Watch: Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner's Tuesday press conference

Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner met with reporters on Tuesday, breaking down his position group and previewing Saturday night’s game against South Carolina:

What makes South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler good on third down, improvising to keep plays alive

“Well, obviously, he’s able to extend plays with his legs, so that’s really stressful with defense, especially with defensive line. We’ve gotta make sure that we’re very disciplined in our rush lane integrity. And then also we gotta make sure we can finish on top of the rush and make sure we can get him on the ground. He’s a very good player. You saw what he did last week against Mississippi State, what he did last year against us. We just gotta make sure that we’re disciplined in everything that we do. And we gotta make sure that we try to restrict it and keep them in the pocket.”

The biggest area of growth for Tennessee defensive lineman James Pearce Jr. and what has allowed him to make an impact this season

“I just think maturity. I think James has grown in all areas, not just in football. I just think in life, period, which is parallel to it. But he’s starting good things the Tennessee way and not so much James Pearce’s way. And (is) starting to buy into what we’re telling him and what we’re teaching. Obviously he’s always been a very talented young man, but just getting that talent to ball and going in the right direction, that’s been been the challenge. But I think now he sees himself having success with the coaching. So hopefully he’s gonna continue to even be more coachable and be more of a sponge and just try to take everything he had to grow and continue to grow.”

How he would grade the Tennessee pass rush this season

“Obviously, when we look at the film on Mondays, the biggest thing that we’re more focused on than anything is the production that we left on the field. And when we’re going through that tape, just looking at, hey, if we did our proper assignment here, if we’d have used the proper technique, the footwork, the hands, the eyes, just the rushing integrity, whatever this is, this is a sack we could have had, this is a play we could have gotten. This is a TFL that we missed out just by bad footwork, turning our shoulders getting washed. So we’re constantly, evaluating ourselves, trying to get better. I think we’ve done some good things, but I really feel like there’s so much more room for improvement that we can do as a unit and that we’ve got to keep growing in those areas.”

How important Tennessee’s interior pass rush will be against South Carolina

“It’s important to get push everywhere. And obviously in pass rush, it all needs to tie together. You need to push up the middle, you need the guys off the edge making the quarterback try to step up. Got those guys pushing so we can’t step up. All of it goes hand in hand. Everybody has a job. Everybody needs to understand their job. They need to understand how it affects everyone, not just them individually. And I think that’s an area that I think we have grown a little bit in. I mean, I look at just specifically like just Tyler (Baron), just him understanding, know it ain’t just about him. It’s about Tennessee and about everybody doing their job and how it affects everyone and everyone does their job. Then everyone has an opportunity to be more effective.”

Tennessee’s defensive line being more effective in the second half at Florida and if that carried over against UTSA

“Obviously, credit to Florida, they did a great job. Obviously I didn’t. I thought the first half we didn’t have the edge that we needed to have. Why? I don’t have an answer for that. I thought we had a great week of practice, but those guys came out and they were more fundamentally sound. They were more disciplined. They played with more of an edge. Like I told my guys in this league, there are no off days. I don’t care who you’re playing against. You have to bring your ‘A’ game every single day. And we have to have that type of chip on our shoulder when we go in there. And we can’t go in there and think we can start slow. Alright, we gotta start fast, we gotta finish fast and we gotta keep putting on putting more gas on. So it was a learning lesson. Obviously you don’t want to have to learn like that, but hopefully we will continue to get better. And I know the one thing about it, hopefully, that is always in everybody’s mind, the feeling that you have when you walked off that walked off that grass and in that locker room. And that’s the feeling that you don’t want to have. And so you need to let that motivate you going forward so that we don’t have a repeat of that situation.”

Omari Thomas making his presence felt on the defensive line this season and where he can still grow

“I think Big O, like all the guys, he’s shown improvement. He has to continue to improve on his pad level. That is one of the things that he knows that that’s his Achilles heel. But just continuing to play lower. Obviously he’s a great leader. He’s very passionate about it. He loves Tennessee, he loves his teammates, he does a great job. But there’s some fundamental things that he has to continue to improve on, which is just natural knee bend, just initial explosion, hip rotation, things like that. That’s gonna help him chase his ultimate goal where he wants to be eventually.”

The development of Tennessee freshman defensive lineman Daevin Hobbs

“I think Hobbs is a great young talent. I think this kid, he has a very bright future. The thing that he’s impressed me with, for a kid not to be here in January and to have surgery and to be able to come in and play on the interior, which, you know, in high school he was an edge guy, stand-up a guy, move around, basketball player and all that, we thought he had a really good skillset and all that, but we thought initially that it was gonna be more at the end. But with our need and everything that transpired, we needed more help at tackle and for him to embrace it, not fight it, to go in there and do it, it’s been very impressive. So I’m looking forward to watching his development, because he has a long ways to go and once he improves and continues to get stronger, understanding fundamentals and what it takes to play in there, he’s got a chance, I think, to be an elite guy because of his skillset and what he brings to that position. And that was the thing I told him. Richard Seymour is coming to the game this weekend with his son. So I’m looking forward to my guys getting a chance to meet him, getting a chance to talk to him. He reminds me of a lot of Richard with his demeanor. Demeanor and his size and his athleticism. So I’m looking forward him and looking forward to them to have the opportunity to meet each other.”

What stands out about the South Carolina offense other than Spencer Rattler

“Well, you got Rattler, you got No. 5 (Dakereon Joyner), the running back that they do everything with. He’s a wildcat guy. He played a lot last year against us in the Wildcat position. He can do a lot of good things. No. 17 (Xavier Legette), the wide receiver, is a dynamic player. They’ve got good football players like everybody in our conference. We’ve gotta do a really good job of defending them. We’ve gotta play sound, Tennessee football, and everybody’s gotta do their jobs.”