Tennessee linebacker coach William Inge updates his group

Tennessee linebackers coach William Inge has settled in as the newest member on the defensive staff member. Inge’s linebacker group is an interesting blend of experience and youth. 

Inge met the media on Tuesday as the Vols started their final week of spring practice. Here’s everything Tennessee’s first year linebackers coach said. 

What have you found in Jeremiah Tellander this spring and how much have you seen him grow? 

Having Tellander around has been great. Seeing him literally grow and take steps each day, and that’s something that we really try to do as a group. The biggest thing that he brings is he brings leadership toughness and the ability to really understand the system. The things that we really liked about him as far through 11 practices is he’s been very, very, very calm and calming everyone down when the storm comes. He knows he can put it on him to be the person who wants to be the accountable, be the guy who’s gonna be there, make the play. So we’ve definitely been pleased with him thus far in the spring. 

Coach, how do you feel or what have you learned, I guess the most about this group that’s, you know, took over? What did you learned the most about them in the last three weeks? 

They’re a very resilient group and they love football. They love all the small things. When you see those guys coming in knocking on my door, coming to my office at 6:00 AM wanting to know what we’re doing on this particular day or this given day, that’s exactly what you want. They understand that in order for you to be successful, you have to have a growth mindset. So we’ve seen that they’ve been able to live by that and have that. They know they want to be the best players on the team and, and as I tell them, where much is given, much is required. 

So that’s what we have to be able to adhere to as linebackers. 

You said in a recent video that you have this philosophy of players teaching players, teammates, teaching teammates, especially in the, in the room. Why do you have that and just where does that philosophy sort of come from? 

That’s something that has probably been in me ever since my playing days. That’s something that Hayden Fry really instilled in the team. Something that they always said is that player led teams will always be in positions to play for championships because if a player can lead a player, now you have what’s called pure accountability and you get indirect leadership from a player being able to do that. So if a player can lead, when those players become the leaders of the team, when we can sit back and make sure that the coaches run the program and the players run the team, you know, your culture is where it needs to be when it comes to you being able to compete for championships.

Between the Mike and Will, how much do you want those to be interchangeable in terms of you got your guys to be able to play 

That’s something that’s very big for us to make sure that you are interchangeable. We tell our guys that you have to be what’s called a dual linebacker. You’ve gotta know both scenarios because what we want to be able to do is in any given scenario, get the best guys on the field and that’s what we’re doing. We’re making sure that both guys can have the opportunity or the ability to be able to do both jobs. 

Coach back here in the back, your first spring finale here at UT with the guys and what are you looking to see from your, from your group on Saturday at Neyland? 

Just the element of consistent play. I think that’s the one thing that you’re always looking forward to on a day-to-day basis, is making sure from a performance standpoint that’s consistent from us driving the defense that’s consistent when we’re the point with attack that we’re making our plays as well. So that’s kind of the biggest thing that we’re looking to because again, we know that there’s things that we have to do and things we have to accomplish. So we’re just continuing to take steps as we grow each day in our spring. The spring finale will be just another one of those moments for us to go out there and show it. 

How helpful is it to have an experienced guy like Keenan Pili in your position room? 

It’s awesome. When you have someone who has really been there and done that, that’s exactly what you want. He has an open mind for learning and when you have someone who is a true veteran and understands football like that’s probably the best thing that we’ve learned about Keenan is he really understands football. So him being able to do that on a day in and day out basis and a play in and playout basis, that’s something that really, really, really helps our defense and we look forward to really pushing him to being one of the best linebackers in America. 

Arion Carter has not been out there on a full go basis yet, but what have been your impression of him so far and what’s he been able to get out the spring?

Hearing him is the biggest thing. When you hear him on the sidelines, you can tell he understands football and knows some of the schematic things that we want. When you see him move, when we look at some of our player speeds and player loads, he’s always one of the top guys up there from a movement standpoint. So we know we’re gonna get someone that’s coming back that’s probably even faster than all the guys that are currently in the room. And that’s what really has me excited. He is the one guy in the morning that is coming in every morning trying to get a head start on what’s going on today, what are we gonna do, what’s ahe install. He wants to learn about both positions. It is awesome having a chance to really talk with him and, and he’s exactly what you want in the program 

Coach as, as you leave spring, what do you feel like your depth is and what’s the biggest steps this group needs to take over the course of the off season before you come back in August? 

I think as we come out of the spring, we feel very good about our depth and you’re probably gonna get some more guys coming back that didn’t have a chance to participate during the spring. So from a depth standpoint, we feel pretty good when it comes to what you have to be able to do. The beauty of what we’re doing now. And we tell the guys, you have no idea how much more learning you’re gonna experience from the end of the spring to the beginning of your game week because if everything that we’ve done, they’re gonna go through it again two more times. Whether we go through our installs from a scheme standpoint or whether they go out and actually get to rep it just from a repetition standpoint. So they’re gonna be able to do everything a couple more times. So when they do that now, that will enhance their confidence, that will make their preparation level be a little higher so that should be able to have some indirect improvements in their performances. 

A lot of times when people talk about Kenaan Pili, they talk about sort of his  personality, his maturity, all those things, his experience. How would you describe him as a player?

When you see him move around, he definitely gets your attention because he’s one of those linebackers that you love because he can run fast and hit hard. He’s very explosive. He can get off the ground, he can bend his paths, he can get low. So he does everything that you want a linebacker to do and you combine that with him, kind of being uncle grandpa also 

Coach you got here really close to spring ball. How do you feel like the process of building relations with your guys has gone?  How do you feel like they’ve accepted you and what are some things maybe you’ve done off the practice field to sort of maybe expedite that trust between you and your players? 

I think that process has been one thing that we always have to be about on our end. As coaches, as mentors, as teachers and as leaders we have to be about relationships. So on our end, every day we start off something that you want to improve on, something that you’re doing for your family or something you’re doing to help someone else. Just to see how others centered everyone can be. And then we always kind of have a one-on-one meeting where we’re just learning about each other, Hey, tell me a little bit about your family, tell me a little bit about you and I’ll tell ’em about myself. And that’s kind of how our bond has really gotten really strong over the last four weeks. 

Has it gone better than maybe you thought it would? 

I guess I would like to say that would be one of my strengths when it comes to being able to build relationships with guys and I think that the reputation from where I’m coming from. I think when they pushed play and saw some of the film, ’cause those guys, they go back and they look at all of the film on YouTube and everything and they saw how the linebackers played and some things where they would see some interactions so they can see that as well. So when they saw that and now they’re actually getting that on a day-to-day basis, it just increases their level of buy-in as well as mine because I see them wanting to get better and that’s what motivates me as a coach. When you see a player that wants to be as good as he can be and he is going to do everything he can to try to make sure that he is going to be the guy. 

What about Elijah Herring? I know he’s not been able to go full contact. What has he gotten outta the spring and what’s the next step for him?

I would say the same thing that we talked about with Arion seeing his growth just from understanding football. The one thing we wanna make sure is we’re great teachers, so when they’re in the meeting, there are some times we let them run the meeting because again, we talk about the player led scenario. So when a player can run the meeting in front of their peers, a yes I’m gonna make sure that I help them, but it’s going to give them confidence. But also it gives me the ability to be able to meet with them kind of one-on-one. So when I could hear Elijah come in and talk about some of the things from today’s install or for today’s install, I could be able to help lead him, but also I see where he is in his learning. 

So seeing him really grasp a lot more things to help him be a little higher from a football understanding standpoint, it is awesome. We can’t wait to get him back because he’s one of those guys that has a lot of sweat equity by that. He’s been on the field playing in the battlefield and we can’t wait to get him back. 

Coach, you mentioned that Keenan Pili is kind of like that uncle granddad. How has that experience help him embody the player led mentality that you have? 

It is awesome because when you’re the leader now you have to go out there and do it. The one thing we talk about in our room is leadership is best coupled with action. So when you see someone who is acting it out, everybody wants to follow and, and, and it is perfect and now we have to give him things to just work on from a day-to-day basis. But he is really embodied with exactly what you want from a leadership standpoint.

Maybe not on the field coach, but off the field who, who reminds you in your room of you as a player? 

You know what, I would probably say Kalib Perry, you know, someone who is spiritually motivated, someone who is really, really, really about preparation and someone who is growing and taking steps in the program because that’s what we all had to do. We all had to develop and go work and that’s what he’s about. He’s about working and doing exactly what he’s supposed to do. So it motivates me to really make sure that he can be at his best on any given moment. 

Edwin Spillman got here right as spring ball started. What have, what have you seen from him? How much has he been able to learn in, in four weeks? Kinda what do you think of his skillset? 

The one thing about him, it’s exactly what you want from a coaching mentality because, well, I’d rather say whoa than sic’em. You do not have to say sic’em to him because he is all about physical contact. Being at the point of attack and wanting to go hurt someone. That’s exactly what you want from a young player. Now what we have to do is just continue to get him guided on understanding the jobs from a play in and play out scenario. As a young player, you know, when you come in kind of right at the start of  spring ball you talk about drinking from a fire hose, like I was trying to turn it down, but it, it was still going, going all over the place. 

He couldn’t even see. So we were trying to tell him exactly what to do and then as you go from one day to the next day, you could just see him just continuing to take steps. So we feel he has a bright future. He gonna be someone everyone is gonna know about here in five months.