Tennessee football linebacker Arion Carter talks during Chattanooga week I Volquest I GBO

is med availability with ar Carter please raise your hand and we'll get money Aron a lot of the videos we've seen that UT puts out and practice and hype and things like that you're being really vocal and you're getting guys you know energized things like that is that something that's natural for you or did you kind of grow into that and comfort now in your second year uh yeah I feel like um that's just me as a person who I am um I try to lead by example but also be vocal especially coming in um from my freshman season to now that was a big um aspect that I wanted to grow upon so I feel like um carrying that momentum into the season um I feel like our team will um just get better from me being more vocal especially me being out there own defense Arion coach and was talking about how much time you've put into film study and things like that how how far do you feel you've come since the end of last season in terms of understanding the middle side of game yeah I feel like it's night and day um compared to last year and this year um you're not just out there um just focusing on what you're doing I feel like you're also focusing on um the task in Hand of what the offense is trying to do um thinking about the call what we want to um execute in that call and just the best way possible um to execute and do better um I feel like from a standpoint of like mental I'm a lot smarter and I'm more self-aware on that field and and when you look back at film from the end of last season what how would you describe how you were how you were on the mental side of the game at that time was it was it a I mean is it kind of painful to go back and watch some of the things knowing what you know now yeah you you see a lot of things that um that I did last year um that I would be like that's a bonehead mistake but you're young and freshman are going to make mistakes and that's the learning curve that I had to overcome and I feel like once I overcame that I feel like I could just go out there and play full speed and um just go out there and play Arion you go back to the summertime you and Caleb and Elijah and some of those Rutherford County kids put on that that camp for kids when you when you do that and you're interacting with these 9 10 11 year old kids are you able to kind of see what kind of impact you can make you know with just just with your presence you know being a Tennessee football player and what's that like kind of being somebody that these young kids look up to yeah you def see it going out there seeing all those Smiles on their faces and just seeing us and just us as guys we feel like we're just um another uh we for like we're just normal people at the end of the day um just playing the sport that we love and doing it at a high level so just being a big role model to those kids means a lot just being out there showing our faces showing that we care and coaching them up and um just wanting to see them not only be as good as us but if not better um and just with the aspirations that they have it's amazing just being able to see those kids out out there working with them and seeing the smiles on their faces ER kind of touching what you were talking about earlier about just the Improvement in the film room making that translation to on the field was there a moment for you where you were able to capitalize on the time you spent in the film room where you started to see it click on the field and how encouraging has that Improvement been for you yeah it's been real encouraging um just taking um things from the classroom to the field and being able to execute and see yourself making the play and then going out and doing it gives you just natural confidence as it is so just a, hours of doing it over and over again has gotten me to this point and I feel like it's a lot of things that we still need to work on but we're um a lot better than what we were include myself it's been quite a while since you played an actual game what's the excitement level for you to get back out there for something that matters yeah super exciting um you know it's been years for me it feels like just being out being off the field um and just going out there and executing at a high level playing hard as I can and going out there and um competing is just like going to be so great just playing with my brothers running through that te um it's going to be amazing feeling I can only imagine I can't wait Arion how impactful was that defensive line in front of you to help you guys do what you need to do I was super impactful um I feel like us as the back seven we can't do it without those front four um those front four make our jobs a whole lot easier especially with those big dudes um starting in the front um you know you got Omari and then you got um Big E um Elijah and then obviously you know we got Don Bailey and um James Pierce off the edge um those guys they really do it all for us and I feel like without them we wouldn't be able to execute out a high level that we do and I I give so much praise and I thank them how would you compare kind of those pregame Jitters that you feel leading up to this game compared to last year in your first year yeah you know you're going out there um as a freshman um you know you kind of have an idea what to expect but not too much so you're kind of nervous you're a lot of first game Jitters first ever college football game you're ever playing so um just the the the the Jitters between then and now is I'm more so anxious I'm confident and I'm just ready to go play um knowing my assignment knowing what I'm supposed to do and being able to lead at a high level I feel like it's a it's like night and day difference a lot of people have heard a lot about Keenan peely but haven't seen him play just part of one game last year on the field what are people going to see from Keenan peely the player yeah you're going to see a a guy who's very instinctive very fast very physical and um very fast for how big he is um just seeing a guy like him 63 um 240 being able to move like the way he is um it's just it's remarkable um I'm thankful to have a guy like that beside me that's not only fast strong and aad at what he does but he's very smart and he's very um he's a he's a leader and he's very experienced in what he does so just having him and being able to piggyback off him and him piggy back off me I feel like it can only make us better on defense what was kind of your emphasis from a physical standpoint this off season and and you're looking to add drop weight anything like that and and how do you feel like that's helped you whatever you adjusted yeah I feel like this offseason it was a big emphasis on obviously coming off injury being able to maintain Le muscle mass but also be able to drop weight and be at a comfortable weight where I can be able to run fast um but be able to run fast and hit hard still and be able to maintain um my uh my weight and do what I'm supposed to do in between the tackles because working in the Box you obviously have to be able to hold your own so being able to find that um happy place in between um that was my goal coming in just being able to play Fast be fast and um cover and run down um oh yes sir I do than