What Butch Jones said after Tennessee's win against Appalachian State
Highlights from Butch Jones’ post-game presser following Tennessee’s 20-13 overtime win over Appalachian State in Knoxville:
Butch said they're "proud of our players" and said they "found a way to win" thanks to a clutch defensive play.
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) September 2, 2016
Jones praised Appalachian State and gave credit to it for challenging the Vols.
Butch: Credit to App State. You don't win 17 of 19 games and come in here expecting (to roll over and lose).
— Patrick Brown (@patrickbrownTFP) September 2, 2016
"To educate y'all, we played a really good football team." Butch, added the Vols were still very uncharacteristic.
— Paul Fortenberry (@Volquest_Paul) September 2, 2016
Jones said he stuck with his formula, despite the team doing several uncharacteristic things to fall behind.
Butch: For us, the formula for winning never changes, and tonight we did things that were uncharacteristic of us.
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) September 2, 2016
Butch says they pride themselves in being a physical football team, but they were beat at that tonight
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) September 2, 2016
Jones admitted that tackling was an issue for the Vols in their opener.
Butch: Our tackling was poor.
— Patrick Brown (@patrickbrownTFP) September 2, 2016
Butch: I talked to 15 other coaches and we actually did more tackling in preseason practice than they did.
— Patrick Brown (@patrickbrownTFP) September 2, 2016
Jones praised Cortez McDowell, who stepped in after senior Jalen Reeves-Maybin was ejected in the first quarter.
Butch: I thought Cortez McDowell did a great job of stepping up. (He had a team-high 9 tackles after playing JRM).
— Patrick Brown (@patrickbrownTFP) September 2, 2016
Jones credited Appalachian State’s defensive line for its strong effort against the much larger Tennessee offensive line.
Butch says Appy State did a good job schematically up front despite being undersized on the defensive line
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) September 2, 2016
"They relied on their quickness." Butch on how the Vols' interior OL were beat. Added they moved the line before every snap.
— Paul Fortenberry (@Volquest_Paul) September 2, 2016
Jones commented on Joshua Dobbs’ second quarter interception, which prevented the Vols from scoring before halftime.
Butch: We have to throw the ball away at the end of the first half and get three points.
— Patrick Brown (@patrickbrownTFP) September 2, 2016
Jones credited the Mountaineers for managing the game clock with a late game lead.
Butch said App State used a lot of the play clock and said the Mountaineers milked the clock to take the momentum out of the Vols.
— Paul Fortenberry (@Volquest_Paul) September 2, 2016
"The controlled the line of scrimmage." Butch credited that to App State's scheme.
— Paul Fortenberry (@Volquest_Paul) September 2, 2016
Jones said that winning Thursday was all that mattered, regardless of being a heavy favorite.
Butch: "I'm never going to apologize for a win." Says it starts with him, the staff and the players in terms of improvement.
— Patrick Brown (@patrickbrownTFP) September 2, 2016
"With everything that went wrong we found a way to win." – Butch
— Paul Fortenberry (@Volquest_Paul) September 2, 2016
Butch says "winning is hard to come by" and that they will "never apologize for a win."
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) September 2, 2016
Jones also credited sophomore Micah Abernathy, who made his first career start at free safety.
"I thought he played very, very well." – Butch on Micah Abernathy.
— Paul Fortenberry (@Volquest_Paul) September 2, 2016
