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CHICK-FIL-A KICKOFF GAME

September 4, 2017

Butch Jones

Atlanta, Georgia

Tennessee 42, Georgia Tech - 41 (2 OT)

BUTCH JONES: Well, what can I say. Very, very good college football game. I have a lot of respect for Georgia Tech. You know, the problems that they faced from preparation and all that, but just really proud of our players, and we spoke all week long about a will to win, and that was kind of the thing was like find out our will to win. We knew that this was going to be a game that you had to show some resolve and some grit and you had to play complementary football.

In the first half obviously offensively I did not think we played to our standard and our expectations. We had way too many negative yardage football plays. We had a 3rd-and-long way too many times and we had way too many dropped passes on the perimeter.

You know, the second half, obviously Marquez Callaway, what can I say about that individual. He sparked us and made some very, very key plays for us, obviously, and then the resolve and resiliency of the defense, even though we gave up the amount of yards rushing, we still managed to force two takeaways and offensively didn't turn the football over, which was paramount to winning the football game.

Again, I think this football team showed our grit, but we're continuing to evolve. We talked about three games in 13 days. We have to turn around now with a short work week and get into Neyland Saturday afternoon. We have to get a lot better and make tremendous progress, but just really proud of our players.

Q. Is Paul Bain really a guy who's on that kind of field goal block team, and if you could talk about that guy, just not a guy who gets a lot of accolades but makes huge play.
BUTCH JONES: Well, what can you say about Paul Bain? He's a walk on, pays his own way for school, has two jobs to make ends meet, and we put him on there, and I'll tell you what, just coming from the locker room, he got probably the biggest cheer and respect from our players. But I just respect him so much, him as a person and what he means to our football program, and obviously he had a big hand in helping us win the football game tonight.

Q. Both when you look at the first half of last season, you played games like this, you showed up with another one. Why is it that you guys attract chaos, I guess?
BUTCH JONES: I don't know. I think you can go the other way. It's all in how the tell the narrative. Maybe our program has great character and grit. These kids believe in each other, and the amount of players that kept walking by me saying, we've got you, Coach. Coach, we've got you. Again, I think it's how you tell the narrative. I think this is a football program that's built on character, it's built on grit, it's built on belief, and we found a way to win when we didn't play our best, but a lot of that is a tribute to Georgia Tech. I think also we play some pretty good opponents on our schedule, so I think it's a combination of all that. But again, we have to get a lot better in a hurry. We have to be able to throw and catch out on the perimeter and catch the football, and we can't have negative yardage plays, and then defensively we've got to find a way to get off the field on 3rd down.

Again, Georgia Tech does a great job, they want to get you in 3rd and 2 and 3rd and 3 and 3rd and 1 so they can run their normal offense. Again, I just think we have a lot of grit. Probably the downside to that is it's probably put 20 years on me, but again, I'm just proud of all of our players.

Q. Anything on Jauan Jennings' health, and how much of what Callaway did in the second half did you see in camp?
BUTCH JONES: Marquez has always been one of those individuals that plays with great consistency. Always has energy. Always uplifting. So again, that doesn't surprise me. We know that he plays the ball very, very well in the air, and he was able to high point the ball a couple times, and he played strong. We talk about all the time out on the perimeter, whether it's the tight ends or the wide outs, you have to be able to catch the contested passes. Contested catches. And if you guys he had guys all around him and he was able to make the contested catches.

In terms of Jauan, we'll know a little bit more when we get back to Knoxville.

Q. The quarterbacks, did you consider Jarrett Guarantano at any point, and also if you could talk about John Kelly tonight, a guy that obviously you put a lot of faith in.
BUTCH JONES: Yeah, well, we knew our possessions were going to be minimal in this football game, and we needed consistency and we needed continuity. It's just the ebbs and flows of the game, and when your receiving corps is down some guys and all of that, the last thing you want to do is continue to make changes. We had some offensive linemen go down and we had to put some new guys in there, and they did a remarkable job of being ready, and then the guys battling back.

So again, Jarrett will get his opportunity, but each game is different in and of itself.

In terms of John Kelly, what can I say about him? You know, as much as Marquez Callaway sparked us, John Kelly sparked us, as well, and he played with passion, played with energy. He played with a toughness, and again, he played with a great will to win.

Q. Can you talk about Rashaan Gaulden's forced fumble there late to give you guys an opportunity to come back? And also Daniel Batuli with 23 tackles?
BUTCH JONES: Yeah. You know, Rashaan has been doing it all camp. He's had one of the best camps of anyone in our football team. This entire off-season he's dedicated himself with Coach Gullickson with getting bigger, stronger, faster, watching his nutrition, and that was a key play. That was a pivotal play, and it gets back to complementary football. It doesn't surprise us. We expect that from him. But there was a lot of hard work that went into him generating that turnover.

Daniel Batuli, he's a warrior. When you look at 20 plus tackles, what can I say about him? Our defense played, what, 90 something plays, and you look at that defensive front being cut blocked most of the time, I think that shows some toughness.

Q. You gave up over 500 rushing yards and you talk about improving your defense. What specifically are you thinking of improving before Saturday?
BUTCH JONES: Well, the good thing is we don't have to play a triple option football team, so I think that stems with first of all. We need to spend a lot of time on this video, but tackling, being able to -- we had way too many missed tackles. A lot of it is they do some different things where the defensive ends have to spill the football to similar things, and some of the lead option stuff, we didn't particularly do a very good job. So I think a lot of that may be the scheme, as well, with that. But you know, we just talk about getting better, two of their touchdowns were off of big pass plays. One was a 3rd and long. They were able to convert and then obviously score and then a big pass play down the middle, and those are just things, consistency, play in and play out that we need to get better, and our players understand that.

Q. Talk about the play of Nigel Warrior tonight. He seemed to be all over the field.
BUTCH JONES: Yeah, Nigel is one of those individuals like Rashaan Gauldin who's had a very, very productive camp for us, and he's very, very active. He's very physical, and again, I thought he did some good things in the back end of tackling and running to the football. There's a lot of times when you play Georgia Tech, your backside safety has to be able to run because he's the one guy that's unblocked in that scheme, and so he's got to be able to make plays for you, and he was able to do that for us tonight.

Q. What was TaQuon Marshall showing your defense tonight?
BUTCH JONES: First of all, he's very talented, very quick, very, very elusive, and a very, very good football player. I think schematically they challenged him. They did a great job with some triple option stuff and trap option, getting him out on the perimeter, and he's elusive, he's fast, and he's a good football player. Georgia Tech is a really good football team, and they're going to win their share of football games this year.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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