Everything Coach Chop said to close week one of spring practice

On where the nickname ‘Chop’ originated from…

“That came about when I was a coach, GA [graduate assistant] at Auburn. Tommy Turberville gave me that nickname. So, that’s where it comes from.

On if Turberville explained the nickname…

“Everybody back then was close knit. Everybody had a nickname. So, my name was Kane Chop, short for Pork Chop. So, there we go.”

On the start of spring practice for LEO group…

“A lot of energy. We still got a lot more improvement to go with the little things [like] hand placement, working on working vertical. But the kids are working hard. Excited about the group. Great attitudes. They are really close together, which I love. And then we still just got to get a lot better with the finish. And we going to get there.”

On what made him want to work at Tennessee…

“Honestly, to be honest with you, was my daughter [who] had a chance to go to Tennessee [or] to go somewhere else. I also had a lot of friends that had took the job here about a month before me. But really, my daughter – she always loved Tennessee. For whatever reason, I didn’t know, she just wanted to go to school here. So, she’s a student here. So, we love it here. The people have been great to me and my family. Coach [Josh] Heupel is great to work for. Coach [Tim] Banks – great to work for. So, it’s been awesome.”

On if there’s been any change since his promotion…

“Recruiting? No. The coaching part is more on me now. I used to assist with Coach [Rodney] Garner and Coach Eck [Mike Ekeler] and then also my parts of the defense for Coach [Tim] Banks. So, it been a little bit more with that. But the recruiting part, that don’t stop. I’m still going to do what I do.”

On Joshua Josephs…

“It’s great. I was here when we recruited Josh, so know his family and everybody. So, Josh is a great kid, great to work with. He’s becoming more of a vocal leader, trying to get that part out of him. He works hard every day. Just more of a quiet leader. Just trying to get a little bit more out him from that standpoint. But he loves the game. Just been awesome to work with.”

On what Joshua Josephs has expressed about being the type of player he wants…

“The player he wants to be is he want to be a first round draft pick. So, with that being said, he’s want to do a better job with the pass rush. He grew last year as a run player. He wants to continue on with that path but get better at the pass rush Understanding says and get better with his hands and his eyes.”

I’m not sure how much you guys grades align with PFF. Josh, you graded out really high with PFF. What is that reflected in what you’re saying? Like sort of the run game playing the run more so, or where, where did that show up last year or so? 

It showed up with his hand placement. He got better from year one to year two with his hand placement into the year three really with Josh, the year two he kinda had the sophomore blues, but he got better year three. We challenged him with pad level because people consider him maybe undersized but really he’s not because he do a great job with pad level. He’s a 240 point kid. He’s twitchy. He’s strong got real long arms. So he just progressed throughout the year and just gotta progress on .

How, so what’s the next step? How, how do you turn those pressures into more sacks from a standpoint of a guy like him?

A guy like him, he got to understand leverage of the quarterback. He got understand past sets of the offensive line. He didn’t do as a good of job as he should have last year. And that’s something as me as a coach, I gotta stress that and also work on that. During my individual peers during practice. 

What’s the next step for a guy like Caleb Herring who’s come in, put on a lot of weight since he was, you know, an early enrollee? 

Next step for Caleb is to consistently be physical, been happy with his leadership thus far, but him continuing to be physical and  take his pass rush game to another level. But he has to continue to be consistent with his physicality. 

You talked a little bit about how recruiting is non-stop. How, how have you, how would you sort of describe your style as a recruiter and how have you sort of developed it over your, your time as a coach at your various stops? 

My mentor, Terry Price, told me a long time ago, you are only as good as the players that you have and that has always stuck with me. I know that I’m genuine. I am who I am. I’m not changing. Everybody knows me. I can go from zero to a hundred, but the thing about me is I’m genuine. If you are good to me, I’m good to you. And that’s the same way in recruiting. I don’t deviate with that. I don’t put on a I different mask when it come to recruiting. 

We have hard conversations sometimes me and the parents and the kids and that’s fine. I tell them that upfront. But we’re always gonna be honest and upfront from start to finish. That will always be consistent about me and that’s what I think. I kind of gravitate to people that’s like that and they gravitate to me. 

What, what’s sort of the next step this spring for Jordan Ross? 

Jordan Ross gotta work on being physical and also pass. He didn’t get many reps last year. He has got to stay healthy. He didn’t stay healthy last year. So he got to do a great job of maintenance throughout the year on his body. And he’s still a pup. He’s still a freshman in my eyes. So he got a lot of work to do with, with working on his get off, playing the run, being physical and just being able to also rush the passer and reading (offensive line) set like I talk about all the time with the guys 

From a trait standpoint, physicality or athleticism I guess, you know what do you like about Ross? 

Honestly Ross is gifted but he’s not consistent with his work. He has to be more consistent every day. He’s a little bit on the immature side because he’s still a freshman. He gotta become more mature and take things more serious. That’s what I’m trying to get across to him. He has God-given talent, but he gotta become more consistent with the mental aspect of the game and taking everything serious. If he does that, he’ll better to help Tennessee. 

What’s the biggest difference when it comes to what you’re looking for in spring practice between a guy like Jordan Ross and a guy like Joshua Joseph, who has a little bit more experience under his belt? 

I’m looking for Josh to just continue to be consistent and be a leader. With Jordan, I’m looking for him to follow guys like Josh and Caleb and continue to grow with his mental aspect. That’s what I’m looking for from Jordan. That’s exactly what I’m looking for with him. 

You mentioned Josh wanted to be a first-round pick. How much does it help to have a guy like James going into the draft and, and getting all this first-round talk in terms of a motivation for a guy like Josh and even for young guys kind of waiting their turn to play more. 

Well those two guys came in together, they really good friends. So that’s a motivating factor for him to see that. He’s happy to see James have all the hoopla and to talk about being the first-rounder, but also he’s happy for him, but also he can see where he need to improve and also take his game a little bit to a different level than James. He has an extra year, so he should 

You’re the third analyst to be promoted to a full-time assistant. Was that something when you came here they were like, we want to promote with him. Just what do you feel like this is about the culture here that they continue to do that? 

I think that’s great. I think all the guys before me have earned the spot to be promoted. It also helps with the cultural aspect. If you work hard, you will get promoted. If you don’t, you won’t. But Coach Heupel been great to me from start to finish. Been great to my family. His wife has been great to my wife and to my kids. So that’s, that’s been a selling point for us to stay here as long as we have. I don’t usually stay somewhere this long, so that’s been great for my family. 

If it weren’t for Coach Heupel, I’ll still wouldn’t be here for year five.