Everything Tennessee Football's TE Miles Kitselman Said At SEC Media Days

As SEC Media Days continue throughout the week, one of Tennessee’s best offensive players, Miles Kitselman, talked to the media about the upcoming season, being a leader, building chemistry with a new quarterback, and much more. Let’s take a look at everything Kitselman had to say in Atlanta.

On what tight ends he watched growing up…

I've touched on this. I would say Gronk. I'm nowhere near his level yet, hopefully. But just like how he took blocking personally. Him and I love George Kittle and that Netflix series that George Kittle did, where he touches on, I focused on blocking and protecting my quarterback and doing what I need to do in the box, and the rest will take care of itself. So I love that.

On if there are more fleet tight ends compared to big structured guys from 10 years ago…

There's just a bunch of great athletes out there. I don't want to say I'm not one of them, but man, there's just a bunch of great athletes out there that can run and jump really well. I have to look at myself saying, hey, I may not do those things as well, what can I do to separate myself from them? I think inside the box is where I try to do that.

On the coaching message this year….

There's a word in it that I can't quite say, but we don't need anybody outside of this facility. All that we need, all that we got, if you're strong, I'm strong, let's go do it.

On how difficult or easy it is to build chemistry with a new quarterback

Joey is one of those guys who has a very outgoing personality. He walks into a room and is automatically friends with everybody. Whenever he first committed, I hit him up on Instagram and said, Man, love to have you. Let's go out and get a bite to eat, and let's get to know each other. We have been just off since then. We get along super well. He gets along with everybody. Him and Jake and George, they all thrive together. They all compete with each other. And I don't think we could have asked for a better dude.

On what the initial conversations with Joey were like…

What I was touching on before, as far as Joey is a very easy guy to get along with. He also knows how to handle his business, and he takes this football thing very seriously. Anyone who cares about this game is going to buy into whatever program they're at. We have a leadership meeting every Wednesday morning. This is the standard. If you let that standard walk, you just set a new standard. We're not doing that here. I know you're new. I know you may feel like, hey, I need to prove myself, because I was there last year at this time, coming into Tennessee being a new guy. So I understand where you're coming from, but you don't have time for that. You don't have time to prove yourself. We believe in you, Jake and George, and we need a competitor; we need you to be a leader right off the bat. And whatever you see that is not the standard, we need you to call it up to the standard.

On early impressions of TE DaSaahn Brame….

DaSaahn is a competitor. DaSaahn is super athletic. All those young freshmen, all those young tight ends, are just willing to learn. I love that, how somebody like DaSaahn, a really high recruit, can come into a building, has put his pride to the side and said, no, this isn't high school anymore. I need to improve my game. I need to get better. Who can I pull from? Who can I go seek knowledge and seek wisdom from? And I love how anytime I try to help him out, anytime I try to hold him accountable, he's right there, willing to listen to me and take whatever advice I have. It's the same thing if Ethan Davis is trying to do with him; it's the same way.I just love how there's a mutual respect there because you have a lot of guys in today's day and age who are five stars and getting whatever. And they come into a program, and they might have a little bit of pride in themselves. And I love how we don't have that on this team.

On how weird the offseason was after everything went down…

We had a group text with a couple of the guys. Whenever some stuff was going around, we all came together and said, Hey, man, we want somebody who wants to be here. I talked about it earlier, it's the next snap, next play, don't worry about what happened before. I think that can translate over into life, can translate over to the situation, if you don't want to be here, that's fine, we're going to go find somebody who does, and he's going to come in here and compete and want to be here. We didn't skip a beat, and I love it.

On how Tennessee is viewed nationally and in the SEC going into the year….

No, and I try to stay off social media as much as I can. It's just rat poison, stuff you don't need, stuff you don't need to focus on. No, I haven't really paid attention to any of that stuff.

On what he learned from the experience of the College Football Playoff game against Ohio State…

“I think when you look back at that game, you can say whatever you want about it. It's 21-10 at halftime, and we have the ball coming out of half. If we go score, it's 21-17, it's a ball game. I think when you look back at it like that, it's how close we were. You come out of halftime, and you have a good drive, that could be a completely different ball game. Ohio State's a great team. They have a lot of great players. But that just puts it into perspective of how close we were.”

On what the Alabama game means….

“Not worrying about the Alabama game. We play a really good team in week one. We're worried about fall camp. We're worried about tomorrow's workouts. We're ready to go attack fall camp in week one.”

On DB Boo Carter…

“Boo has a lot on his plate, stepping up on the defensive side. And we're going to try to do everything we can to put him in a position to help our team out. I'm really excited.”

On the first matchup of the season against Syracuse….

“Just kind of like what I said, man, I'm focused on tomorrow's workouts. I'm focused on fall camp. I'm focused on what I need to do to get better, and I'm focused on how I can help our team right now.”

On what he sees from Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley

“I would say the two biggest things I've seen from those guys is, last year they always did what they were supposed to do but that's just your job, and the one thing I love about those guys is not only are they doing what they're supposed to do at a high level, but they're also bringing guys along with them. You have Rah Rah in there, Radarious, and you have Travis Smith, and they're bringing those guys along with them. I love that because I don't think last year's Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews would have done that as freshmen. Now that they've grown into this leadership role, they're bringing those guys along with them, because we're going to need those young guys this fall, and they know that. And I love that.”

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