Where Tennessee's Willie Martinez thinks his secondary is at nearly halfway through spring

Tennessee secondary coach Willie Martinez spent last year playing new guys with freshman Boo Carter, transfer Jermod McCoy and sophomore Rickey Gibson. This spring, Martinez is breaking in another new batch of freshman to go with some seasoned returners in a room with a blend of experience and youth. 

Martinez met the media on Thursday to discuss where his room is nearly half way through spring practice. 

On how Rickey Gibson has stepped up with Jermod McCoy out…

“Yeah, he finished strong last year, right? I mean, he was definitely playing his best football at the end of the year. And some of the things that we talked about after the season is, what’s going to take the next step forward, moving forward, it was going to be his leadership. He’s extremely smart. Obviously, he’s talented with his athleticism and he made a bunch of plays for us in moments that really mattered. Okay. So, we said look, let’s get better at, you know, pushing the guys in a meeting room. You know what I mean? Be a leader because they’re going to respect you because you’re one of the best players. And he’s done that. He’s been elite this spring in his off season. His attention to detail, both on and off the field have been tremendous. He’s really good teammate. He’s picking a guy up that’s down, which is one of those young players, and then obviously he’s praising them when they do it right. So his growth as a leader has been tremendous ever since the season has finished both on and off the field.”

On if it is frustrating not having Jermod McCoy out there this spring…

“We all know that whatever time the injuries happen, that you’re going to have to be able to adapt and adjust. Everybody says all the time, next man, next man up. We know that Jermod [McCoy] is going to be back. We know he is a great player. We know he is a great leader. He’s doing an unbelievable job. The same thing I just said about Rickey [Gibson] is times two with him. I mean, he’s engaged. He’s actually growing as a player, even though he is not physically going through it. He’s setting the example, he’s leading it, but I’m not frustrated. I think he’s done that. So, I wouldn’t look at it that way. See, here’s an opportunity for some of these new and young guys, or even some of the older guys, right? Get quality reps for getting better, making us better. We’re not going to be a elite unless we got enough depth where we can play the three, four corners in a game and the four to five safeties in a game. The star position – the two, three guys. The more depth we have, especially the way this is set up right now in college football, man, you’re going to need everybody. So, it gives everybody else an opportunity to have a chance where we can build and become a better defense.”

On how the young players are looking…

“All those new guys, man. I really think the entire group of our program, we’ve been excited as a staff. I mean, let me start off by there. We all talk about it all the time, from the second that they all were here to now -and it’s not just our group. It’s really the entire thing, which makes it even better. The new guys, man. A lot of those guys are prideful – state champions. They’ve won and they’re used to it. Now you’re coming to an elite program and they’ve been getting quality reps like I just said. That’s the great thing about it. And they’re getting better. You can see it. The leadership and the group has really helped with that. 

We challenged them again. It wasn’t perfect today. We made some mistakes, but I think we finished strong. We were talking about that just the other day as a staff and presenting it to the players. It may not go right early and it went pretty good in the beginning of practice and in the middle we made some mistakes that, next flight – snap and clear. They come back and finish it strong and the new guys are a part of it. So, gives them the opportunity. 

We’re excited about them. Every single one. We’re putting them in there with – I don’t care if it’s the first group, the second group, the third group. But we’ve been doing it since we’ve been here and it builds confidence. It also builds unity.”

 On Boo Carter balancing both offense and defense and ow he has grown at STAR…

“We were talking about it as a group. He’s grown so much. He is watching a lot more film on his own. He comes in, he’s in the building longer. He’s in there early, he’s leaving late. You can see it. The guys see it and it’s showing up on the field. He’s made a really couple good plays today where he wouldn’t have got it. He wouldn’t have clipped it off. We’re giving him more on defense. We’re giving him more responsibility where he has to set our defense. He’s the guy on our offense. I mean, on our defense. It’s just like the quarterback on offense. He’s got to get the alignment set. He’s up to make the checks and he’s very confident. But I think he’s putting a lot more work off the field and that’s really helping him.” 

Kind of a follow up for that, when you said he’s kind of the quarterback of the defense for the entire defense or just for like your secondary? 

Well, we’re talking on the back end, but really he does affect the front. I mean, where he’s at, he’s gotta communicate and he, he wasn’t doing that on a consistent basis, and we did that he’s a new player. So we didn’t give him so much of it, you know what I mean? We had experienced guys like Will Brooks back there where he can actually help him through the process. But he’s taken more like I said, a lot more leadership to it, and he’s putting more time into it and he, he’s learning how to, how to be that, that leader that he needs to be. 

Who are the main guys getting work at the star behind Boo? Is there anyone who step forward there? 

We’ve  obviously besides Booth, we’ve got Jalen (McMurray) doing it. We’ve got Dylan Lewis doing it. We’ve go Tre Poteat doing it. We are trying to be careful how much of the new guys we give it to. There’s guys that are playing two positions right now. So a couple of ’em have, have not done that. The guys, I just mentioned it to you, those have been the main ones. We’ve always got Turrentine (who can play star). 

We’ve got some of the other guys that are experience, but those right now are the guys 

It’s the second year for Jakobe Thomas, what a difference just being in the program?

I don’t want to sound like I’m repeating myself over and over some of these guys. Confidence,  playing the inside positions, with the safety or the star position, you gotta make a lot of adjustments, a lot of communication because they are gonna go off on you and he’s being more productive on a consistent basis in practice, which is good to see, build some confidence for him and also for us on the defense, 

Adam, just listening off, who’s at corner right now? Jalen McMurray, Rickey Gibson, the freshmen, Marcus Goree, William Wright, anybody else? 

You named them. All those guys. Yeah, that’s really good for us. It really is. I mean, those guys are really talented guys, and you can see the young guys catching on, and that’s only, gonna help us moving forward. 

Kaleb Beasley played corner in high school, played corner last year, now getting some more run safety, like why make that move and what, what do you, what do you like about him back there? How’s he adjusted to a different spot? 

We think we’ve got guys that are talented, we want them to have an opportunity to start. That’s how it’s always been here. He’s a versatile player, like a lot of these guys, he’s smart, he’s talented, he’s athletic. Let’s move Beasley around to give him the opportunity to win a job. And that’s how we are, because we’re not locked in and he’s just gonna be playing at the safety position. He’s capable of playing star and we’re gonna move him there too. 

You know what I mean? So we’re gonna give him an opportunity first to, you know, learn this, you know, you know, the safety position. And then, and then we’ll, you know, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll move him there too. At the Star position too, we want as many guys that can actually handle it like him, you know what I mean? To be able to, he can actually go and play corner if we wanted to. Right now he knows exactly what the position’s like, you know, but we, we think that he’d really be very, very productive inside, inside Brian. 

How, how has Jermod handled the, the injury and, and just the rehab? 

He has been outstanding. The first day I met Jermod man, I was kind of like, man is this guy for real. I’m talking about the personality. We already knew about him as a player, but,man, he’s the same dude every day and he’s just growing as a leader. He’s out there every day. He’s actually coaching guys in the room. I told him that’s how you’re gonna stay involved in this thing and become an elite corner. You don’t really have to physically do it. You can do it mentally. And not that he’s not taking care of business, man, because he is in his rehab. 

And so he’s been outstanding. I know it sounds like the same guy, but it’s just the culture of the group. They’re competing every single day in that meeting room and making good decisions off the field.