Tennessee coach Mike Ekeler seems to be on board with the NIL movement. Or perhaps the NFL movement? Either way, a man’s wallet can be a strong driving force.
“If I told you tomorrow when you wake up, I’m going to give you $30-million, would you be fired up?” the Vols special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach said on Wednesday. “What if I told you tomorrow, I’m going to give you $50-million, but you’re not going to wake up. I’m asking. You wouldn’t be real fired up? Point being, our day is worth more than $40 or $50 million.
“When you look at it that way, as a football player and as a human, you’re either getting better or worse. If you say you want to be a pro, do your actions match your expectations? Are you talking about it or are you being about it? It’s about staying focused. I was driving to work last week, and I was thinking about it: 99-percent of the people in this world want to be great. Would you agree with that? They’re called ‘wannabes’. One percent work to be great.”
Ekeler didn’t specify anyone specifically, but there are a couple of Vols that could take something from that message. The Vols already have a strong group of pass rushers, led by Byron Young, Tyler Baron and Roman Harrison. The next wave of Tennessee pass rushers is embodied, so far, by freshmen Joshua Josephs and James Pearce, Jr.
“The sky is the limit. It’s on them, it’s on me to get them ready,” Ekeler said. “I just think as the season goes on, you’re going to see more and more out of both of them. Just remember, they just got here. I’m not making excuses for me or them or anything.
“Those guys are going to be incredible players when it all is said and done. It’s just getting them to that point. I think you are going to be excited with what you see.”
Josephs and Pierce surely showed up to Tennessee with visions of grandeur. Every freshman does. However, there is a learning curve for most every freshman when he enters college. It’s rare to see an incoming player just hit the ground running.
“Managing the expectations,” Ekeler said when asked of the freshman duo. “Those guys, I’ve told them both, they have to think of themselves as seniors. Those seniors out here, they expect that out of them. They’re not freshmen. They got to go out and when they step on the field, they got to execute. They got to execute at a championship level and if they can’t do that, then they aren’t going to be out there. That’s a challenge.
“To get them to that level, to get them to that point where they can go out and coach (defensive coordinator) Tim Banks feels comfortable about putting them in. They are going to play on special teams for us too, early. We’ll get them rocking and rolling out there and as the season goes you should see their development and you should see their roles probably increasing.”
On the depth of the outside linebacker unit…
“Josh (Josephs) is really coming along and so is James (Pearce), but James is a little more raw. Josh is a little more seasoned in a certain sense, but both of those guys have just an incredible amount of talent and unbelievable work ethic. Great kids just figuring it out. They’re true freshmen, they just got here. The sky is the limit for them. If they stay the course, they keep busting their tail and you are talking about two guys that are six-foot-five coming off the edge, and they can flat out go. They got great instincts and love to play the game, so beyond excited.”
