Austin Price: Hello friends, and welcome in for the final episode of season one of Vol Club Confidential. I'm your host, Austin Price. Coming up on the show, Tennessee offensive coordinator, Joey Halzle. But before we get to him, we'll bring in Spyre CEO, James Clawson. James had a lot of success this year with the first season of Vol Club Confidential. A lot of great guests, both players and coaches in multiple different sports, but so many different memories from the last year for the Volunteer Club, whether it be tailgates, smoking cigars after the Alabama game, tailgates on the road, those road games, the bowl game. What are some of your best memories? James Clawson: Well, as we started this, it has been a year of experimenting, trying different things. It certainly hasn't hurt that the success of the football team, the basketball team, the baseball run last year, we've had incredible success across our three biggest sports, and it's been fun to be part of that. The fan engagement has been really at an all-time high, and so whether we're trying tailgates, whether we're doing this incredible show that neither one of us really knew what it would look like, but it's turned out to be an incredible success. I think it's just trying new things and trying to move Tennessee forward and our fans forward in this new NIL era and also compensating the players while we're doing it. Austin Price: I think the key to anything is people, whether it's the members of Volquest on our message board, the members of the Vol Club, the players that come on this show or that you all interact with, the coaches, they make the job or the event or the show what it is. Can you just speak on just the people that you come in contact with, whether it be donors or fans or businesses looking to interact? James Clawson: Yeah. It's cool to see how much people love Tennessee, and whether that's the donor that grew up here or that's the kid that just transferred in. When you get on campus and you see the passion of the fan base, I think it sparks something in you. It's been cool to interact with the players, get to know the players, see some of their stories, see them interact with kids in certain environments like with [inaudible 00:02:29] or East Tennessee Children's Hospital. They're regular guys, they're regular guys and girls. They're student athletes, but at the end of the day, they have the same day-to-day and routines as a lot of us do, just in a different ways, but it's been cool to get to know them on a more personal level. Austin Price: Later in the show, after Coach Halzle, we'll take a look back at season one. But for now, let's bring in the offensive coordinator for the Volunteers, Joey Halzle. Coach, you're a California native. Coach Halzle: Yes, sir. Austin Price: You've been with Coach Heupel a long time. What's that journey been like from playing ball in California, playing JUCO ball in California to Oklahoma, and then catching on with Heup and riding this wave? Coach Halzle: Yeah, it's been pretty fun. It was interesting because I was Southern California, like you said, did JUCO ball at Huntington Beach, then went out to Oklahoma midyear in January during a record-breaking blizzard. I walked out of the dorm one of my first days there from Huntington Beach to Norman, Oklahoma in a blizzard. It was kind of like, "Eh, what did I get myself into here?" But clearly ended up being all right because I ended up hanging around for a while, and then getting on with Heup, and it's been the best decision I ever made. Austin Price: How would you describe your coaching climb from a GA role, into quarterbacks coach, now to the OC role? Coach Halzle: It's one of the better parts about working with Coach Heupel is everybody has a voice inside the room, so you're not just sitting there in the back as a GA and a QC, just taking notes. If you have something to say, we're saying say it, and he not only wants you to, he expects you to. You get building at that at a younger age than I think a lot of people get a chance to and then makes you more ready when you're ready to take over position room. Once again, with the whole game planning and how everything was going to get down, that was a complete communal effort the entire time, so felt like I was ready to take over this coordinator position in the same way. Austin Price: Heup is so, not use word protective or just so big on knowledge of the offense. If you're somebody that's in one of those QC roles, your chance to move up here is better than at most places. You look at the last couple of years, Kelsey moves up, Alec moves up into the tight ends role. What is it about this offense when you have that knowledge of it that allows you to take that step as a coach? Coach Halzle: Yeah. What we do, if you just watch us on camera and watch the game film of it's like, "Okay, it's nothing that crazy different." It's all about how we do it, and that is the insider information that if you're teaching somebody new, it's a big process. Also, you got to trust that information isn't going somewhere else here in the next year or two that someone's looking for a stepping stone. He likes to promote guys that have been loyal to him, that have been around him. It's like, "Man, I trust them." He knows they're already good people, he knows they're already good coaches, so they make perfect sense for him to move into that role. Austin Price: You've had a long time to sit and learn and figure out maybe what you would take from Heup calling plays or Golesh calling plays, and maybe some things you want to do from a wrinkle standpoint. What are things that you observed that you feel like they did well that you want to incorporate and then maybe some things that you want to add? Coach Halzle: Yeah. The fun thing about this offense is no matter who's calling it, is it's extremely aggressive. You dictate the pace of the play, you dictate how the defense is going to play against you. That's why we get so many un-scouted looks because defenses are just throwing stuff at a wall trying to hope something sticks against us. It's fun to be able to dictate that pace of play and that style of play that people don't get to say this is how it's going to go today. It's like, "No, no, no. We're going to tell you how this goes today and you're going to react to it." Austin Price: Sure. Coach Halzle: For me, I love getting the ball out on the perimeter quickly. I love it. To our playmaker, so finding the right guy to get the ball in their hand too and get it out to him quickly in a bunch of space. You've seen the splits we play in and how fast we play. We can get space, we can get the guy with the ball in his hands, so let's figure out creative ways to get it to the right guy in that space that we're creating. Austin Price: You've got quarterbacks that have been of all different shapes, sizes, skill levels that have all had success. Are they having success not cause of the offense, but doing it the same way, or is it really like, "Okay, this guy throws the scene better than trying to get it out to the edge?" Coach Halzle: Right. I think if you look at what the guys that have had success in doing what we're doing have in common is they have that mindset of just they're ballers, for lack of a better term. When someone breaks down, they can get you right. When something is not the perfect play call or defense has a good call against you, they get you out of it. That mindset of being able to just wheel and deal and be the type of guy that could just make the play, that doesn't matter how tall you are, how fast you are. We had a guy at UCF that threw for 4,000 yards, and he doesn't look anything like Joe Milton, Hendon Hooker, Nico. He doesn't look anything like him. If you have that mindset, you can perform here at a really high level. Now you take it and you put it with all the tangibles that those guys have, and you get a Hendon Hooker performance, you get what Joe did in the Orange Bowl, and you can do some really special stuff. You Austin Price: You did take a year off. Coach Halzle: I did. Austin Price: Went more into the private sector. How different was that, and did it just make you miss it that much more? Coach Halzle: It sucks. Yeah. It was about year nine of being off the field, meaning QCGA, analyst, however you want to term it. I got an opportunity to work at a company that was, salary was way better because the NCAA said what the GAs could make and all that. Took it, and was out of it for a while, and then was like, man. My wife and I had a conversation. She's like, "Well, this is not what you need to be doing. You need to get back into that," went back with Coach Heup at UCF, and really the next year, Jeff Levy took the Old Miss job over as the OC, and I bumped up into that quarterback position after one year at UCF. Austin Price: Do you feel like it's one of those things where your relationship with Coach Heup stands the test of time just because you all have been with you each other when you were player-coach, now you're coach-coach? Coach Halzle: We have that trust where he can say things to me, I can say things to him, and we both know that what the other person's intent actually is. You know what I'm saying? No one's trying to cut somebody down or trying to be disrespectful in any type of way. It's, "Hey, this is how I see it and this is what I feel, the information that needs to get conveyed to you," and whether it's going from me to him, or him to me, it's always received that way. We've been together for so long, we have that relationship. We understand that both of us have the best of intentions for the other person, so now we can just communicate and have that relay of information. It's free flowing. There's no, "I hope he takes this the right way," or "I hope he doesn't see this." I've known him for 17 years. Austin Price: No walking on eggshells. Coach Halzle: There's no walking on eggshells. It's just he says he wants communication in the building, so that that's what he gets. Austin Price: You grew up in California, you go to Oklahoma, now you're in the South. That's three different areas of the country, three different areas of the country. Best part about each, and maybe I won't say the worst part about each, but maybe the most surprising part of each? Coach Halzle: Growing up in Southern California, when I went to Oklahoma, it was interesting to hear people say like, "Oh yeah, I've been to the beach a couple times," because that's just like what we did. You started the day off at the beach and it's like, "Are we going to do anything today?" No, you're sitting at the beach. Obviously, that's the most fun part of being around there. Oklahoma was fun. I had great roommates, a bunch of guys that are still in this profession. It was cool getting away from Southern California. You get out part of this part of the country where football really matters to people. You know what I'm saying? Austin Price: Sure. Coach Halzle: Same with the Midwest and the South and all of that has been a great reason why I never went back after I came here because I love football and that's why I want to be out here where it matters to people. Austin Price: But you recruit the Southern California, so when you get just enough of a taste of it, do you get to go back and see family and stuff? Do you got to try to buffer that in if you can? Coach Halzle: If I can. Friends will swing by and say, "What's up?" But man, it's spring recruiting. You're out there and you're kind of ripping and running and then you get to a hotel and you're finally get to shut down here for a little bit before you get right back up and go at it again the next day. Try to mix it in if you can, but it's one of those things that it ain't hitting a 100%. Austin Price: When Coach Heupel was on, we found out that coach, he's a big JFK history buff. What's one thing most people don't know about you? Coach Halzle: Well, I think it's different than a lot of quarterbacks that come out of that part of the country. I actually didn't play quarterback till going into my junior year. Decided between my sophomore year I want to give this a shot, so I found a guy that helped teach me and really started playing the position my junior year in high school. I was a corner to start off. I don't think I had the ability to play corner at the next level, but that's very different from how a lot of it goes, especially out there. Kids have been trained by the same guy since they were eight years old, so that's one of the kind of different things about me. Austin Price: You were telling me that when you were a senior, Jimmy Clawson was on your high school football team as a freshman. Coach Halzle: Yep. Austin Price: How familiar were you with the Clawsons, and then now obviously they mean a lot to the Tennessee family. Coach Halzle: Yeah. No, I've known them since what, shoot, what year? 2003. Known the family. Now Casey and Rick were gone for a good part of that, doing their whole thing in college, and Casey was taking a shot at the NFL and doing all that type of stuff. But his sister Katie was my age, so we went through our entire high school experience together. I know the Clawsons really, really well. Known them since shoot what, 2003? 20 years now. Yeah. Austin Price: Katie was a key member of the football program here. She worked behind the scenes as well. For you, where do you feel like you've grown most as a coach? Maybe when you go back, when you first started as a GA, when you're trying to dabble into it, to right now, where do you feel like you're most comfortable? Where do you feel like you've grown? Coach Halzle: I think in learning how to teach because that's just what this is teaching. There's not one way to do it, and you can't just say, "Okay, this is my teaching style." I think when you're younger, you just try to show everybody that you know what you're talking about. You know what I mean? "I know what I'm doing, I know what I'm doing," and realizing that a lot of times saying like, "Hey, I don't know the answer here. Let me figure that out for you and I'll get it for our next meeting." But each guy that you have every year has something different that they need to learn. Some guys are visual, some guys are auditory, some guys learn by doing, some guys learn watching the tape, so just figuring out what your guy needs and actually helping them do it that way because it's all about them. It's not about you, it's how they perform on Saturday, so how do I communicate the information that my guy needs the best way possible? Not that what makes sense for me or what fits my style, what fits him? If that's going to be my guy, then I need to make sure he's receiving the information properly. I think making that step, learning that doesn't mean that I didn't teach it well. It's like, "Wait a minute, he's not hearing this the way it needs to be. How do I change? How do I make it so that he can go perform to the best of his ability?" Austin Price: It was well chronicled last fall that you got the most out of Hendon Hooker by watching him play basketball and correlating that. Is there something you can correlate with Joe Milton that maybe you've found a way to make him tick? Coach Halzle: Yeah. Joe's whole thing [inaudible 00:13:55] and all the guys in the room there that do a great job with him have said like, "Man, it's okay not to know. You're going to miss throws. That's fine. Let's figure out why. You don't have to be perfect. Joe is a perfectionist, which is not a bad trait for a quarterback, wanting to do it well, but when you take it to the point that you're getting mad if you miss a throw or you're pissed off if you miss a read, it's like, "Well man, instead of going that way with it, let's just watch it later today, here as a group. Let's figure out why. Why were you in the wrong spot? Why did you miss that throw? Why did that guy not go to the spot you thought he was going to go?" That's been huge for him that you can be that perfectionist. You can have that thought process of, I don't want to make any mistakes, but let's do it in a way that's beneficial, not in a way that ends up being a hindrance because you just get mad and then one snowballs into the next. Austin Price: How different was he from those first couple of games y'all's first year here to that Orange Bowl start? Because the weather at Vanderbilt didn't help anything, so I'd throw that one away, but that Orange Bowl was perfect weather. How different was he? Coach Halzle: He was great, and it was all in his preparation. That dude was so prepared to play that game. Clemson threw out a bunch of different kinds of defenses. When you watch the tape, what you do in a bowl season, you're not watching four or five, you're looking at everything. Austin Price: Sure. Coach Halzle: I mean, they're going from three down to four, down to pressure to drop eight, to zone, to man. That dude was dialed in on every aspect of the game plan. If they're going pressure, this is what we're thinking. If we're going man, this is what we're thinking. Zone, drop, this is how we're going to attack every portion of it. Man, by the time we got the game day, he could have rattled off every version of that game plan right back to you. That dude was so prepared, and when he was that prepared, then you just got to see his talent take over because he is immensely talented. That's a guy's as talented as anyone that'll ever throw a football. Austin Price: How do you get a player like Joe, who's wanting to obviously continue to grow in the spring, but then a lot of his weapons are not there. It's an orange and white game. I mean it's skeleton crew of wide receivers, and it was like that all spring though. Coach Halzle: It was. Austin Price: [inaudible 00:15:56] didn't go, Dante was out for a good portion of spring, so on and so forth. How do you continue to get him to grow even though he's throwing to guys he may or may not be throwing to in the fall? Coach Halzle: We had this conversation with him and with Nico as well. You know what I'm saying? Because if the guy that's running with the one group has not the same guys that imagine what's go, you know what I mean? Austin Price: Sure. Coach Halzle: It just keeps trickling down. I said, "Guys, this is hugely beneficial. Just work through your reads. Don't let it change anything. Work through, get to your check downs, scramble, extend plays. Go up, up and out. Go get yardage. All of this is extremely beneficial. It may not feel that way. You may get frustrated because you're just not on the same page with the guy that you're used to going with, but man, as this keeps going on and on and on, you keep going one, two, boom. Where's my back? Where's my tight end? How do I drop this thing down? How do I get up, up and out?" All of that stuff that you may not get normally in the spring, they got to do all that for a while. I was like, this is going to serve you extremely, extremely well moving forward. Austin Price: What's your goal for the offense? I mean, it's set records last year, so I mean it's hard to be as good as you were a year ago, right? Coach Halzle: Sure. Austin Price: What are your goals for this fall? What do you want to see this offense do? Coach Halzle: The standard for this offense is to be the best offense in the country, and that's not a graphic tagline. That's how we feel. With how we do, what we do, the guys that we have, we feel that we should go out and execute and be the best offense in the country. It's like, "All right, great." Is it a stats thing? Not really. That means every single ball game we should be in position to go get plus one on whoever we're playing. Period. End of discussion. That's how we feel. Doesn't matter. If it takes seven points, awesome. If it takes 50, awesome. Whatever is the task set at hand that given Saturday, we should be able to go out and accomplish. That's how we feel. That's how step into the stadium every single time we take the field. Austin Price: Coach Heup's big on family. I think you're the ultimate example of that. Having kids around the complex, you've always got your kids, you've got a brand new one, congratulations. Coach Halzle: Thank you very much. Austin Price: But they're always around, your wife's always around. To coach for a coach who is so big on wives and families and kids stopping by and hanging out because you guys worked so many long days, how nice is that? Coach Halzle: It's awesome, and it's uncommon in this profession. Everyone loves to pitch that family tagline out there on recruiting, but most people don't actually live by it. It's great that when your kids are up there, you don't have to worry about if they're loud in the hallway and he's looking around who. No, they're kids. They should be loud. He wants to hear your kids out there. He wants them running around, ripping footballs around the hallway, banking them off the walls. It's just it's nice that you can have them up there and while they're up there, you're not worried about they have to be perfect. Man, they're at a football practice. Let them run around. Let them make noise. Let them be loud. The fact that that's not only okay, but that's like, "Yeah, that's how it should be," it's awesome. Austin Price: Just last week, we had Dylan Sampson on, and Dylan said the moment that he knew Tennessee was the right fit for him was they were a Ruth Chris on the official visit, Jabari, who was his host, is on FaceTime with his mom and Heup comes around, knows her first name, goes into the full spiel. He said that was so genuine, that he had only been on the campus a couple of months and knew the parents' name and all that, which goes back to the whole family vibe and being genuine. That it's real, right? Fast, fun, real, I know that's a slogan. Everybody's got a slogan these days. I mean, it's the sales pitch every college is in, but when they can see that, to hear that story and know that that little bit of realness helped you land a guy like Dylan Sampson, what's that say? Coach Halzle: No, that's actually the first time I've heard that, so that's awesome. It just tells you you're bringing in the same, the type of kid that has the same values that you do. That actually spoke to them. You know what I mean? That mattered to them. That's been one of the biggest benefits of this is that I think one of the reasons it's been able to flip on its head so quickly is because the guys we have here are the ones that did care about the same type of things that Coach Heup preaches and Coach Heup says he wants in the room. That's what we've brought in recruiting. That's awesome to hear. That's literally the first time I've heard that Austin Price: Another family thing they do or team bonding thing they do, they play softball at the end of spring every year. A couple weeks ago, they get out after the spring game, they play softball, coaches versus the players. Dylan who told me last week that I said "The coaches won this game. This is two years in a row." He said, "Because our generation doesn't know how to hit a moving ball." Coach Halzle: Yeah. They're bad. Austin Price: Take me through Jake Breske's walk-off home run, and you're fielding because I was told that wasn't very good. Coach Halzle: Okay. Let's start this thing over here. Yeah. The fielding wasn't elite today, I'll give you that one. It usually is. I'm a shortstop by trade. Did hit a two run shot off the scoreboard. Austin Price: I did hear that though. Coach Halzle: Yeah. That thing would still be going up if it didn't hit the scoreboard. Austin Price: I was told to emphasize the fielding. Coach Halzle: Yeah, I'm sure you were. But they only scored 11, we knew that wasn't going to be enough to get it done. Had a bunch of guys get on base and we set up the order for whoever was the guys that could go yard would sit up behind the guys so as soon as they got two or three on base, step up, take your shot. Austin Price: Who is the power hitter out of that group? Coach Halzle: Coaches? Austin Price: Yes. Coach Halzle: Me. Austin Price: It's because you're younger. I can't imagine if Rodney Garner gets on, I think it's an automatic pinch run, right? I mean, you're not running the bases. Coach Halzle: Robert Ayers hit inside the park home run. That dude can still move. Austin Price: He can still move. Yeah. Coach Halzle: Move. Yeah. That's about big old man running around the corners right there. I think he took three kids out on the way around, but scored so it's all good. Austin Price: Still got two or three pass rushes in. Let's go rapid fire. Favorite Tennessee tradition. Coach Halzle: Man, that's tough. I haven't got to do it, but from up top when the T, running through the T, that's as cool as anything there is. Austin Price: At nighttime when they put the spotlight on it, which is a new thing. That was never happened until Danny and you all got here. Coach Halzle: I didn't know that. Austin Price: The spotlight on the T, that was all. Coach Halzle: It's sweet. And I don't know that I'll ever get a chance to actually run through it because we're all, we're up by the time it happens. But man, when that thing splits down the middle and the crowd goes crazy, that's tough to beat right there. Austin Price: You never no Halsey. You may be a head coach here one day. Who's your favorite NFL team? That's probably hard because I mean LA didn't have a team there for a while. Coach Halzle: Well, I was the Raiders growing up, and then they moved to Oakland and it broke my heart when I was little. Austin Price: Now they're in Vegas. Coach Halzle: Then I switched to Denver because of that, and I was a huge John Elway fan. Nowadays, it's more a lot of the guys that I know. I like watching the guys that I've played with or coached or that type stuff. Austin Price: You're watching players more than teams? Coach Halzle: I'm watching players more than teams. 100%. Austin Price: Do you think you'll ever move back to the West Coast? Coach Halzle: I don't see it. Austin Price: Only if you're a coach? Coach Halzle: Yeah. Austin Price: Favorite restaurant in Knoxville. Coach Halzle: Literally today had Lonesome Dove for the first time, and that was amazing. So good. Austin Price: So good. Coach Halzle: Chivo's fire too, but different brand. Man, that Lonesome Dove, that hit. Austin Price: Lonesome Dove is next level, and on Fridays they do 16 ounce prime ribs at lunch for $18. They also have sirloin cheeseburgers. Coach Halzle: Ooh, okay. Austin Price: Friday's a good day if you can get out of the office. Coach Halzle: I'll let Heup know. Staff retreat. Austin Price: Do your kids play sports? Are they old enough yet? Are they into that? Coach Halzle: My oldest just turned seven. Austin Price: Getting to that age where he can play- Coach Halzle: They're they're starting to get there. Austin Price: Baseball, T-ball. Coach Halzle: Yeah. Austin Price: Coach pitch. Coach Halzle: My boy, he's obsessed with Tennessee baseball right now. We watched some, it was like a fan made YouTube. It was called the Villains. It was the last year's baseball highlights. We watched that thing about five, six times a day. He's out there doing this and all that. He loves it. We watch that all the time. We had a tee, I got him a tee. Then he watched that and he said, "Well, those guys don't use a tee, so I'm not using a tee anymore." Now I just have to pitch to him, and he just tries to rip them. He's obsessed with Tennessee baseball right now. He's got two different jerseys, he's got the daddy hat, he's got got all of it. Then he's a big Hendon and Joe fan, and Cooper Maze oddly enough. He's a big Cooper Mayes fan. He has the Home Mayes shirt that he wears. Yeah. Austin Price: It's hard to not like the Mayes Brothers. We just talked about you welcomed your fourth. How have the other three adjusted to another addition? Coach Halzle: Oh, it's been great. Yeah, my oldest now, she's like having another little mom in there. She'll feed her, she'll rock her, she'll get her to go to sleep. She just completely taken over, and the other two see her as a little play thing. They just have fun wiggling stuff in front of her face and all that. Austin Price: Do you have the family from California come out much? Coach Halzle: It hasn't been out a ton, but sometimes. Austin Price: Do you think they'll come out now more that you're the OC? Coach Halzle: Potentially. Austin Price: Potentially. Okay. The ISS every week, Jordan or LeBron? Coach Halzle: That's not fair. What are we talking about here? Playing one-on-one, or just careers stacking up to each other? I don't feel like it's a fair question. Austin Price: Who's the goat? Coach Halzle: I got to go Jordan. Austin Price: Okay. That's two weeks in a row. Samson went Jordan. I think you may be the first one to have won. Jordan. We've had a lot of Kobe's though. I ask Jordan, LeBron, and they go Kobe. You know what I mean? Coach Halzle: I was in California during Kobe's Prime. Austin Price: Sure. Coach Halzle: You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I think it's, that's what I'm saying. Austin Price: But you still would've grown up, you were a kid during the Jordan era. Coach Halzle: I was a kid during the Jordan era. Austin Price: You would be like me, because I'm 40 and you're what, 37? Coach Halzle: Yep. Austin Price: The Marv Albert calling the games on NBC. Coach Halzle: Yeah. This game's in the refrigerator. The door shut, the butter's getting hard. The gel. Austin Price: From way downtown. Coach Halzle: That was Chick. Remember Chick? Austin Price: Oh, yeah. Chick Hern. Yeah, yeah. Chick was the man. You not only had him, but then you had Vince Scully with the Dodgers. Coach Halzle: Oh, yeah. Vince Cully was the man. Austin Price: You lived in the golden era of radio broadcasting. Coach Halzle: Yeah. Didn't even know it. Austin Price: Didn't even know it, right? I mean, those guys were legends. You Dodgers fan? Coach Halzle: Oh, yeah. Big Dodgers fan. I used to go to those games all the time growing up. Austin Price: Chavez Ravine, quick Story. Tennessee was playing UCLA in '08. That game was supposed to be week two. It got moved to week one. I had Dodgers tickets for that week two, but they weren't at home for the week one game. It was on a Monday night, and we end up going to an Angels game instead. We get out there and we're talking to the scalper, and we're going to just trade the tickets. He's going to take the Dodgers tickets for next week, and we're going to take the Angels tickets. Police pulls up, arrest him. We had the Angels tickets in hand. We just walked right on in and didn't have to pay. That was outstanding. Disneyland guy? Coach Halzle: When we were in Orlando, we were there for a couple years and we had that season pass. Austin Price: You had the world. Coach Halzle: Man, they wore that thing out. But it was great with little kids because you could go for three hours and come back because we were only 25 minutes from it. Austin Price: Disneyland or Disney World though? Coach Halzle: Man, Disney World. I grew up going to Disneyland, but Disney World's got more bang for your buck. Austin Price: I'm going to go Disneyland, for the exact reason, I want to disagree with you. I think you can get parts of Animal Kingdom and Epcot at Disneyland in California Adventure that you don't. You can't replicate the animals at Animal Kingdom and you can't replicate the countries at Epcot. Coach Halzle: Right. Austin Price: But if you said Disneyland, California Adventure versus Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom, I'll take the two in California all day long. Coach Halzle: Really? Austin Price: Yeah. It's way more laid back in California too. Coach Halzle: Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. Austin Price: You struck me as a laid back kind of guy. Coach Halzle: I am, but when you're trying to entertain that many kids at one time, man, you go to the Florida one. You get the animal lover taken care of, you got the ride lover taken care of, the ones that love Frozen at Epcot, man. Funny story, I was waiting for the Frozen ride in Epcot and I saw Drew Locke standing there. He was like, "What are you doing here?" I was like, "I have four kids. What are you doing here?" He's like, "Yeah, just going to go ride the Frozen ride." Austin Price: To put this in terms for the older crowd, and I mean the older crowd as in our age. Coach Halzle: Thanks. Austin Price: I was standing in line for Living with the Land when I was a kid, and Adam Banks, his name's not Adam Banks in real life, but Adam Banks from the Mighty Ducks was in line for that ride. Coach Halzle: Cool. Austin Price: Yeah. I want to take the kids to Disneyland, not to get this totally sidetracked on Disney, but we wanted to take the kids to Disneyland during 2020. Knox County fall break and Tennessee bi-week never hits. It was going to hit on the same thing. We're going to go out to the Halloween party at Disneyland. We've done the Halloween party at Disney World ever since my kids were born. Coach Halzle: Gotcha. Austin Price: Then COVID hit, so we weren't able to go. Last year, I'm like, "Hey, I'm taking the kids to Disneyland before they're getting any older, blah blah, blah." Then of course ends up falling into Nico committing when we're out there. Ended up going to Golden West Community College, which is where he trained, which is where you played. Coach Halzle: That is where I played. Yes, sir. I played one year at Golden West. That field though that you would've been on, that wasn't there. We didn't have our own stadium. We played at OCCC Stadium. We split it with them. Those were just little practice fields that back right up to that baseball stadium, and that wasn't there. Austin Price: You a big San Diego guy? Coach Halzle: I like San Diego. I didn't spend a ton of time there, but it's San Diego's awesome. Austin Price: It is. You can't beat the weather. I mean, it's weird. You can be in 100 degrees in LA, you go south, you think it's going to be warmer? No, it's like 75. Coach Halzle: Yeah. Pretty good. Austin Price: You tee off playing golf in San Diego, it's 75, you finish out, it's still 75. Coach Halzle: Yes, sir. Austin Price: It's ridiculous. Best food back home is what? Coach Halzle: It's a chain. I think Baja Fresh is as good as you can get out there, but there's way better, more authentic stuff you can get there. I used to grow up eating that, man, so I got to go with that. People are going to hate on me for that, but that's fine. Austin Price: You big on the Mexican food? Coach Halzle: I do. I love Mexican food. Austin Price: What's the best Mexican in Knoxville that you've had? Coach Halzle: Dos Bros is really good. Do you count Chivo? Austin Price: Sure. Coach Halzle: Chivo's really, really good. It's a different take on it, you know what I mean? Austin Price: If you and the wife have a date night, where are you going? Coach Halzle: Okay. Brasserie is right by our house, really, really good. We'll go to Lonesome Dove now because that thing, that was a different animal right there. We haven't spent as much time at Old Town. Just it's tough to get to from out where we are, so the Brasserie is really good too. Austin Price: I feel you. I'm with you. You ever go up to Gatlinburg much? Coach Halzle: Haven't been much. Have been to Dollywood a couple times. Austin Price: I know Heup gets up there in Pitman Center and floats down the river, so I didn't know how much you've done that. Coach Halzle: It's just hard with the little ones, man. Austin Price: It is true. It's hard to put them in a river. They're not old enough. Coach Halzle: A three, a four, and a six year old in a river. Austin Price: You give it four more years and then you're good, but by then you'll be a head coach somewhere living it up. Who knows? Making 9 million like Heupel a year. Coach Halzle: I don't know about all that, man. We'll see. Austin Price: We were out there watching Nico play last fall, and I said, "Hey, you need anything from the concession stand?" Heup's like... Did you want the hotdog or did Heup want the hotdog? Coach Halzle: I think that was me. Austin Price: Heup wanted popcorn. Coach Halzle: Popcorn, yeah. Austin Price: Yeah. After Heup got 9 million, my wife goes, "I don't think we're going to pay for anymore popcorn." She was joking, but it was still funny. I was like, "Kudos." What's your goal in all this? Coach Halzle: As far as professionally? Austin Price: Yeah. I mean, I'm assuming you would like to be a head coach someday, right? Coach Halzle: My main goal is to win a national title. I want to win a national title. That's my goal. I want to do it. I've gotten close before as a player. I want to win a national title. Austin Price: Seeing the success last year, how much does that wet the appetite to do that more? Coach Halzle: 100%. Austin Price: That 'Bama atmosphere, LSU on the road, taking over that stadium. Coach Halzle: You're going against the best of the best, and we've shown we can hang with it. We came up short for whatever reasons last year we didn't quite get to where we needed to get. I also think with the change in the format coming, it just makes it even more it's not just four, it's 12 now. You can go, you get your shot to go actually play for it. That's all you can ask for. Austin Price: Oklahoma coming into the conference. Do you look forward to that? Coach Halzle: I do. I know a lot of guys on that staff, so it'll be fun. Austin Price: Going back there or coming here? Coach Halzle: I would love to go back there. Their tight ends coach was my roommate in college. Austin Price: I think he was one of those names bantered about once Golesh left and you knew you were going to hire a tight ends coach, just cause you start trying to connect dots. Right? What's one thing that you do better than all the other coaches? Coach Halzle: Well, based off the softball game, you say I'm the best hitter. Austin Price: You're the best softball player, and Heup's the best basketball player because that's self-proclaimed, every time he gets in front of a mic, he's talking about how great he is at basketball. You're going to disagree with this. Coach Halzle: I would never disagree with Coach Heupel, especially not with a microphone in front of my face. Austin Price: Your eyes said otherwise. Coach Pope told the story a few weeks ago when he was out about body checking Heupel after he was told not to touch Heupel in basketball. When Heup had fun and cleaned out his locker, how much fun was that for the other coaches? Coach Halzle: It's pretty good. I don't think anyone actually thought he would do it, but he did it. I think it scared Coach Pope more than he wants to admit that it did. Austin Price: Oh, no. He admitted to it on that show. It was like when Ricky Vaughn thinks he gets cut in First Major League. Coach Halzle: Yeah, pretty good. You're not allowed to touch Coach Heup when you're playing basketball. It's very clear cut rule. Austin Price: Do you always just make him go left, or make him go right I mean? Do you make him go right since he's left handed? Coach Halzle: I'll give him that he does have handles. He can go both ways. He can cross you up. Heup can handle the basketball. Austin Price: If you're tasked with guarding someone, who do you want to guard? Coach Halzle: I'll probably take Tim Banks. Austin Price: Tim Banks? Coach Halzle: Yeah. Know who can shoot the lights out of the gym, Mitch Militello. Yeah. Can shoot it out. I know, I see your face. Can shoot the lights out of the gym. Austin Price: How is he defensively? Coach Halzle: He's a good basketball player, man. Dude played AAU basketball in St. Louis so he can actually, he can play basketball. Austin Price: St. Louis or E St. Louis because there's a difference. Coach Halzle: St. Louis. Austin Price: AAU basketball in East St. Louis, and then you're a real dude. What do you feel like is the biggest misnomer about Tennessee football right now? Coach Halzle: I've actually heard, with the draft coming up, you know what I mean? You hear they're talking about Hendon, Jaylen, Cedric, all those guys on our side of the ball. I've heard people say the air raid style offense or it's like they're finesse. Man, couldn't be further from the truth. We were nowhere near that. We like to run the ball, we get tack vertically, we attack in the ground game. We're just an up-tempo type of offense that what do you want that day? You want to load the box? Cool, we're throwing it. You want to play soft? Cool, here comes the run. That's the thing that gets me is when people like to group us into the finesse style of offense because they say, I think people just assume if you score a lot of points, move a bunch of yards, that's what you are when you throw it well. But in this conference, finesse doesn't score points and doesn't move the football. You know that, you've been out here long enough that if you're not hitting somebody in the mouth and physically moving somebody, you ain't moving the football. Austin Price: What was the biggest difference from year one to year two? Because I felt like that's where your biggest growth was is short yardage. Coach Halzle: One, just the second year in the system is always just different. Those first couple games, guys are just learning what to actually do. You know, go through all the almost a year of practice, it's just a different animal when it's live fire out there. Just now, we can be more creative in what we were doing. We could formation change more, we could motion more, we could put different bodies in different spots because we're not worried about guys just doing the right thing. You know what I'm saying? Now we can like, "All right, cool. How do we want to mess with the defense now?" That was fun. That's why you saw a bunch of growth in that. Whether it was short yardage or our goal line stuff, our third down packages, some of the shots we got up against different teams. It was motions, formations. We were getting Jaylen in certain spots and getting him on specific bodies. We were able to do that more once the guys had a very clear cut picture of what the base stuff we wanted to accomplish was. Austin Price: Do you feel like it's going to be one of those slow rest of the spring and summer months to get, because I know we get to that first game of calm plays, do you think you'll blink and it'll be here, or do you think this is going to be one of those things where you look forward to it? Coach Halzle: I think it's, with football season every year, man. It's like you get to April, May, June and it's like, "Man, it feels like it's just groundhog day." Then it's like you have your June recruiting time and official visits every weekend, so you're like, "Man, this is just the same thing over and over." Then July, you get a little bit of downtime. It's like, "Man, I can't believe fall camp's already here." Man, once small camp hits, you're in it now. You know what I mean? It's one of those things, it's like a combination of a slow grind but that it's over real quick. By the time you look up, you're like "Man, it's time to actually, this just got real. It's time to go do it." Austin Price: We head into the summer months, you'll hit the June recruit, you'll hit spring evaluations and then June recruiting. Then you get that few weeks where you get to actually take a vacation, be a family guy. Coach Halzle: Yep. Austin Price: What's the dream vacation for the Halzles? Coach Halzle: We love Marco Island. Learned it, it's out right up there on the Gulf, north of the Keys. That's our spot. We go there for six, seven days and the hotel points you accumulate from spring ball or spring recruiting pay for it, and you go out there for. That's our spot. We love that. Austin Price: Where's one place that you all have not been that you'd like to go? Maybe just you and the wife. Coach Halzle: We'd love to do, we've talked about doing Greece or something at some point. Would love to do that. I don't even know the best place to go there, so you got any recs I'll listen to you. Austin Price: I don't have any of those. I've done nothing in Europe. The wife and I did Hawaii, and we're doing Alaska this summer, so that's cool. I know Golesh did Alaska last summer. Coach Halzle: My wife's not super into the cold weather. If it's vacations, let's go somewhere. Austin Price: To the beach. Coach Halzle: Yeah,. Austin Price: There you go, Hawaii then. Coach Halzle: Hawaii. Yeah. Austin Price: Cabo, something like that. Coach Halzle: Yeah. Austin Price: Well man, we appreciate the time. Coach Halzle: Absolutely. Austin Price: You enjoy the downtime this summer when you actually get to it, and we look forward to watching you call plays at Nissan Stadium against, Virginia's coming up there in early September. Coach Halzle: I appreciate it. Austin Price: That is offensive coordinator, Joey Halzle, and that's a wrap on season one of Vol Club Confidential, but that's not all. Let's take a look back at some of our favorite moments from season one. Our offense, any game, anybody can have a big one. Just how our offense works, and we have the right guys for it. I think we have four elite receivers in that room. Omari Thomas: We was always just two biggies out there, so that's where I kind of just got it from and it's just been big ever since. Tony Vitello: When we score it's that song and it's a pretty dang good one. Josh Heupel: One of the great things here is the opportunity that players have for personal professional development. This is a great city to live in, and in today's landscape I think it's important that we provide the best resources and the best opportunities that we can for any of our players.