New Tennessee quarterbacks coach Mike Canales is surrounded by reporters during an introductory news conference Friday nigiht in Knoxville.KNOXVILLE - Tennessee's top offseason priority is identifying a new starting quarterback, and the Volunteers have a new quarterbacks coach to oversee the proceedings.
It didn't take long during Mike Canales' first Knoxville meeting with the media Friday evening for the topic to come up.
The battle to succeed Josh Dobbs is expected to feature junior Quinten Dormady and redshirt freshman Jarrett Guarantano, and redshirt sophomore Sheriron Jones and freshman Will McBride will add further competition.
"I think it's an exciting time," Canales said. "I think it's open competition. I think they're all biting at the bit to get out there and perform. I'm looking forward to working with them, because I think there's going to be so many new and exciting things that they're going to be able to bring to the table. They're all unique in their own.
"I've had a chance to watch some of their high school highlights on Hudl and been able to watch them a little bit, and I know they're excited for the opportunity to get into winter conditioning, which has started now, and I think they want to get a chance to meet me. I want to meet them. I'm excited.
"I already texted them and said, 'Hey, man, come up to the office. It's Coach Canales, I want to meet you.' I think that's important to build that relationship. I'm a player's coach. I think that's what sets me apart from other guys and the experience I bring to the table in terms of coaching that position."
During most of his three-decade coaching career, the 55-year-old Canales has been an offensive coordinator and/or quarterbacks coach. His stops include BYU, South Florida, North Carolina State, Arizona and North Texas, and he spent the past season coaching running backs at Utah State, his alma mater.
Given his ties to Tennessee coach Butch Jones and promoted offensive coordinator Larry Scott, Canales certainly qualifies as a continuity hire, one that's been met with skepticism from fans.
"I don't look at all of the negatives," he said. "I'm not a negative person. My thing is always that the glass isn't half full and it's not even half empty. You take, you drink it and you fill it all the way to the top. That's the way I'm going to look at life.
"That's the way I'm going to go to practice every day. That's the way I'm going to approach every morning, is get up and be the best you can be, be the example and not the distraction. That's kind of the way I've approached it. I think that's important that you take a positive attitude into it and great things happen."
At South Florida Canales coached Scott during his playing career and worked alongside him on Jim Leavitt's staff for three seasons, and his relationship with Jones dates back nearly two decades to when Canales was part of the start of South Florida's program in 1996.
Calvin Magee, whose playing career with the Tampa Buccaneers coincided with Jones' time as an intern there, was the Bulls' running backs coach, and Magee and Jones later spent two seasons together on Rich Rodriguez's staff at West Virginia.
"To me, it's not just a great opportunity," Canales said. "This is going to be a heck of a run. We're going to do some great things here, and I think it's about the style of how you coach and the type of person you're going to bring to the table and what am I going to be able to bring to these quarterbacks.
"They're going to get a coach that has a belief in them. All my quarterbacks I've ever coached everywhere I've ever been have been well prepared. I look at this as a great chance for people to get to know Mike Canales. Just come watch. You'll see some good things. I believe in that. I look at everything in a positive way.
"It's going to be a lot of fun to put a product on the field that the Vol Nation will be very proud of."
The measure of success for Canales' hire is 2018 and 2019 recruiting at the position and the development of the young, unseasoned quarterbacks already in the program.
"Coach (Jones) was adamant about having a guy that's very seasoned, very experienced," Scott said. "I've had the opportunity not only to work with Mike, but I've seen what Coach Canales can do with young quarterbacks and how he builds them and how he treats them in the relationships he develops with them and how he develops them as people and as players.
"From my eyes to him, it's something that I've witnessed and something that's always stuck with me from being a player to working side by side with him to this moment right now. I couldn't be more excited about where we're going, where we're headed and the decision that Coach Jones just made."