Vanderbilt Week Football Media Availability

Opening Statement
“We play Vanderbilt in Nashville at 4 o’clock on SEC Network Saturday, Derek Mason has got a really good football team. I watched them last week go to Notre Dame. They turned the ball over three times – one on the 1-yard line going in to score, another an interception in the end zone. They played extremely well in that football game.

“Offensively, Kyle Shurmur is a four-year starter (and) an outstanding player. He’s a guy you gain a lot of respect for when you watch the tape, how he orchestrates and runs the offense. They have a lot of confidence in him and how he runs the team. He does an outstanding job. (They have) four quality backs in (Ke’Shawn) Vaughn, (Khari) Blasingame, (Jamauri) Wakefield and (Josh) Crawford. They’re all very capable. They use them two-at-a-time at times. They’re quality backs. (Kalija) Lipscomb, the receiver, is a really good player – obviously their go-to guy on the perimeter. (Jared) Pinkney, the tight end, is a guy we’ve faced for the last three years and has been a very effective player for them.

“Defensively, they’ve got a new defensive coordinator, Jason Tarver, whose known Derek for a long time. What you see is a lot of experience and aggressive play and an aggressive style of how they call the game. They have seven seniors starting on defense, so they’ve got a lot of experience and guys we’ve faced throughout the years. They do a really good job on teams.

“Our guys are looking forward to getting out on the field. Obviously, last Wednesday we canceled the Marshall game. Our guys responded with an outstanding practice on Thursday and a very competitive practice. We lifted Friday and gave them Saturday off. We came back and had a Tuesday-like practice Sunday night, which I was very pleased with. Now we’re into our normal game week. (They had) Monday off, and they practiced this morning. They did a nice job.”

On the focus and energy at practice last week after the cancelation of the Marshall game
“(It was) really good. I told the guys that it will be a distraction if you allow it to be. At the end of the day, it’s a very sad, tragic situation. It’s awful, but there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re going to control what we can control, and that’s our preparation. Thursday was an outstanding practice. Friday was a good lift in the weight room. (The cancellation) gave our coaches a chance to start working on Vanderbilt. Then I thought we had a very good practice Sunday working into today. So I think they’ve handled it well.”

On what he did Saturday without a game to play
“I watched a lot of football. We were prepared for the worst, and we watched a lot of ball. It was very unusual. I can assure you of that. It was just different. It was good to spend the day with Carol, Jackson and Whit. That’s kind of what we did at our house, watched a lot of ball. I got nervous before every game, and we weren’t even playing. (laughs) I had anxiety before every game, and we weren’t even playing. But that’s kind of normal.”

On guarding against a slow start this Saturday after a week off
“(It’s) no different than an open week. We’ve done a lot of good-on-good work, as much as we could as far as us getting prepared for a very good Vanderbilt team. We got a lot of fastball work, so I feel comfortable about that preparation.”

On the possibility of playing a 12th game after cancelling the Marshall game
“We’ve had numerous discussions, Coach (Ray) Tanner and myself, about (October) 20th, obviously our open week, or depending on how our season ends up, December 1st. Once we know a little bit more about where we’re headed with that, we’ll certainly make that information available.”

On the injury situation heading into the Vanderbilt game
“D.J. (Wonnum) will be the only guy down that’s been a (contributor).”

On what he learned watching the Vanderbilt vs. Notre Dame game live that he wouldn’t have learned watching coaches’ film
“Flow of the game… right now, with so many people, offensively, (using) tempo, what is the flow of the game? How is the game being administered? You get a good feel. Obviously, they play extremely hard. It’s easier sometimes to see that when you’re watching the TV copy as opposed to maybe a coaches’ copy that we see. Those things to me are easy to see.”

On what he remembers from the 2016 game at Vanderbilt, his first game and first win as Carolina’s head coach
“Elliott Fry, 55 yards (kicking a field goal to win the game). The guys battled in the game. It didn’t start out very good with a kickoff return, which we’ve reminded A.J. Turner about several times. Deebo (Samuel) dropped a punt. We’ve reminded him a couple of times. We continued to battle in the game. We hit Deebo on the speed sweep to score (a touchdown) and then hit a couple of field goals with Elliott there (kicking) a 55-yarder at the end. It was a huge kick, and I had all the confidence in the world he was going to make it.”

On the progress of junior linebacker Daniel Fennell
“Danny is playing well. He made a big sack against Georgia there on the four-man pressure. He is a very steady player (and) continues to improve every year since we’ve been here. He’s a very dependable player. You know what you’re going to get out of Danny all the time. He’s going to give great effort. You’ll get mental and physical toughness in how he approaches the game. I’ve been extremely proud of him right now with what he’s able to do for us. He’s our starter at SAM linebacker right now with Dennis (Wonnum) going out and Bryson (Allen-Williams) being basically the primary buck for us right now. I’m really proud of how Danny has played.”

On the 2016 victory at Vanderbilt and how it helped in the rebuilding process of the program
“You’ve got to have some positive reinforcement, and part of that is winning. You can’t continue to coach and practice, prepare and work out the way we work out if you don’t have the gratification of a victory and feeling that positive reinforcement. That’s what you’re out there to do, is go win the game.”

On Jamyest Williams and how he’s handled his role not starting the game
“He’s upset about it, and I’m glad he is. He’s a competitor. You don’t want a guy to be happy he’s not starting. All of them want to be starters and want to play the whole game. He’s played as much or more than the guys that are in front of him. That’s an evaluation that goes on week-to-week on who’s going to help us win the game at the end of the day and the end of the game when the game is ending. That’s the most important part.”

On the preparation that goes into the first road game for the team’s freshmen
“As much as anything, you lean on the older players as far as their experience traveling and understanding that it’s a business trip. There’s going to be a time you need to focus and dial in. There’s a time you can relax when you’re on the plane and that sort of thing. Some of these guys will be jumping on a plane for the first time on Friday. That’s always interesting.”

On the status of redshirt freshman defensive back Jaylin Dickerson
“He missed about 10 days of camp with a hamstring. When a young player missing one day of camp, it’s an issue. When you miss eight or 10 days, it’s a major issue. It’s very hard for a young player to catch up; same with R.J. Roderick. He missed six or eight days with some different issues as far as illness and things are concerned. When a young player misses that much of camp, it’s really, really hard to catch them up. We’re trying to, and they’re both really good, young, talented players. They’re going to be good players, but when you miss that much time, especially for a young player that’s not played on Saturday, it’s very difficult to catch them up. We’re doing the best we can, and they’re doing the best they can. They’re working hard, but right now, we’re not into teaching middle-field concepts. We’re into teaching game plans. It’s very difficult right now to get those guys ready when they’ve missed that much time, and they’ve missed a lot of time.