TRANSPERFECT MUSIC CITY BOWL: PURDUE VS TENNESSEE

December 29, 2021

Alex Golesh

Tim Banks

Nissan Stadium

Tennessee Volunteers

Press Conference

TIM BANKS: Well, we're appreciative to be here. Appreciate you guys coming out. Excited to be here representing the SEC in Nashville. The bowl has been awesome. Guys have really taken care of us, and we're excited for a big game tomorrow.

ALEX GOLESH: Yeah, same boat. Really grateful to be here. Been an awesome week. More than anything, been incredible to continue to work with our guys as we continue to lay a foundation for what we're building in Knoxville, and these extra 14, 15 practices have been absolutely monumental for us to continue to get better and for the young guys developing, and in a lot of ways for us for the first time to see these young guys that we hadn't necessarily seen all year and to be able to get a chance to work with them as much as anything.

But obviously time to get going, ready to play tomorrow, and really excited to be here.

Q. Working together this year, what have you learned to appreciate about each other?

TIM BANKS: You know, I've known Coach Golesh for a lot of years. I've always respected him, the way he worked, his work ethic, and it's been nothing but the same, the way I thought he would be he's been. How he handles the kids, how important they are to him not only on the field but off the field.

Like I told you guys, most of you guys I've seen before. To me life is extremely short. You want to go to work with guys that you love and trust, and he's definitely one of those guys. Phenomenal football coach but definitely even a better man.

It's been an honor just to watch him work and get that offense going, and I expected so much, and it's been great so far.

ALEX GOLESH: Yeah, same boat. We're going to sit here and compliment each other for the next two minutes. But obviously super, super fortunate when the guy on the other side is all about the team and all about the players, and Coach Banks and I go way back.

Super, super fortunate to get a chance to work with one of the best men I've ever been around, the way he handles the staff, the defense. Probably not the easiest job in the country to be the defensive coordinator here, but humility and work ethic and just the way that Coach Banks has been to me since 2012.

Been the same person, just continuing to pour into the kids, and you guys have seen the results. They continue to get better on both sides, and coming to work every day knowing somebody has got your back that's in charge of the other side of the ball is monumental, and I couldn't think of a better counterpart on the other side. Been incredible.

Q. Coach Banks, how have you seen your transfers come in the secondary, and how have they progressed in the course of the season getting ready for this game?

TIM BANKS: Yeah, Kamal has had a good camp. He's worked really hard. Obviously any time you transfer in -- really with all the guys. It's a new system, but particularly for Kamal who hadn't really had a great body of work coming from a junior college. But he's gotten better. He really has. Turnage, again, same thing. A little bit obviously bigger background based on where he came from, so I don't know if the learning curve was as steep for him.

But both guys have gotten tremendously better, and I think their future is bright, both of them.

Q. Coach Banks, Tennessee I think still leads the nation in first quarter points scored, and I wondered from your position does that impact the way you call a game defensively when the offense scores 28 points, 21 points in the first quarter?

TIM BANKS: Yeah, it's good. You like for those guys to do what they do, and obviously put them guys in situations where you can make them a little bit more one-dimensional because they've got to throw it or do whatever they need to do to try to get back in the game.

It's awesome. I know a lot of guys talk about being a defensive coordinator or a fast-paced team, but there's a lot of benefits to being that, and you just explained one of them. These guys score a ton of points and it's an exciting brand of football, and it gives us an opportunity to pin our ears back and hopefully get after the quarterback.

Q. Coach Golesh, Coach Heupel just said Cade is not going to play tomorrow, so what you have seen from Dayne Davis and Jeremiah Crawford over the last couple weeks?

ALEX GOLESH: Knowing that you're going to be the guy, or in our situation, both those guys are going to get a chance to play. Dayne has played a bunch. We tried to get J.J. involved late in the year. J.J. is interesting because he didn't get here until the end of July, so for him, this is all so new.

I think he's done a really good job of taking strides, one, learning how to play within the system, learning the pace of the game. Obviously the schematic part of it, I think he's taken huge strides. We're excited about his future.

Dayne has been the same guy every day. I think Dayne came into the season expecting to be a guy we count on. He's worked that way. He's got to continue to get better, but I do think as this season has gone on he's become the best version of himself. A level of confidence he started against Alabama and Tuscaloosa, and I thought did a really fair job of hanging in there and continuing to get better as the games gone on.

Not easy to play O-line. Not easy to play O-line in the SEC. I think he did a good job of continuing to get better as the season went.

I'm excited for both those guys. It's been huge for both of them to have all the one -- splitting the one reps the last three weeks. Obviously we were hoping Cade could play. Still nursing the ankle. We'll see where his future ends up.

But those guys are ready, we're excited for them, and hopefully both will get a chance to rotate as the game goes and kind of get a feel for what's going on.

But I don't know that I'm super concerned about it. Obviously Cade is a huge loss. He's played so much football for us, his leadership, all the things that he's done. Those two guys will be big, and having three weeks to prepare has really, really been good for both of them.

Q. Alex, a number of guys on your side of the ball have made the decision to return to Tennessee next season. Can you quick hit some of those guys, Tillman, Hooker, all those guys, your tight ends, on maybe what's the next step for them and what you're sort of looking for even in this game from those guys that decided to return?

ALEX GOLESH: Yeah, in a lot of ways it's super humbling that those guys want to come back. I think Ced, Hendon obviously have a future. Still waiting on one more here, but have a future at the next level.

I think it's a credit to Coach Heup and what he's been able to do in terms of creating a culture where guys want to be around, guys are having fun.

Hendon, to start, Hendon has been nothing short of a program changer for us, a culture setter, and I know those are cliche terms, but that's what he is. He shows up, same guy every day. In a lot of ways, makes you better as a coach because he's the same guy every day, positive attitude -- you ask him, Are you good with running option here? I am, knowing he's going to get hit.

Just like everything you'd ever want, from the way he approaches his daily preparation to the way he handles the guys in the locker room. Everybody likes Hendon.

As coaches, it gives you a level of confidence going into a game. Again, I think the fact that all of those guys wanted to come back just tells you we're doing something right. Does it result in wins and losses? Having veteran guys results in wins and losses, but from a recruiting standpoint, from a who we are as a team standpoint, it tells you we're heading in the right direction. And like I said, that's really, really humbling as a coach.

Cedric, obviously the production would be really, really hard to replace. He's a guy that's through the first three, four games I don't think we did a good job getting the football to him. As he earned the touches, he obviously showed that he's one of the best receivers in the country, I think certainly one of the best receivers in the SEC. Another off-season in this -- he's got a ton of growth still. Another off-season in this I would anticipate him to have a really, really big year. Huge to have him back, especially with graduating the other two guys at the receiver spots.

Princeton, Jacob coming back, I think they knew they needed another year, hopefully Jacob for two, in the system. They've gotten better every week, as well. Really proud of where those guys are at. I think they've got huge strides for us at that position to continue to grow, both as pass catchers and run blockers and pass protection.

Just overall I think we were not uber prepared to come into the season, and those guys have done a good job getting themselves there and splitting the reps at that position, and hopefully we can become more multiple as both those guys continue to grow and evolve within the system.

Like I said, hopefully still have one more that we're waiting on, and that would give us a really good nucleus coming back a year from now.

Q. Certainly a different situation this time last year. How fun, how rewarding has it been for you guys to help lead these guys to this position, to this bowl game?

ALEX GOLESH: I think for us as a program, the ability to get the extra time to practice is one thing. For these guys to get a reward at the end, to come to a place like this, a city like this, for a lot of them home, or at least close to home, be in a venue like this, to stay for a week, obviously be able to play at Nissan Stadium, this crew has been through a lot, and not to over-hype what they've been through, but there was a really tough change for them in January, late January a year ago.

I think I said it earlier in the year, the guys that chose to stay, the guys that chose to push through the hard, this is the reward part of it.

Now, at the end of the day the season is what the season is. The record is what the record is. Our expectations are to continue to try to get better and continue to improve as we go. But I couldn't be more humbled to be here with this crew. They've been through a lot.

You go through a coaching change in January, a bunch of guys that they didn't pick to play for, and I give them a ton of credit. They've hung through it. They've played extremely hard. They've grown to love each other. They've grown to play for each other. If we can continue to stay on that track -- it's an awesome reward for them. Obviously for us as coaches it's great, for our families it's great.

For us it's a game week. We've approached it that way. That part is what it is. It's part of the process. But for these guys that have stuck it out, pushed through the hard, continued to become the best versions of themselves, give them a lot of credit.

You talk about adversity, they've fought through it, both on the field and in the off-season. There's a lot of people and a lot of noise around Knoxville that maybe told them you shouldn't be here, and those guys that stayed, man, I give them a lot of credit because it has not been easy.

And we've made it hard, but we've made it hard on purpose, and I couldn't be more proud. Like I said -- I use the term humbled, just walking in here. What an incredible experience to be a part of a bunch of guys that really have change the trajectory of the program in a lot of ways because they shouldn't be here. They weren't supposed to be here.

If they learned anything, you just keep fighting, you put your head down, you don't know what the end result is going to be. Just control your process every day. That's what this squad is.

I named a couple of them, but the Hendon Hookers of the world, the Cedrics of the world, man oh man, we've got a bunch of tough kids in that locker room. I don't know if it results in a win or not, but it's certainly the next step for us as a program to continue to build and evolve to where we want to go.

Q. Alex, what's the most impressive thing you have seen Hendon Hooker do on the field?

ALEX GOLESH: Yeah, I think just his toughness, mental and physical both. You always have a chance when the ball is in his hand. Some critical times throughout the year, we've tried to put the ball in his hands, and obviously he touches the ball on every play, but I feel uber comfortable with him having the ball when it's on the line that he's going to make something happen with it, whether it's his ability to run with it, his ability to get the ball where it's got to go with proper timing and ball placement, his toughness.

Mental toughness, physical toughness, that kid is a winner, believes in himself, believes in his teammates, and as a coach all you want at the end is to have a chance to win.

I feel like with Hendon, you always feel like you have a chance to win. Just his toughness.

Q. What do you think if you could pinpoint one reason why you think your offense has been so successful in the first quarter?

ALEX GOLESH: I think that part is really simple. I think it's hard to simulate the tempo from a practice standpoint. I think it takes teams, especially in year one, it takes teams -- coaches can harp on it; guys gotta obviously believe in it will be that fast.

I think that's part of the element of what we do that it takes defenses, particularly the players, a little bit of time to actually get into a rhythm and see how it's going.

I think that's only going to get harder as you go because obviously defensive play callers get used to it, players get used to it, and I think it jumps on you a little bit. That's part of the element of what we do.

It's hard to simulate in practice at the end of the day.

Q. Coach Banks, you mentioned earlier life is short, take advantage of the moment. With today kids being so willing to transfer, maybe having people in their ear, do you spend much time sort of recruiting your own player, or do you kind of let the culture take over that and then tackle situations as they come?

TIM BANKS: Yeah, I think it's the latter. I think culture has always been important, but I think in this day and age it's even more important. And every situation is different. Some guys leave for the right reasons. Maybe some don't.

But at the end of the day I think if your culture is solid, I think you'll end up having more guys that want to be there than don't.

Every kid has a choice to make. That's just how life is. We think what we're doing here, it is challenging, but if you stick around and you work hard, it'll be extremely rewarding.

I think we'll tackle every issue as it comes, but for the most part we just lean on our culture and those kids understanding how much we love them and how hard we're going to work them because of the greater good.

Q. Alex, you talked about some of the guys that left and some of the guys that stayed. Darnell Wright was one of those guys that stayed and has been steady at left tackle. Can you talk about the year he's had and the growth you've seen?

ALEX GOLESH: Yeah, I think Darnell was a guy early that stuck to his guns and said, I'm going to go through the hard. When you ask him why, he couldn't imagine leaving his teammates.

He's been super, super steady there, continued to get better. I think for him just having a home, having a position, having a guy like Coach Ellerby who generally has poured everything into him, that's all Darnell needed was somebody to continue to pour into him, believe in him so he can believe in himself.

He has not had it easy, I think really publicized his background, and he probably wasn't supposed to be here at this time. He's continued to push through it, continued to get better. From a fundamental standpoint, from an understanding of the game, just like we talked about, from the tempo side of it, defenses getting used to it, playing O-line in this deal is a tough, tough deal in terms of just how fast it's happening, how fast you've got to be able to react and adjust.

I think he's done a really good job. He's done a really good job in pass protection. He's gotten more comfortable in the run game. We've used him a ton on the perimeter and some screen game stuff. He's super athletic. He's only going to continue to get better as he gets stronger and more confident.

I think he's been really, really steady for us. You talk about our line, he's been that steady guy on the left side that's really, really helped us. He's played through some injury stuff and been really, really tough.

More impressive with Darnell than anything else is who he is when he walks in the building now. He's got a smile, asks you how you're doing. He finally feels comfortable. It took him about six months to get there, and like I said, a credit to Glenn, a credit to Coach Heup making that environment right, but he finally feels like he's himself and can be who he is, which is a happy-go-lucky fun dude that on game day is going to try to put people in the ground, which has been awesome for us.