Watch: Tennessee running backs coach Jerry Mack's Tuesday press conference

Tennessee running backs coach Jerry Mack met with reporters on Tuesday, updating the progress of his position group through six games and looking ahead to the 17th-ranked Vols (5-1, 2-1 SEC) playing at No. 11 Alabama (6-1, 4-0) on Saturday (3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, CBS) at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa:

What makes Tennessee running back Jaylen Wright so good after contact

“The mindset more than anything else. Jaylen always ran the ball with a chip on his shoulder. So when approaches the the game, you can watch him pregame, he’s very, very intense. Prepared, very intense and you see the reflection of it on the field. The way he attacks the game, the preparation when he gets the ball, he’s kind of got his mindset. I refuse to go down. He doesn’t let the first guy get him down. He’s done a lot better job with his leg drive. You can see where he goes between the tackles, he’s getting his speed up on contact. One of those small spaces like the last couple years, you will see guys bring him down with just a shoe-string tackle and that’s no longer really happens.”

How much practicing against Tennessee’s defensive line has made the Vols’ run game better

“I think it all kind of started showing itself a little bit of the spring. When you look at the spring football practice, we always have really good intense, competitive more than anything else, and you could see the intensity that we were practicing with in the spring. You start to kind of carry over to the fall and then all of a sudden we get a couple new bodies, more healthier more than anything else really on both sides of the ball. Guys that weren’t available in the spring. And, I mean, we’ve had some battles out there. It’s like we always say iron sharpens iron and now what you see is the reflection, our run game is probably better just because our defense has got so much better, especially because that defensive line.”

What Tennessee’s Jaylen Wright could do to have success against Alabama

“I think more than anything, just diversity that he brings to the table. You can see Jaylen’s really worked on his pass receiving skills and you can see now he started to do more things with him as far as throwing the ball out the back field. He always could do it. The other guys were a little further ahead. So now what that has opened up the window for us to do is now expose all of those guys to a lot of different things. So whether it’s Jabari (Small) or Jay Wright or even (Dylan) Samson, like now they all got very similar skill sets, but we feel comfortable moving those guys around into a lot of different positions. But I do think just the approach that (Wright) takes to the game, he’s a lot more patient as a runner. If he continues to do a good job of being patient, he’s gonna always have success no matter what defense we line up against.”

Jaylen Wright’s improved feel and knowing when to be patient or accelerate

“You wish all your guys would make sure they’re students of the game and Jaylen has done a really, really good job in the offseason and in season studying the game. We tease a lot of these guys. A lot of times they don’t watch football so a lot of times they can’t tell you even some of the past greats that played the game because they didn’t grow up watching the game as much as my generation did. But now you see, here’s a guy that’s kind of got a throwback feel to him. He can tell about guys like Walter Payton or or TD (Terrell Davis) or anybody like that. So it is just a mindset of like, hey look, I wanna study the greats, I wanna study past greats, I want study current greats. I wanna study just the game of football to see what those guys saw.

“Now that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the scheme that we do, but from a standpoint of just those small things, using the stiff arm, you can see him using that off arm as a weapon. Now you can see him, like I said, get his feet up on contact. He’s got that little leg kick like Payton used to have sometimes when he’s trying to be patient going between the tackles on the perimeter. So it’s just all those little things that have allowed him to really be special as far as understanding where the free hitters are. We talk a lot about it because of our splits and how we play about where those freedom, those bodies are gonna come from. Whether it’s a safety position, whether it’s that nickel position. And sometimes when we’re reading those guys just kind of how to attack the leverage, I think his study of the game has really improved and now what you’ve seen is he’s taken that and he’s applied it to Saturdays.”

What the return of Cooper Mays has meant to Tennessee’s offensive line and the run game

“Man, it has been tremendous. The first couple of games we were out there playing, we had some success, we were doing some good things, but when Cooper came back you could just see the communication level just increased. I think the confidence that he brings to the table, he makes players around him better as well because he’s such a smart player. He can understand where to take the points, where to take the IDs. And then he exudes confidence in that entire offense because of what he does. And now you can see us getting to the second level, whereas the beginning of the season we might have be on half a man, Coop covers up the entire body. So now he’s been able to create a language for us and it exudes confidence not only in the running backs but also the offensive line.”

Jabari Small going over 2,000 yards for his Tennessee career in the win over Texas A&M

“I just think as you grow as a program, as you grow as a person, period, things start to evolve. Things start to change. And Jabari’s taking this deal all to stride because he always was a team-first guy. He always had a mindset of I want what’s best for the team. He understands his role more this year. It’s a little bit different than it was the first two years and he’s done a really good job of playing that role. He’s ready whenever we have an opportunity to call his number. Sometimes he’s gonna have to be called upon to finish games this year. They all need one another. Jaylen, the way we play with Sam (Dylan Sampson) and Jabari, the matter in which we play, I mean it’s really tough to get those guys 40, 50 snaps in the game. So some days Jabari may end up having more snaps or he may not. But just the approach that he’s taking to the game this year especially, he understands his road is different, our offense is different than it was in the past and he’s really just a complete team player and just a compliment to him. Over his career, the first couple of years, he’s thrust into a position where we lost two guys when he came in the door. He had to be the guy and then last year had to be the guy and did continue to fight through injury. I mean, he’s got a warrior mentality.”

What Joey Halzle has brought in his first season after the promotion to Tennessee offensive coordinator

“Just the experience. Joey’s been in this offense probably longer than anybody in their room. And he’s seen so much. The diversity he brings to the table, all his different stops and all the different structures that he’s seen. Like he can make those halftime adjustments like nothing because he can refer back to something he might have saw two or three years ago and then now we can make that adjustment. And him and Coach Elarbee (offensive line coach Glenn Elarbee) have worked together for so long. Coach Elarbee the same way. He’s kind of been on the grassroots of this offense as well. So when they get in there and they start talking about things that might have happened seven, eight years ago, we had to, like me and Kelsey (Pope) had to go back to the films and seven, eight years ago, try to pull it up and see exactly what’s going on. But just the experience in the offense, in the scheme and what what we do. (Halzle) has great ideas. He’s a student of the game in the offseason. We try to be like basically a library of NFL things or steal from other college programs across the country about what they do well. And he’s kind of one of those guys that’s always in the film room, always studying to try to find different ways to put us in great positions.”

How Jaylen Wright’s toughness elevates the Tennessee running back group

“It builds a lot of confidence in the entire room. The entire team. There was one specific situation last game where he tried to hurdle the guy and you can see just that energy that he brought to the table, it ignited the entire offense. The young man ended up getting injured. I think he ended up coming back, but for the most part, a situation like that right there, you can see our entire intensity, the way we played, the manner in which we played, when we touch the ball all of a sudden change, it is those kind of plays. It doesn’t mean it has to always be a 50-yard touchdown. It could be just be a guy going path plus two. It could be a guy pushing the pile you see sometimes. And that creates an energy amongst the team and the fan base a lot of times when you see those kind of plays.”

The continued development of Tennessee freshman Cameron Seldon

“Man, he’s in a really good place right now. I really think that if Cam had to be thrust in that position to go out there and play and give us quality reps, he could. Once again, he’s a guy that stays in the film room. He’s an early group, so practice in the morning, he’s basically the first all the time I don’t know how much the guy really sleeps. But he does a really good job of being on time. He’s never missed anything. But just from the development and growth standpoint, like all the young guys, the protection piece is going to be critical for him to continue to develop and grow. He’s not there by any stretch of imagination. Obviously he has the rest of the season to go and then also too during the spring ball, he has to continue to grow in that aspect. Learning how to run between the tackles and being able to feel the bodies when they cross his face, feel when he can go ahead and take the space that he has, those kind of things right there, he’s still learning and still growing in that. But I do think like as he continues to get more reps of practice, he not the rotation right now, he’s like the fourth back so to speak. So I mean, one of those guys get a hang nail, like Cam Seldon is the next guy.”