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OUTBACK BOWL: NORTHWESTERN VS TENNESSEE

January 1, 2016

Butch Jones

St. Petersburg, Florida

Tennessee 45, Northwestern 6

BUTCH JONES: First of all, happy to new year to everyone, and I'd like to thank Jim McVay and the entire Outback Bowl. This was a destination that we really worked hard to get to, the week, the festivities. This is what separates it as one of the best bowls in the country, so on behalf of the University of Tennessee, thank you for your hospitality. Thank you for the nice warm weather. Thank you for everything that went along with the bowl game.

I'd be remiss if I didn't congratulate Northwestern and Coach Fitzgerald, a good friend of mine, first class program in every stretch, 10 win season. They've got a lot to be proud of, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and his entire football organization.

Next, how about our seniors? Our seniors have been through so much. That trophy will mean so much to them, and this is the first time since 1996 and '97 that Tennessee has won back to back bowl games, and they can take great pride that they had a great deal to do with that in both years.

This football team defines resolve. There was a lot of individuals that wanted to bury us, wanted to look for everything out there in this team just kept staying in it. Actually the adversity brought us closer and closer together, united us, six game winning streak, and it's a football team that all of Vol Nation should be very, very proud of.

I'd also like to thank Vol Nation, again, their support, their turnout, is what makes Tennessee the best football program in America, the most prideful football program in America, and I'm excited and very proud that we're getting back to where this football program deserves to be.

Jalen Hurd, MVP, what can I say? First of all, it starts up front with the offensive line. It starts with the tight ends. It starts with the offensive line blocking. Jalen was a game time decision, and it's a testament to him getting himself back, getting himself ready to go, but he may tell you the true MVP is Jason McVeigh and our entire training staff and doctors for working around the clock, and it's a tribute to Jalen, the amount of time that he spent in the training room when we thought he was doubtful for the game, and that's a tribute to him and our training staff and our sports science department of really getting him back.

When you look at the story lines of the game, +4 in the turnover battle. I was concerned initially because we didn't take advantage of the field position that was presented to us early on in the game, but you know, we knew it would be a tough game. We knew that it was a line of scrimmage game. When you look at time of possession, I think defensively holding them four out of 15 on 3rd down conversions, getting off the field, that was big for us, but +4 in turnovers.

Another young man I'm exceptionally proud of who has left his mark on Tennessee football is Alex Ellis. Alex played his best game of his career, and it's very fitting that he'd do so. He exemplifies a Tennessee Vol, walked on, earned a scholarship, and closed his career out in very fitting fashion. I'll answer any questions you may have.

Q. You've said in the past that this program is under construction. Where are you now?
BUTCH JONES: Still under construction. You're always under construction. The road to success is always under construction, and we need to continue to recruit and develop and continue to grow and elevate our football program. But where we've come in three short years is amazing, and I owe it to all of our players, our staff, our support staff, and our seniors. They've really taken the charge.

I think this game showed the maturity of this football team with the heat, taking care of their bodies, the workmanlike approach that we displayed, not only here at the bowl site but back home in Knoxville. Again, they had that championship mindset of really investing in victory each and every day, and very, very proud of them.

Q. When did you know you were going to play Jalen?
BUTCH JONES: Game time.

Q. When did the injury happen?
BUTCH JONES: Yeah, it occurred I want to say in either Monday's or Tuesday's practice, and it was a hamstring, and he was just running in the open field and went down and felt it pull. And to his credit, it was four, five, six rounds of treatment round the clock, and again, Jason McVeigh and our entire training staff and doctors, they did a tremendous job, and Jalen sacrificed, and he stayed in that training room and worked and worked and worked.

You know, we felt on Thursday's practice that he would have a chance. He didn't run much. He just did some straight ahead stuff, and we knew it would be a game time decision, and he's very mentally tough. We talk about T tough. He was T tough, and he said, I can go. And when you look at 130 yards rushing and he had no negative yards rushing, that's a tribute to the gentlemen up front and to Jalen and Josh managing the offense, as well.

Q. Where would you say this program needs to improve the most?
BUTCH JONES: Right. Well, depth, we need to continue to develop depth. We need to continue to close this recruiting season out with a class that really helps us in that depth, not so much in the rankings, but in a recruiting class that adds another brick, another layer to our foundation of who we want to become and what we need, and then just, again, providing the momentum in the off season and working hard to take the next step, continuing to grow and elevate everything that we do in our football program. We need to continue to elevate everything from A to Z, and I'm in the process of reviewing that and will continue to review that.

Q. What happened to Cam Sutton?
BUTCH JONES: It was a hamstring, and I feel for him. He invests in his body every day. Football is so important to him. The University of Tennessee is so important to him. But I think it speaks volumes to his character when he couldn't go. He was out there for his teammates. He was in the offensive huddle, the defensive huddle, and that speaks towards his character and his competitive character.

Q. Earlier this week you said this game would be won in the trenches. How much better were you on the offensive and defensive lines today?
BUTCH JONES: Well, I thought the one drive, I believe it was a 13 play drive, 13 , 14 play drive, and we established the line of scrimmage, and it's a mindset and it's a mentality that we've worked since, what, December 7 three years ago of being tough mentally and physically.

You know, Mike DeBord has brought another element in terms of toughness. I think that showed today. You know, and pounding with patience with the run game, and I thought the play action game, I thought Josh did some very good things in the throw game early. The one 3rd and long to Von Pearson, that really changed field position. That was a big play.

I thought our receivers played well today, and our last backs or tight ends caught the football. I thought we played complementary football, and you guys hear me say it all the time, but the great teams, the teams that win, they play complementary football in all three phases, and we were able to do that.

Q. What was Alex Ellis doing well today?
BUTCH JONES: Well, it was some things we put in new for the bowl game. It was some new nuances with motion back into basically playing with a fullback off a sprint draw action and putting him up the seam, and it's something that we hadn't run all year.

On Jalen Hurd and the importance of Tennessee recruiting talent in state

BUTCH JONES: Well, spent all the time on what he had at that time referred to as the "man cave." But Jalen is very special to me. He's very dear to my heart. It's started a pipeline of the great players staying at home in Tennessee, and I think it's a great illustration, again, that great players in this state need to stay at home in Tennessee, and there's so many values and benefits that it brings life after football. Why would you want to go anywhere else? You're the state institution. You saw Vol Nation. Nobody supports their football team like our fan base. Why would you even think of going anywhere else? And that's something from day one walking in here we sold to our recruits, but we don't need to sell it. It's passion. It's what we believe in. And Jalen was one of those individuals that stayed true to his commitment, stayed true to his word, and how much he has developed in our football program, not just on the field but off the field in leadership. I love him and I'm very indebted to him.

Q. What does this win do for recruiting?
BUTCH JONES: Well, it obviously provides momentum. Any time you can win a bowl game, a January bowl game against a quality opponent, the 13th ranked team in the country that was 10 2, I think, again, it adds credence to what you're building. Now it's what do you do with it, though. Our players will have a great opportunity this year that they didn't have last year in terms of they can go home and be with their families. We don't start school for I believe a little over a week, so they can enjoy that, and then they'll have a week or two off, and then it's getting right back at it and working and grinding each and every day to be the best football team we can be. But it's what we do with it now.

We have to learn from the experiences of a very long football season that we've been through, and we need to apply it to team 120 now. It's hard to believe that it's team 120.

Q. The touchdown right before the half, how big was that?
BUTCH JONES: It was big, you know, and we knew that we were going to get the ball to start the second half, so any time you can have momentum going in is very, very important.

Q. How important was the play of the secondary today?
BUTCH JONES: Yeah, that was great to see. You know, Cam (Sutton) is the Steady Eddie back there. He's the individual that takes great pride in his performance. He's consistent. I thought the interception by Brian Randolph was very, very big for us, but across the board, our secondary continues to work, and I thought they progressed and got better and better and better. It was great to see E Man (Emmanuel Moseley) get one. Now he's got to finish the deal.

But again, this football team and these kids have worked exceptionally hard, and I said it, I believe, after the Vanderbilt game, and I'm going to go back and I'm going to say it again. There's four phases to building a football program. The first phase is building the culture. The culture has to be right. There has to be a capacity for work. There's got to be a mindset. There's got to be character. We have that, and it shows in our academics. This football team also had one of the highest academic semesters we've had in the history of Tennessee football.

The next thing is being competitive, working to be competitive in games. We found that out. We were able to do that.

The third thing is winning, winning games.

And now the fourth is building off those wins, surviving success, building off of success, how do you handle success. That's what I was really waiting to see coming in on a five game winning streak; I told our football team last night, who are we, what do we stand for? We can't forget the blueprint of what got us to this point: Our habits, our style of play, all the things that are important to playing winning football.

And I knew last night they had that look in the eye. I knew they were ready to go, and then this morning I could sense it.

Thank you, happy new year, and thanks for coming out. Go, Vols.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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