Tennessee Football: Chattanooga reporter Gene Henley on Mocs at Vols

Jean anley with the Chattanooga Times Free Press joins us now Jean how are you sir I'm doing pretty well man can you hear me over here I got you loud and clear man you look fantastic you're definitely upping the uh the looks Department here with me and Caleb well I was actually uh I was actually pretty locked in on being here at 11 o'clock but I had to get a haircut so that's exactly so all I got left is my looks man everything else is pretty much gone you know what's funny is I've been looking at my hair all day thinking I can't believe I didn't get a haircut before the first game cuz the this part's too long that part they messed up the last time but anyway um you're you're in a really unique position in that you covered Chattanooga then you covered the balls and now you cover Chattanooga so if you could just describe to me the biggest difference between those two levels of programs [Music] um I would say the size I think size and depth are the two things like I remember you know I covered Chad from 2015 to 2018 and um then I I remember the very first practice it was late in the 2018 season that I started covering Tennessee and uh I remember going to a practice and uh one of the first people I saw at that practice was Trey Smith and I'm like oh there we go okay I I I get it now um it's uh you know Chanda had a first round um offensive lineman a couple years ago samees cold strange who's about 65 I think he's probably or 6'4 65 probably around three 300 something pounds now um and then I saw Trey Smith who was playing left tackle who was like what 66 like 330 and then I saw W Morris and then I saw dornell Wright and whereas chig may have one guy like that um Tennessee's average size on the offensive line is probably in the 300 something pound range whereas Chen is around probably 280 like they've got good guys but you know Chen's got good receivers um their their best receiver this year it's guy named Javin Watley um or or Sam Phillips but both of those guys are like 5'9 510 170 165 in that range whereas Tennessee's guys are considerably bigger so it's really just more of a size and speed thing I mean not even speed it's really just size I think and um obviously depth which is I think the one of the biggest things that will happen tomorrow it's just you know chiga can go probably 22 for 22 and at least be respectable but when it gets into like those the backups and stuff like that you know chatt you know Tennessee may have a backup in who in a year or two may be playing for chattan niga whereas it would be I would find it hard to believe that chattan niga has anybody that could play at Tennessee's level yeah Jean uh great to meet you by the way and I wanted to ask you a little bit about it's funny you bring that up because I covered yesterday I was looking at the key players for Chattanooga to uh for vs fans to watch out for in case they make this a game at all and I know Reed Williams and Marlon Taylor were both all Southern Conference but I left them off the list because I feel like if chattanoga is going to give Tennessee any sort of trouble it's going to be in skill positions right I mean even though those are all conference lineman I just don't see any way at this level they can hang in the trenches if it becomes that type of game um over offensive line wise I would say you're probably right I mean chiga does have multiple linemen that have like amarian Kim will get the start at left tackle he he went to Houston out of high school um uh the right tackles his name is Dave mono um he started his career Pur do like Reed Williams I think just is a local kid who just really really wanted to stay at Chad but he probably could have had some opportunities uh they're maybe they're right they're starting Right Guard I don't know he got banged up last week it's guy named Bryce Goodner that played at Virginia Tech um they've got guys who who were power five level players now they've only got four of them and so I guess to to that point you're probably pretty accurate but as far as defensive lineman I mean Marlon Taylor's 62 330 and can move um Quay Wiggles was committed to um Georgia Tech at one point at high school and I think there was a coaching change or whatever but um I I think they can kind of compete uh somewhat at on the lines um plus I mean I know as far as like Tennessee's offensive line everybody says it's fixed get past Cooper Mays and get back to me in terms of like how good I'm not look I'm not I'm not acting like Chad is about to dominate Tennessee's offensive line don't think much is going to be gleaned uh from tomorrow's game and I don't think that there's such an overwhelming factor that chatt will be able to have no success there but you're probably right as far as the skill players chiga does have some skill players um they've got some guys they can make plays they've got some receivers they've got a couple running backs that I'll be intrigued to see uh one came from Florida transferred in who actually played D2 ball um I don't know how he ended up D2 because he's really explosive and another came from Alabama that's really talented so um I will be intrigued to see just kind of how it works out I mean I still look I predicted Tennessee to win like 65 to 10 or something but I do think that chattan niga can have some success which I think in my opinion especially the first game of the season I think all you want to do is walk away with some stuff that says okay we can kind of use this and take it to the rest of the season so uh I wanted to talk a little bit of recruiting Because we do believe now that bu Carter is probably probably at the very least going to compete to start tomorrow and I think he is going to start in the game and he is from Chattanooga Amari Jefferson also from Chattanooga went to Alabama um how big of a deal do you think from your perspective now being in Chattanooga and seeing bu Carter how much under Josh hypo relative to other coaches is Tennessee prioritizing the Chattanooga area and those key guys down there yeah I think um certainly um like there's a lot I'll be intrigued to see what happens in some of these future years because I think a lot of the guys that are probably at Tennessee's level they are Chad NOA kind of in you know location only um always say people you know Walker Valley High School here in my hometown in Cleveland Tennessee gets to claim that jock McClendon was a Walker Valley grab everybody knows he played a Baylor uh whereas a lot of the Baylor and mcau guys now are like Canadians and stuff like they're not actually Froman but in bu's case you know bu was obviously a uh a Chad product who played his last year I mean he basically um no disrespect but just basically used Bradley Central High School for six months and then graduated and I think he's going to do amazing things in Tennessee because um again I bring up my hometown I mean Cleveland Tennessee a lot of history from the early 90s of guys that had opportunities to play at Tennessee although it may not have worked out in the end um and Buu is kind of like that sort of elite sort of prospect when not the few times I watched him play he is he is an elite level Talent I'll be intrigued to see because there is some Talent here I've always argued it when I covered Tennessee I always bragged about you know the Cleveland and chat the talent specifically Cleveland I've always known that there's some talent that can play at that level and um it's good to see that some guys are starting to get opportunities Buu Marcus gory I think will eventually get an opportunity to play there we'll see if there's if that was just a one-off last year with those two particular prospects or if there's more talent coming up the ranks is there like a Baylor running back or something I think that may be committed to Tennessee for next year I don't cover a lot of high school so I don't really know but I feel like there's a guy from Baylor that may be committed to Tennessee or something like that and um that just speaks to you know what is starting to come to Chad Nika because a lot of the the talent in Chad Nika will go to Baylor mcau Cleveland or Bradley um school systems you know obviously opportunities um exposure I mean Bradley is certainly um it's funny somebody pseudo sham uh was talking about Dante hickey was one of the guys I was talking about Cleveland but um like there's certainly some guys um I think coming up to the ranks that will have an opportunity to play that level and it's good to see that hypo uh jumped on it and kind of is GNA kind of lock down the talent that maybe some prior coaches in chatt or Tennessee did not Dave you're muted Dave you're muted make sure let me make sure you guys can hear me how about now I got you okay got you uh so specifically Jean when you when you talk about this offense because it is the first game but people probably haven't seen Chattanooga a lot even last year how would you describe this offense what are their goals I mean we have a pretty good idea of what Josh hyper wants to do but I don't know as much about Russy Wright what he wants to do offensively yeah Rusty wants to in theory Rusty wants to make good decisions he wants his quarterbacks to make the right throws he wants his running backs to run the right way he wants his offensive Lin to do the right things like they're not the type that are going to they want to be effici like I think last year they had the number one uh Pro Football Focus had chattanoga ranked as the number one um pass blocking unit in the country like all levels like I think maybe Georgia or somebody was number two um like he wants to be efficient with the ball like they're going to they're not going to the way they play tomorrow is not going to be any different than they would play against a Ferman uh they play Georgia State next week uh Mercer teams at their level and their ETSU teams in their conference they want to be efficient with the ball uh they want their quarterback to make the right reads right decisions they want to run it and then when if they have a lead in the fourth quarter they want to be able to solve the game away with their running backs I mean that's typically what everybody wants to do but Chad is just going to go like three receiver sets sometimes tight ends uh they're just trying they're trying to take care of the ball and not give um the defense opportunities to take the ball back and put their defense back out there we had Rusty on yesterday he doesn't seem like the type of coach that would have a something special cooked up just for Tennessee he se he sees the big picture sure he wants to win the game but it's not like he's going to show everything for uh Southern Conference opponents yeah you know I think I've heard some people talk about what Austin P did last year I think that's just that particular coach who's just a little little weird maybe a little crazy I I think he's at UCA now um it's interesting his last game was actually against Chad in the playoffs but no Russy like because again like to your point he said he sees the big picture he is trying to you know like they're look they may L I'm predicting they're going to lose a lot because I just think they're going to play the way that they would always play uh and also think at the in of the day Tennessee is going to ultim overwhelm him in the second half as the game goes on but I I do think that they will pull some stuff out of this because like they think they've got a good team this year they they believe that they have a team that can compete for a conference Championship uh in a good League because I mean as people saw last night Western Carolina was picked third in the league and they hung with NC State who obviously 10 plays next week for two and a half quarters to me that's more indicative of Western Carolina I get it NC St get the head but chiga wants to be Conference champions they've got some stuff they've got to figure out as far as their team um they've got some questions at Edge rusher they you know they sent a guy to the NFL Jay person I think he just got cut from the bucks um two time All-American another Edge rusher has graduated that was like three time all conference they not they're not 100% sure exactly what they're going to do there their Corners both graduated from last year they're trying to figure that position out um they've got some stuff they've got to figure out so you can go out there and just play you know mind games and do trick you know 25 trick plays like you're trying to win the game and you don't actually figure anything out about your team and I don't think russy's going to do that because again to your point Russy sees the big picture I got to see what this team is going to be I'm got I've gotta see you know the left tackle he moved from Right Guard last year we think he's a left tackle let's see how he holds up against James Pearson those guys um we got to see how these guys you know hold up in certain situations and so I I I don't think you'll see anything special and if that means you just get blown out then it is what it is but I I would you know if it's me and I think rust's kind of similar in that or I'm similar to Rusty in in the fact that I'd much rather get blown out and know I did things the way I want to do them for the next 11 games then keep it close and have people Pat us on the back Monday on on Sportsman like or first take or whatever whatever the show is and you know I'd much rather you know I'd much rather have people calling in Tony Tony basilio's show after at four o'clock on uh on four four o'clock on Saturday say man we whooped their tail but hey that number such and such is pretty good for them they've got some pretty good players and I think that would be a win for chattan in my opinion well we would certainly prefer them to be a part of our program the last look brought to you by Campbell Cunningham Taylor and Han Vision Center but either way I think there is going to be um uh some some incredible reaction uh to this game uh even if it's one-sided I think it just raises Tennessee's uh expectation levels from their fan base if it's close at all then Tennessee fans are going to worry Jean great job you kind of hinted at this but how would you predict this I think everybody I've asked everybody's asked I've just said something along the lines of like 63 to 10 I think chattano will have some success uh they may even score a couple more points but I mean they scored 10 last year against Alabama with the backup quarterback I mean your starter artopia who's healthy again was out you know for that game and they scored 10 and had a nice little touchdown run had a long pass play to the Watley kid um I think they'll have some success um and it's the first game you never know what's going to happen I still think Tennessee kind of wins relatively easy but uh chat gon get some stuff to take home and say hey we did this we did this remember when I did this against NE against Tennessee and Ne good stuff Jean we appreciate how do we follow your work uh you can follow me on um you on Twitter at genan henley3 I'm trying to get more active again on there kind of been dormant for a while but more active on Twitter Jean henley3 uh timesfreepress.com Jean Henley just check my stuff out I've got some other stuff I'm working on but I'm not putting that stuff out there because it's not really football related and uh it's not really done yet so until then I'm not gonna say anything else about it but I've got some other stuff working so I appreciate you all having me guys thank you much thanks buddy Jean Hy Chattanooga Times Free Press h