With a road battle on the horizon and a fresh AP Poll signaling a matchup between ranked foes, the 24th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers completed their Tuesday practice at Haslam Field in preparation for No. 17 Pitt. A pair of coaches took the podium following practice in defense coordinator Tim Banks and quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle.
Halzle had lots of praise for redshirt-senior quarterback Hendon Hooker in both his understanding of the system and his ability to read keys and execute when the lights shine brightest.
"He's at the point right now the way he's playing, you got an open book with him, you feel comfortable. He'll operate anything you put him out there (in)," Halzle said. "We have that kind of bond and rapport now where we can call anything. He trusts us that what we're putting in the game makes sense and then if it doesn't work for either one, we can pull it, which makes it on our end a lot easier to game plan on the front end."
Ball State was a building block, a litmus test of sorts, with the defensive game plan on dropping eight and forcing the Big Orange to find the holes and take advantage. As the 59 points showcase, that test was passed with flying colors.
"Whenever people are playing the drop eight stuff, it's a good lesson in having to shop windows, to work bodies, there's just bodies everywhere," Halzle continued. "You got to feel space, that's what we're all based on is feeling space anyway. It's a good thing for him (Hooker) to see that early in the year because someone else is going to try it at some point … You can't get bored with your team's success. You got to keep taking what's there and keep pushing it aggressively down the field."
The defense also displayed its prowess, not allowing a Cardinal score until the middle of the third quarter. That development and growth was something coach Banks mentioned all of fall camp, but his side is still evolving, even after a strong start.
"We showed some flashes in terms of what we want to be and what we're capable of being," Banks said. "(Ball State) did a good of getting rid of the ball quickly, but when (the quarterback) held it, I thought we applied some pressure. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. But I thought for the most part, those guys did a good job of executing what we asked them to execute."
The lopsided score line also allowed some younger guys to see meaningful action and that experience may hold great value for the Vols as the year progresses and the defensive snap counts climb.
"We tried to rotate guys early, not just at the end of the game," Banks added. "Particularly on the back end, that has not necessarily been a thing that we did in the past. You saw Wesley Walker out there a ton, and we obviously played a ton of corners. We tried to get guys up front in terms of the rotation, as well, early. We felt like we got guys in the game early enough that they felt like there were some real meaningful minutes they were contributing to."
The Vols will return to the practice field tomorrow as preparations for the Panthers continue.
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