Vols Looking For Someone to 'Run Through the Damn Smoke, a Fart in a Skillet' in the Return Game

Tennessee special teams coordinator and outside linebacker's coach Mike Ekeler generally does not mince words when he speaks. Following Tennessee's third practice of fall camp, Ekeler took the podium and spoke with the media, and he was direct in what he is looking for in his returners.

“Alright, kickoff return," Ekeler said. "You don’t have to be a real make-you-miss type guy. But you got to be a guy that can run through the doggone smoke. You remember Days of Thunder? You remember when he dropped the hammer and went through the smoke? That’s the video I show them. I mean, that’s what kickoff return is like. You’ve got bodies everywhere, man. And if you’re scared, you better call 911. You’ve got to run through the damn smoke.”

Ekeler's answer about the punt returner was even more interesting.

“Punt return, you look for a fart in a skillet," he said. "A guy that can make you miss, you know? One cut, get vertical. That elusive guy. So it’s a little bit different. Punt return, it’s not like kickoff. You don’t have everybody coming down full bore. You’ve got windows, you’ve got space, you’ve got levels. You can be a little more of a guy who is going to make some cuts, from the inside out.”

Ekeler has been intense with his unit from day one, but he has been impressed with where they have come since the spring as he complimented their progress earlier in the press conference.

“I’ll tell you what, in spring, our guys worked our tails off. And all you do in spring practice is you build your players’ portfolio, right? So each player, you figure out what they can and can’t do. Then you reaffirm it right now, in our drills that we’re doing in special teams. So we have a really good idea what our guys skill sets are and we’re going to plug them in. We’ve got a lot of dudes, man. A lot of RLDs — real live dudes — that are flying around. And we should wreck shop.”

Ekeler's unit could be an X-factor for the Vols this fall, and he will look to show off his expertise with the unit.