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Associate Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator John Chavis’ Tuesday Media Day Comments

(Ed. note -- UT associate head coach and defensive coordinator John Chavis substituted during Tuesday’s weekly news conference for head coach Phillip Fulmer, who was in St. Petersburg, Fla., attending the funeral of a family friend by the name of Skip Carr.)

“It’s good to be here today. I think most of you know why I'm filling in for Coach Fulmer, but in case you don't, I'll let you know. He’s had a very, very dear friend of his and his family’s that passed away. He felt like he needed to be there with his family to support them. I'm here filling in for him today and we'll take this wherever you want to go. It’s good to be here.”

On if he uses the offense’s recent struggles as motivation for his defense…

“We want to go play and be a football team. We've done that around here for a long time. There have been games and seasons where the offense has had to really protect the defense because we were young, inexperienced, maybe not as good as we should be. It’s been the other way from time to time, but obviously you've got to play as a team and that’s what we’re all about. You want to go out and play every play as if it was the most important play in the game. When you get to that point, you'll play good football as a team.”

On Northern Illinois…

“They’re a fine football team. They’re very well coached; they know what they’re doing; they know how to execute. They've played three quarterbacks up to this point. My understanding was that the starter had off-season shoulder surgery and was not quite ready for the first two games. The backup came in and did a tremendous job as well as their third-team quarterback. So they've played all three of them. Their starter came back two weeks ago. I can understand why he was the starter. He knows how to run the offense, how to execute well. He throws the deep ball as well as anybody that we've seen. I think they've had more than a dozen receivers who have caught passes. They’re plenty talented at receiver. They've got a back that has rushed for 2,000 yards in two past seasons, but he’s had a tough time getting on the field because of an outstanding freshman. They've been able to run the football, throw the football and put up big numbers doing either.

On the defensive performance vs. Auburn…

“We were really for the first time complete in terms of our coverage and our pressure up front. We looked like a good football team rushing the quarterback; we looked like a good football team stopping the run, and our secondary played as well as they've played all year, and they've played well all year. The pressure up front was the biggest difference in the second half. We got some sacks that allowed us to get off the field. That’s what you have to do. Even though we've been very productive in the take away department, we'd gone six quarters without a turnover. So the turnover in the second half was big for us. We've got to provide our offense with a short field. We've got to be able to take punt returns and change field position and we were able to do that.”

Story Courtesy: TN Sports Information