'Didn't skip a beat': What Miles Kitselman, Arion Carter said about Nico Iamaleava's departure

What senior tight end Miles Kitselman and junior linebacker Arion Carter said during their press conference after Tennessee’s Orange & White Game on Saturday, discussing the departure of Nico Iamaleava on Friday:

Miles Kitselman

The mood of the locker room after Friday morning’s practice

“Didn’t skip a beat. Ready to roll. Excited for what’s coming.”

Being a leader on Tennessee’s offense and rallying the team

“Obviously, I’m old. I’m really old, but I have been a part of some really talented teams that haven’t won a whole lot because there were individuals on those teams. Quite frankly, there’s no other group that I would go to war with right now than the guys that we have on this team. Just implementing that and knowing that I got their back. I don’t even have to question what they had in mind, just day-in and day-out, show them I am going to give my everything for this program and for this team.”

How he does not let the changing landscape of college football affect him

“Plug and play, man. Like I said before, I have been some talented teams that haven’t done too well because there were a bunch of individuals on those teams. I’m not just saying this to say this, but man, this team is different. Our O-line is close. Our wide receivers are close. Our tight ends are close, the closest group I have ever been with. Our quarterbacks are close, like man, this team is a team. Like I said before, there’s no one else that I would rather go to war with. Letting these guys know like, we are good with whoever we have back there at quarterback. We have some dogs here with these two guys (Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre). We have guys that want to be here. We have guys that want to give their all, are going to go the extra mile and do whatever they can to give us the best opportunity to win on Saturdays.”

What he has seen from Tennessee’s tight end room this spring and being like a coach

“Just trying to pour everything into them. College has gone by fast, and I’m the old guy in the room now … I want to pour everything I have into those young guys. I want to see them strive for better than I have. It’s like being a dad. Just everything that I can give them, any sort of knowledge I can give them just to give them an advantage because we are going to need those guys this fall. Coach Heupel touches on it all the time, there’s no time to be young. Man, those guys are making strides, and they take coaching really well. I’m just really excited to get back out there with them.”

Arion Carter

How Nico Iamaleava’s impending transfer impacts Tennessee

“At the end of the day, I feel like we have two individuals here (George MacIntyre and Jake Merklinger) who can sling the ball. They can manage games very well, play at a very high level and have very high standards that they play at. We don’t really go intothe specifics of details, but an individual like that (Nico Iamaleava), you wish them the best of luck wherever he goes. That’s my brother forever, but at the end of the day it’s the next-man-up mentality, and I feel like whoever steps in that position is going to be able to ball out. I do my due diligence as a leader, not only on this team but on defense to make sure that those two are well-prepared to go out there and play on Saturdays, and we’ll make sure that we do that.”

Tennessee’s defense competing against the offense this spring

“I feel like we played a lot of complementary football. I feel like each and every day, we came out putting our best foot forward. I feel like collectively as a whole, offensively and defensively, schematically and just effort-wise from being one team and together. I feel like we really did join together as far as chemistry on defense. We really were going at it every single day, day-in and day-out. You could really see the cream rise to the top, as you were saying, as far as guys getting better, sharper and fine-tuning small details to ultimately get to the goal of pushing the envelope of winning a championship. I feel like we were playing really good championship football this spring, and we have to continue to do that over the course of this summer, going into fall camp and the season.”

His teammates buying in to the future of the program

“I feel like the guys who want to be are the guys who want to be here. I feel like the culture that we have built — as in me, (Miles Kitselman) and a few of the other guys — the culture we have built here is really, really strong. It’s close, tight-knit. A bond is unbreakable between brother to brother. It doesn’t mean if I’m a linebacker and he’s a tight end, if he’s a quarterback, and he’s a quarterback and I’m a linebacker. It doesn’t matter. You know, all of us together as one, I feel like we’re unbreakable. I feel like in situations like this, this is just a true testimony of who we are as people and as a team. I just feel like as long as we rally around these young guys, get them better day-in and day-out and continue to rise, I feel like we’ll be just fine because we’ve got the guys. We’re all we got, and we’re all we need.”