Tennessee's DB Coach Derek Jones Chooses to Coach Bad Plays Differently Than Most

The Tennessee Volunteers have had a lot of highs, but they have also had some lows this season.

One of the lows that they had was a bad series by Timothy Merritt, who was called for defensive pass interference on multiple plays in the same drive. While most coaches would tend to jump down their player's throat, Tennessee Vols' defensive back coach Derek Jones tends to do the opposite.

Here is what he had to say about the moment and how he coaches.

Derek Jones on How He Coaches Bad Plays and Drives

“Well, you know, I preach to these guys all the time about the importance of maintaining your composure when you play this position. I truly feel it’s the hardest position on the football field to play just because every mistake you make is a glaring mistake. Everybody on the field sees it. Everybody in the stands sees it. In the world we live in of social media, podcast criticism, you know that’s going on. But you’ve got to be mentally tough enough to move on to the next play. And what I told him on the sideline the other night is we can correct those things. That’s my job to get that corrected. We’ve got to go look at it. But I think in that moment, as a coach, you’ve got to know how to handle it. The worst thing you can do to a young player in that situation is yank him out and take the confidence away. And when you get your hands on him, you’ve got to make him understand that if you don’t do this, then it goes from a pass interference to maybe an interception. But I think you have to coach guys like that all the time, and I’ve been coaching those guys like that since the first day I walked on campus because the last thing you want as a cornerback coach is for your guys to come to the sideline in fear coming to face you. I don’t think that’s coaching. It’s just like parenting. You don’t want your kids to come tell you things. You don’t want your kids to be afraid when they make mistakes. Just like you have to parent, you have to coach. And we go back to the film room and we look at where he was wrong, talk about his confidence, talk about his fundamentals and techniques and the things that if you don’t do this, you’re in the right position, then it’s not a pass interference call. It’s a pass breakup or an interception But it’s a trust between player and coach that enables guys to be able to say, okay, I trust you, Coach, because in those moments I played the position, you had a very low point. And I’ve learned just through coaching that you have to be the source of peace for guys in those situations," Jones said.

Tennessee plays their next game on Saturday, as they are set to take on the Kennesaw State Owls. This will be the final game before the SEC slate.

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