The Tennessee Volunteers still need to improve, at least according to their coach. Butch Jones participated in his weekly press conference Tuesday and reflected on his team’s 38-7 season opening win. Despite the dominant performance, Jones still believes the Vols must improve in several areas to compete against a tough SEC schedule.

“Major improvements must occur with this football team,” Jones said. “It starts with special teams, I was not pleased at all with our performance on special teams. We did not play winning football. In the teams game, we spend, we invest too much time in our special teams game and everyone taking ownership of their role, executing their assignment and doing their job. “Defensively, even though we had a couple forced turnovers, I didn’t like our ball disruptions. We were trying to get the ball out, I didn’t think we swarmed to the football that we expect our defenses to play here. I think we need to make major strides that way.” “And then the ability to run the football, we averaged 2.8 yards per rush…An efficient run is four yards or more, or if it is second-and-short or third-and-short you get the first down…I am more interested in realistic statistics which is run efficiency and I didn’t think we did a very good job there. We have to be able to run a little bit more.”

Jones further emphasized on special teams, saying each unit was “exceptionally disappointing” and must do their part to impact the game.

“Everything starts with operation and timing,” Jones said. “Our punts and field goal executions were too long. I didn’t like our coverage on the punt team. Our kickers didn’t do a good job of putting the ball in the box on kickoffs. They sprayed the ball, which puts your coverage team in some really challenging situations. Our kickoff return teams didn’t maintain blocks or work with space well. We have changed our schemes this year with some nuances, but we weren’t able to get the ball back to the field.”

Jones is focused on making improvements leading up to his team’s matchup against Arkansas State Saturday. The Vols will look to improve on their few flaws in Sunday’s win moving forward.

“We came in on Monday and got right to work, but you have to be cognizant that it is a short week for them, and it was a physical football game,” said Jones. “We have to keep that in mind. We have a lot of work to do, and it is a balancing act. What you did last week has absolutely no bearing on the outcome of this week. You have to have a short term memory. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. You have to move on, and that is what we have been stressing with a good football team coming here.”