want to be out there, they’re competing every single snap. And that’s all I can ask for.”

How much during the week of practice Tennessee receivers are recovering

“You’ve got to make sure that you’ve got a real unique plan for each individual guy. You’ve got to be very intentional during the practice week with how much of the player load and volume that they’re getting on game day. For one, you’ve got to get their legs back. And two, after you get their legs back during the week, you’ve got to get their speeds ramped up to replicate what it’s going to feel like in the game. And so that’s something that Coach Heup and I, and also our strength and conditioning, we’re very intentional about it, too. We’re meeting about that almost once or twice a day to make sure we’re taking care of those guys.”

How Tennessee’s wide receivers are playing

“I think they’re handling it well. Like, some of the drops, obviously, we gotta clean up. But I think that’s the offense as a whole. But I think you determine that by, are they still getting separation? Is the technique still clean? Or are they winning one on ones? And from the first quarter to the fourth, that shows up. I think the focus piece is what’s got to be ramped up. And that’s obviously things that we’re addressing in practice.”

Tennessee not hitting as many deep shots at Alabama, if the defense dictates that

“Yeah, I think naturally, as you make plays down the field, defensive coordinators in this league aren’t going to let you live on the long ball. And so we’re able to adjust to that as well. Now, what you do see is you see us getting different breakers, deep routes, you see us over the middle field, 15, 20 yards. Like, that gives us an ability to run different routes and allow these guys to put that kind of stuff on tape. But it also allows you to put that on film. So now, defenses can’t get tendencies about your breakers, about your routes, concepts patterns. And I think that shows up a lot this year, especially with the variety of things we’re doing offense. You know, we ran a ton of routes the other night. We put a bunch of plays on tape, and you see guys at every single level getting open, and it’s clear separation at the top. And so that goes back to Brent’s question. I think from the first quarter to the fourth, we’ll create separation. You just gotta add the focus piece. And I think you’ll create explosives just not vertically. You’ll catch it underneath. It would be more of an explosive after the catch.”

Where Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley have grown

“I think, one, handling the volume, I think that’s physical and mental. When you step into that role, especially when coaches see that you can handle it, they’ll throw things on you to see how much of the capacity you have. So handling the volume. The volume of information in the meetings, things that we’re installing and then being able to handle the physical volume is why I see both of those guys take huge jumps. I think the next step for both of those guys is going to be just true playmaking ability consistently down the stretch. Mike made a huge catch on the fourth down. They’re playing two man. We went on a dig cut, which is really tough to win on and two man, was huge there.

“Braylon, I think that same drive, him and Joey on the scramble rules, he converted I think it was like a 3rd-and-6 or something like that, but converted on a cross over the field. Like those type of situations, when the game’s on the line, offense needs you, I think those guys’ next step is they consistently make those type of plays.”

All three Tennessee receivers being near the top of the SEC in receiving yards

“I think for one, those guys are very talented. I think also to their credit, they come here, they buy in, they work. And I think what we’re doing on offense, what we’re coaching these guys to translate, I think it’s simple as that. I think a lot of guys, teams in this league would love to have three guys who can go out and put up numbers. And I think we’re showing it week in and week out. That’s got to stay consistent. We can’t get off our routine there. As long as those guys keep working and not start to look at those stats and not start to look at where they are in rankings, as long as they keep working, we’ll keep progressing. As soon as they start listening to newspaper clippings or they’re on Twitter, that’s where you start to stop your growth. So I think continue to talk about maturity and being a pro from me, I think is going to help those guys continue to take steps and not worrying about what’s outside this building.”

Talking to players after drops

“I think understanding the psyche of a receiver is unique. They’re fragile at times. They’re also really stern at times. So it’s important for me having played the position to be able to identify when and what they need. A lot of times after a drop, it’s not the time to like go crazy on one of these guys because a lot of times they’re harder on themselves. I think you love them up first in those situations, and then you pull them back later on and then get them whatever technique clean up. It may have been their eyes, it may be just focus. You get that cleaned up so they can implement it. I think there’s other times receivers make a lot of plays and we get kind of big-headed. I think it’s time for me to identify then, yo, we gotta come back down to earth, we gotta be more even keel because with your emotions going high and low, there’s no way you can keep consistency. So I think me being able to identify that, is the number one thing and then we implement that where it’s needed.”