Full interview with article included from Coach Zach Azzani on WRs - 6/5/14

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The Sports Animal 99.1 in Knoxville asked Vols wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni to throw a grade (1 – 10) on several aspects of his position group.

Read closely some of Azzanni’s comments. Butch Jones is working diligently to build a culture that will be able to sustain consistent success.

Zach Azzanni’s comments:

On route-running: “You have to understand that I’m a perfectionist. I don’t give a lot of pats on the butt. One to ten, I’d say we’re a five. We’re about halfway to where I want us to be.”

On blocking: “We’re getting there. We made some strides in the spring. We worked on that
hard. We’re a seven right now out of ten. Everybody in the room is a little bit different, but we’re about a seven.”

On hands: “We made some improvements on that in the spring. We really did. We’re climbing, so I’d say we’re a seven or eight right now. What a lot of people don’t understand is that dropped balls a lot of times aren’t because of bad hands or a player took his eyes off the ball. Dropped balls a lot of times are due to poor route-running or poor releases off the line of scrimmage because all of a sudden you get to that 12-yard mark on your curl route and you’re route is poor or your breaking point is poor so you don’t see the ball as early as you should. It can make the timing off.”

On toughness: “If you know anything about me, this is the one that at the end of the day if we go really hard and we’re tough, I’ll figure out the rest. When you add these young guys in, that brings the curve down a little bit. When you’re in high school, if you’re Josh Malone for instance, and I’m only using him as an example, a Josh Malone – a very highly recruiting young man who plays at a high level against competition that is maybe a little bit lower level for him because he is so talented – he doesn’t need to be tough because it doesn’t require that and his coaches don’t make him be tough. I’m not signaling out Josh’s coaches. I’m just saying wide receiver coaches and head coaches in general in high school. Sometimes when you have the biggest and fastest guy out there, so you just don’t screw him up, throw him the ball and let him go. So they don’t need to go dig out safeties and all that stuff (that requires toughness). Then they come here and meet me and it’s a little bit different animal because I need them to be able to fight in the fourth quarter. Our young guys are getting there. We’re about a seven, right now. I want us to be the toughest in the country. I’ve said that from Day 1. I’ll never back down from that. We’re going to be the most physical and toughest receivers in the country. Everyone knows that’s how I want to be and that’s what we’re going to be and I’m not going to stop until that happens.”

On coachability. “Ten. That’s where I’m most happy about this group. The boys came over the other night to my house for some dinner. We’re outside playing corn hole and spike ball and the whole deal. Everyone is sitting around eating. I’ve got guys in my third floor area in my man cave watching the Miami Heat game. My wife looked over and said to me that this is first time since we’ve been here and had these guys over that it feels like your group. It feels like everyone is getting along. Everyone genuinely is hanging out and genuinely likes each other. Well there’s a reason for that. It’s called recruiting the right personalities. It’s called Coach Jones’ culture that we’ve built here in our facility. It’s called a lot of little team building things --- morning workouts, meetings, different things they do dinner-wise, white water rafting in the summer. That translates to the field. So guess what? Marquez and Von are out there playing with my daughters. Josh Malone went to read at my daughter’s school. Josh Smith and Jason Croom are handing out doing Field Day at Rocky Hill Elementary School. Guess what? There is a sense of pride and sense of family. They don’t want to let me down. I don’t want to let them down. So guess what? They are really coachable. They’ll go do what I ask them to do because they know Coach Z is on my tail just about every day but he cares about me. He’s going to go the extra mile for me, so whatever he says, just trust him and go do it. He’s not going to lead us down the wrong road. The same goes with our head coach, Coach Jones.”

Once the Vols are able to mesh the combination of experience on the line of scrimmage with consistent play from the quarterback position, they will compete for the SEC Eastern Division championship.

In the meantime, they’re on the right track.

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