Tennessee’s 24-14 win over Auburn came with a defensive theme, and Dejuan Lane, TJ Metcalf and Tevis Metcalf made sure that was the message afterward.
Lane said the result carried extra meaning because of the family connection on the field. “I mean, honestly, like, you know, it get real personal for me just seeing my brother go out there and make plays like that.
Um, you know, we've been, you know, doing this thing for our whole lives, and, you know, just get to see him, you know, stay prepared, always, you know, be in his preparation, like, he's gonna go out there and start each and every week, since we've been playing college ball, so, to me, you know, it's nothing new, but, you know, it's just amazing to see him go out there and perform, so I'm super proud of him. Um, so, I mean, it’s on to the next, though.”
TJ Metcalf also talked about the significance of getting his first career start alongside his brother. “You know, for me, I'm just happy to be able to have my first career start with my brother.
It's amazing to know that he got my back and I got his out there. So I'm just glad that happened.
And then with the pick, I mean, it just, it was amazing. My 1st career pick.
You know, I'm reading my keys. And then I see it, and I take it.
So, I'm just happy to be able to be out there and compete.”
The family angle mattered to Tevis Metcalf, too. “Yeah, it definitely hit different because I know a lot of people on the team.
So, I mean, it did hit close to home, being able to compete. And then I was thinking of it as my brother.
He popped it when he played against them. So I felt like it was mandatory that I did the same.”
Tevis also reflected on growing up with TJ. “Yeah, we got along, pretty good. We fought, we had our battles, but, like you see, now, we, you know, we get along well.”
Lane kept coming back to the same point: Tennessee wanted the game decided on that side of the ball. “Yeah, going into the defense, going to the game with a defensive mentality, we want to win a game on defense.
So we love games like that. Um, it was getting late, getting to crunch time, and I know we need a big play.
And like Tevis said previously, I saw the ball, and I took it. That's what it was.”
That confidence extended to how the group views the whole operation. “I think Coach Knowles is the, you know, the head of the snake, but, you know, we're the guys in the arena, you know, where the guys with the mentality, where the guys putting pad on pad, blood, sweat, and tears into this. So, uh, you know, it definitely starts with Coach Knowles, but it ends with us.”
Lane put the defense’s mindset in plain terms: “We don't need any points from the offense to win the game. We're gonna win on defense.”
Tevis described the standard they try to carry every snap. “We always say something called defending every blade of grass. So that's kind of how we approach every time that we on the field.”
TJ Metcalf called Lane “my dog” and praised the turnovers and physical play. “You know, this is my dog.
You know, we're gonna go to work every time, you know, just seeing him, you know, go out there, you know, do his thing. Um, putting hats on everybody, uh, going out there, create turnovers for the defense.
That's huge. That's what we need.
And, you know, we're gonna keep moving forward with it, and so I'm just proud of the performance.”
On Auburn’s running quarterback, TJ said Tennessee knew exactly what it had to do. “Uh, really, we knew coming into this game we was gonna be facing a running quarterback.
Uh, so, uh, the coaches just told us, we got to put our hats on them early. We got to disguise our coverages as best we can.
We know that he struggled, uh, reading coverages. So, uh, we just executed a game plan and, uh, you know, did what we had to do.”
Tevis added, “And also, with that, when you got a running quarterback like that, our mindset is we want to make him play quarterback.”
Lane said none of it changes the standard, whether a player is starting or not. “I mean, sure, really, it doesn't matter, you know, where you at.
If you start or not. If you want to field in this defense, you got to know your assignment.
You gotta know your job. You gotta know how important it is to stop the offense.
You got know how important it is not to get him an inch. So that's what we take pride in.
Um, that's what we, you know, hang our hats on, each and every week. We drill up, you know, in our minds to, you know, go out there and stop the offense, and that's the mentality that we have each and every snap.”
He also tied that back to preparation. “I mean, so I'll do spring, I'll do winter, I'll do, since we've been prepared, I mean, our main thing for us is being able to have our presentation perfect so that the quarterback don't know what we're doing.
So I feel like us being able to take pride in that involved him, and make sure that we doing exactly what we, what Coach Knowles has asked of us. I feel like when we do it on the field, it just hit different.”
Tevis closed with the same hard-edged message Tennessee kept repeating all night. “You know, like we said previously, we have a sandwich coach nose.
Just give us an inch or a defendant, you know, and that's what we did. It's a mentality, and we showed y'all that we can take those stops and big games like this.”
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