Jacques Smith brings down Pig Howard during the Tennessee Orange and White game.KNOXVILLE – Saturday will be John Jancek’s sixth season opener as either a defensive coordinator or co-coordinator.
Many of the concerns he’ll have heading into his first game as Tennessee’s defensive coordinator are pretty typical: penalties, missed tackles, mistakes in assignments and communication errors.
With this Volunteers’ defense, though, Jancek is anxious to see its response when something goes wrong.
“That’s really my concern with this group in a first ball game,” he said following Wednesday afternoon’s practice. “Hey if something bad happens, maybe they get a big pass, or there’s a turnover, or they get a long run, or there’s something that happens to change the momentum on special teams – how are we going to respond as a defense?
“That’s what I’m probably paying most attention to.”