Austin Price: Hello friends, and welcome into another edition of Vol Club Confidential. I'm your host, Austin Price, of VolQuest.com. Tennessee having another solid week in basketball. Continue to roll right through as we hit the midway part of January. Tennessee, of course, coming off the Kentucky game, will now play a big game with Texas at home the 28th, not this weekend, but the 28th. It'll be Tennessee and Texas. Joined by now by James Clawson of Spyre Sports. James, since the Orange Bowl, Tennessee's nice little running basketball here to start, SEC play, a lot of uptick with the Volunteer Club and new membership. James Clawson: Yeah, Over 250 new members, Austin, since the Orange Bowl. So, we're really excited about that. Tremendous amount of growth, a lot of interest, a lot of people buying our merch, a lot of people interested in what we're doing. I think a lot of our efforts over the course of the last year have come to fruition now, where people are understanding NIL, what we're trying to do for current student-athletes at Tennessee. And we're having some success, and we're going to keep our foot on the gas. Austin Price: Coming up next Saturday, the 28th, for the Texas game, you all are going to do a tailgate. Most people associate that with football season, but you're going to incorporate it during basketball season. Why? James Clawson: Yeah, so our fans love to tailgate. It's a culture in the SEC, and our basketball team is a really good, Top 10 team. Baseball's great too. And so we're really good all year round in a lot of different sports, and we just thought, "Hey, let's do something different." And we're going to do it indoors. But it'll be, I think, a fun experience for fans. We'll have some football players in attendance. The games at four o'clock, so we can tailgate the afternoon, go to the game, and we'll see how it goes. But we're excited about it. Austin Price: Tennessee basketball continues to roll right along. Tennessee baseball right around the corner, and before you know it'll be spring football time, and who knows, getting ready for Tennessee football coming up in the fall. Now tonight's main attraction, we'll stick with football, and as Tennessee defensive coordinator, Tim Banks. Tim Banks: Austin, how you doing, brother? Austin Price: Hey, man. Tim Banks: Good to see you. All right, let's get to work. Austin Price: Coach Banks, Detroit native, 51 years old. I know you probably don't want to highlight the age, but at the same time, you grew up when Detroit had some really cool moments in sports, whether it was Cecil Fielder with the Tigers, the Bad Boys, with the Pistons. Tim Banks: Absolutely. Austin Price: How much fun was that growing up in Detroit during a heyday, where they were really good professionally? Tim Banks: Absolutely. Both were good. But you left out my Lions, right? Billy Sims. Austin Price: Yeah, there you go. Tim Banks: Pretty good then. And Barry Sanders. But yeah, it was great. Detroit's such a blue collar state, or city, I should say. And the whole state of Michigan is blue collar, and having a chance to see the World Series, or at least be a part of. I remember going downtown for the parade, and being a part of that was awesome. And you talk about the Bad Boys, and how it just really took over the city, and everybody had such pride, and hardworking toughness. It was awesome. I had a really good childhood. My mom, my dad, my siblings, I don't have any complaints about my childhood, and it was great, obviously, in the heyday of some of those sports. Austin Price: When did you know you wanted to get into coaching, teaching, being a builder of young people? Tim Banks: Yeah, that's a great question. I didn't know right away, just like most young people, I thought I wanted to have opportunity to play in the NFL. Austin Price: Sure. Tim Banks: But nobody was looking for undersized corners that ran just okay. So, I had to figure out another path. But honestly, it was one of those things, I was in grad school and every day I would come in. Or excuse me, during the class, one of the GA's at Central Michigan, would come in. I would ask him how practice was going. And one day he just finally say, "Hey man, you need to think about coaching. You're so concerned about what's going on every day, you really should think about this thing." And I hadn't, quite honestly. I was married at the time, which is a whole nother story, but I can remember going home and telling my wife, "You know what? Maybe I will give this coaching thing a chance." I wasn't sure how to become a GA. I probably sent out over a hundred resumes to Division II schools, all the MAC schools. I didn't know. I got two responses back, one from a D2 school, and one from the University of Louisville, if you can believe that. They both said no, by the way. But I did get some responses. And sure enough, Bowling Green had an opportunity late, right around, I guess it would've been going into the summer. They were right getting ready to start spring ball, I should say. And the guy they thought was going to be the GA couldn't get in school, and they were scrambling. And they reached out to my head coach and asked was I still interested in being a GA? And the rest is history, man. So it's been a great ride. Like I said, I've been married since 1994, so my wife's been on that journey with me. And like you said, it's not like playing, but it's definitely the closest thing to it. Austin Price: What characteristics from your playing career, do you still feel like are with you as a coach? Tim Banks: Once again, another good question. I think just the intensity and the focus. I was always focused. Again, when you don't have some of what people would consider God-given traits, I feel like I made up with toughness and focus, and in intentionality, so to speak. And I think I bring the same thing to the coaching profession. I'm very intent, very purposeful, with the things that I'm trying to get accomplished. And I think it's bode well for me so far, in my career. Austin Price: You look at your career, you've coached a little bit of everything, coached linebackers, coached running backs even. Of course, obviously secondary. I know the secondary comes natural to you, but most challenging, was it running backs? Was it just flipping into the offensive side? Tim Banks: Absolutely. Gary Blackney gave me my first start in the coaching profession, and I'll never forget, we're at the coaching convention, and he's jogging, and me and one of my buddies were coming in and he said, "Hey, young fella, I need to talk to you." At that time I was coaching D2 ball at Ferris State, who just won a national championship, by the way. And he says, 'Hey, I may have an opportunity for you.' So, I was so giddy, I was so excited. I'm going to go back to Bowling Green and coach the corners. He wanted me coach running backs. I had never coached an offense side of the ball in my life. And I remember telling my wife like, "I'm not sure this is what I want." Well obviously, she took care of the bills and she said, "No, this is what you want. You going to take this job and have an opportunity." So I end up taking the job, and it's probably the best thing I've ever done, because it gave me an opportunity to see football from a different lens, obviously from the protection standpoint, just how they want to attack different defenses. To be honest with you, I still use it to this day. So, was it challenging? Absolutely, because it was so foreign to me. But at the same time, I think it really springboarded me, in terms of becoming a coordinator. Austin Price: Jerry Mack really lucky, he moved back to the defensive side of the ball. Who's had the biggest impact on you, from a coaching standpoint? Tim Banks: Listen, it's so many people, and I mean that. I'm not trying to be coy from, again, Gary Blackney who gave me my first start at Bowling Green, to Steve Spagnuolo, who I worked under as a GA, to even lately, Coach James Franklin. I've known him since we worked together at the University of Maryland. So, I've tried to take some from everybody that I've been around, whether it was a D2 school, whether it's a MAC school. I think everybody has some value. Even the high school guys that I meet, I'm always trying to learn. And anybody that I've worked with, or come in contact with, and we've talked football, I've always taken something from them. Austin Price: I look at this year's team, and I don't know if there's been any greater improvement than the defensive side. You had 13 games, ten of which the opponent scored less than 30 points. And in today's modern day college football, everybody's scoring, right? Tim Banks: Sure. Austin Price: You guys got off the field a lot this year, compared to last year. Where do you think the biggest growth was? Is it just everybody being a year older, because you really had the same personnel, it wasn't like you incorporated a bunch of new players. Tim Banks: Yeah, I think it's a combination as such, combination of both, us getting a little bit older, we're becoming more familiar with our personnel. Again, we try to pride ourselves and play into their strengths. But again, all the credit goes to our players, just the way they stick with it, the way they competed during the off season, we identified what we considered some liabilities, and the kids really worked on it, to make sure that we can make some adjustments. So, they played well. I tell guys all the time, "The reality of it is, in this day and age, with the high octane offenses, you're going to see week in and week out. And quite frankly, even having one of the top offenses in the country on our side, teams know going into the game that they're going to have to try to outscore us, to have an opportunity." So where they might be a little bit more conservative based on some of the other opponents, we don't get that. We're going to get everybody's best shot, and everybody's going to do whatever they can to try to score points and score them in bunches. So to our kids' credit, they never flinch. They got better week in and week out. And I'm super proud of them. Austin Price: When you're the defensive coordinator, and you think you got them off the field on third down, then they go for it, because they are trying to keep pace with the offense. Tim Banks: Absolutely. Austin Price: Is that like, "Oh, we just stopped them." I can imagine, I sit there and watch the game as a media guy, or if you watch it as a fan, you're like, "Man, they got the field." And then all of a sudden it's like, "This guy's going to go it, from the fourth down from the 50 yard line." Tim Banks: Right. That's the day and age we live in right now. And it's just compounded because of our type of offense, and how well they play on offense. So teams know they're going to have to take some unnecessary chances sometimes, or calculated chances, rather. But at the end of the day, I think that's part of our secret sauce. We don't flinch on that stuff. We just go out and play. If they're giving us another down to play, then we're going to do our best to win that down. And for the most part, our guys did a really good job doing that. Austin Price: You like to bring pressure. Tim Banks: Absolutely. Austin Price: It's the greatest.... Offensively, I'm a huge fan, everybody knows this, of the wheel route. The wheel route's always open. Defensively, I love the corner blitz. Do you like that? Is that your like eh-- Tim Banks: I know you can't tell, but I was a corner back in the day. So anytime I can bring one of those corners, it warms my heart. So yeah, we like to bring the corners and we had a couple splash plays with some corners, made some plays, coming off those edges. So, the thing that's happened in this day and age though, they spread you out so much, sometime they move that corner a little bit wider than you want, so you end up bringing somebody different. But at the end of the day, we're always trying to figure out a way to get the quarterback off his spot, and obviously be able to stop the run by bringing the extra guy sometimes. But yeah, we're going to blitz getting off the bus. That's just who we are. Austin Price: When you left Penn State for Tennessee, what you envisioned then for what you wanted your defense to be, and what it currently is, and where you want it to be, where are we at in this thing? Tim Banks: Yeah, we're getting closer. I knew we needed to be a defense that was extremely flexible, because once again, as I mentioned earlier, every week you know you're going to get everyone's best shot, in terms of trying to keep pace of what we're doing. I don't know if people know this, but this wasn't my first time being a coordinator on a spread team, who plays with Pace. Austin Price: Sure. Tim Banks: Where actually, back at Central Michigan, probably one of the first teams in the country that played with Pace. We played with a bunch of snaps. So I learned early as a coordinator, you got to be able to manage the games. People point a lot to our past defense. And the reality of it is, we could do different things to drop aid, but we can't allow teams to run the ball and control the clock, which takes away from our offense. So, we're always going to put our guys in the best situation to play great team football, and we felt like we did a great job that way. So, to answer your question, are we exactly where we need to be right this second? Of course not. There's always room to improve, but my vision was that we'll be extremely flexible from year to year, based on our personnel. And we did that. We made the adjustments from the year one to year two, and I'm sure we'll make even more adjustments next year based on our personnel. Austin Price: Not every defensive coach wants to play with an offense that goes at this pace, but you embrace that. I'd like to think it's because you're so Steady Eddie. You never seem like you are rattled one iota, no emotion, never too high, never too low. Accurate a statement? Tim Banks: Yeah, no, I think that's very fair. Like I said, I pride myself on being focused and like I tell you, some guys run from the fire, some guys run to it. And I've never been afraid of a challenge. I know Tennessee is one of the more iconic programs in the country, and having a chance to be down here and get around our fans, and they have not disappointed. So, I knew who Coach Heup was, I knew the style of play and which they would play with, but I knew that given a chance that we could compliment those guys, we feel like we've done that. Austin Price: You've had continuity through two years, heading into year three. How big is that? Tim Banks: It is big. It is big because I've gotten to know them better. They've gotten to know me better. It's not a lot things that they don't understand when we talk schematically, what we're trying to get accomplished, because we've done it for two years. So no, it is been awesome. I'm extremely blessed. I'll tell anybody, "I feel like we have the best defensive staff in the country," and I think the experience dictates that. Austin Price: When you're in the box calling the defense, you've got the rest of the defensive staff down below. Is that a nice to have those guys that you've started to trust, down there is your conduit between the players? Because, you're seeing everything from a bird's eye view, whereas they're looking at them in the eyes. Tim Banks: Right. Yeah, it's extremely important because if you're going to be in a box, you won't be able to touch the kids. Sometimes you don't know are they understanding what you're trying to get accomplish in terms of adjustments. But, I trust those guys from Coach BJ, to Coach Martinez, to Coach Gardner. Those guys do a great job with their respective units. And in this day and age, if you're waiting until half time to make the adjustments, you're behind. So, we're making adjustments every series, and it's because of the experience that we have on that defensive side of the ball. Austin Price: I know the goal one day is to be a head coach. What would you envision a Tim Banks-led program look like? Tim Banks: Yeah, I think a program that plays extremely hard, a program that really is one of the tougher programs in the country. And to be quite honest with you, one of the programs that does things the right way. In this day and age, with all the different things going on, sometimes people lose sight of... I get it, we're in the entertainment business, but there's also another side of it, and that's making sure that we putting these guys in the best opportunities to get degrees that are life changing, for a lot of these kids. So that's what I see. We're going to have great balance, and not just from a football perspective, but off the field as well, because I understand how big it was for me to get a degree from Central Michigan. And my cousins and even my brothers and my sisters following my path, and going off to school, we're doing that and helping generations from generations. So, having a chance to impact a program that way from the top as a head coach, is definitely a goal of mine. Austin Price: In what ways do you feel like that you can make an impact with players that's off the field? Tim Banks: Yeah, I think again, I'm not one of those guys that does a lot of talking about things. I try to show them what a real man looks like, how I treat my wife, how I treat women. Living a life of integrity is important to me. And I know a lot of guys talk that talk, but everybody's not ready to live it. And I try to be an example of that. We talk about our culture. And one thing about our culture is, I tell them all the time, "It's not what you say, it's what you do. Culture is how you behave." And that's really what I try to do with my players off the field. I try to be a good example of what I think a man should move and act like, and having integrity and living by a code, and hopefully those guys see that. Austin Price: What do you hope that the athletes' biggest takeaways from playing for you are what? When I talked to a few players for a story I did with on Rod earlier during the year, from the nineties, to guys that just played here, they just glow at the man. What do you hope players say about Tim Banks? Tim Banks: That I treated them fairly. That I truly wanted the best for them, and not just as a football player. And like I said, I've been in this thing 20 plus years, and it's a lot of great coaches in this profession, but they're not always in it for the right reasons. And I like to think myself, and some of the guys that I grew up around in this profession are, and that's making sure A, they have the best experience they can, obviously on the field, because I understand we want to win and have that, but ultimately the applause is going to stop at one point. And for me, hopefully those guys will say that I put them in the best possible position to be the best version of themselves, and not just on the field but off the field. Austin Price: You brought up the Lions when we first started going. Tim Banks: Oh yeah. Austin Price: And they've had a really solid year this year. How much have you enjoyed watching them get back to winning some football games, because they'd been so down for the last few years? Tim Banks: Yeah, well I'm going to stop you, but I haven't been able to watch any of it, because they keep me so busy. But second of all, yeah, when you read it, you know it's exciting, because again, all my Facebook friends are still die-hard Lion's guys I grew up with. And so you keep up with it that way. And yeah, it's been awesome, man. Because again, you take pride in where you come from, or where you're at, and Detroit will always be home for me. So when those guys are having success, life's just a little bit better. Just like when UT is rolling, in Tennessee, life's a little bit better. Austin Price: A lot of family's still up that way? Tim Banks: It is. My dad's there, my siblings. I have three sisters that are there, my brother and their respective families. My wife's family is still there. You would've thought the Orange Bowl was little Detroit. And I had a ton of them down there, so it was awesome. Austin Price: How much have you dished out the orange clothing for the people up north? Tim Banks: Quite a bit. So they'll come down here, and they go right to my closet and just start grabbing. So, it's been awesome. Again, I'm a big family man. I think anybody will tell you, it's me and my wife. I don't have any hobbies outside of football. It's football, and then family time. That's it. That's the truth. So, you've texted me a few times, when I'm with my family, and I'm off the clock, I'm off the clock. The only time I'm picking up is recruiting, because that's football. Austin Price: It never ends. Tim Banks: It never ends. So, having those guys down here, having a chance to spend time with my siblings, and my dad has been awesome. You obviously know I lost my mom in February of last year, and family time was even more important to me. It really was, because anytime you lose someone, you realize that life goes by fast. It really does. So, I love what I do. I wouldn't trade this life or anything, but I also want to make sure that all my loved ones get a chance to enjoy this ride as well. Austin Price: Yeah, I'm not as old as Coach Banks, but I still have my parents. But, I lost my last grandparent two years ago coming up in March. And there'll be times where I will pick the phone up, or sometimes I'll just listen to it. I've saved all of her old voicemails- Tim Banks: Oh, yeah. Austin Price: ... singing happy birthday to me, or whatever. And I'll just listen to her voice. You ever do that with your mom? You ever pick up the phone to call her to tell her about the game, or whatever? And they go, "Oh." Tim Banks: We still have her phone on, so we can go to voicemail and hear her voice. And my mom was a big football fan. She didn't miss. I was telling someone, "This was the first time in awhile, she wasn't at the bowl game." We've been blessed to go to a bunch of bowls, particularly over these last ten years or so. And she hadn't missed any. And this is the first one. It was the first one in a long time. But, yeah, we talk about my mom all the time. We were literally was just talking. She had what she called her Granny Trip, when she would take all her grandchildren with her during the summer. And as I told my brothers and sisters, we want to keep that legacy alive. We're planning a summer vacation as we speak, to make sure that they remember her. Austin Price: Speaking of vacations, one place you'd never been that you'd like to go? Tim Banks: Ooh, I tell you what, right before COVID hit, we were on our way to Barcelona and- Austin Price: COVID ruined everything, right? Tim Banks: Yeah. We were going to cruise out, and go to Rome. So we're still looking forward to that at some point. Getting to Barcelona, and cruising out. We love to cruise when we can, and getting a chance to see Rome is one of the big ones for us. Austin Price: Disney Cruise? Yes or no? Tim Banks: Well, I haven't been blessed with any kids, so Disney's not quite my thing. Austin Price: I didn't know if you did it with the family. Tim Banks: Well yes, but selfishly, we make them do the regular cruise, so we can have some fun ourselves. So no, I've heard nothing but great things. But no, I haven't done the Disney one, not just yet. Austin Price: Best place you have been? Tim Banks: From a cruise perspective? Austin Price: Or just anywhere? Tim Banks: Okay. We went to Punta Cana, the Dominican, some years ago, but we had a really good time, the wife and I. And we were literally just talking, "We need to get back there at some point." But the Dominican was awesome. But we've been around, a few places but that's probably the one. Austin Price: Have you done Alaska yet? Tim Banks: No. Everyone talks about Alaska. Austin Price: I'm doing it this summer. Tim Banks: Yeah, yeah. It's funny, Coach Golesh obviously just left to go out to south Florida. I think they did it this past summer, and he raved about it. And it's on the bucket list, but I haven't had chance to do it just yet. Austin Price: Yellowstone? Tim Banks: No. Austin Price: Does that interest you at all? Tim Banks: No. Austin Price: No animals for you? Tim Banks: No. Well my wife, she tries to drag me, but that's just... No, I'm sorry. I wish I could have a great story about that, but no, sir. Austin Price: Mackinaw Island in Michigan? Tim Banks: Oh, yeah. Austin Price: Big fan? Tim Banks: Yeah, I like Mackinaw Island. I do, I do. We've got up north a few times. It's funny, of course when you play at Central Michigan, you got a lot of Yoopers and guys from up that way. Austin Price: Sure. Tim Banks: So, I hadn't been up there before until I got out of college, ironically. But yeah, it's beautiful. Particularly in the summer. Austin Price: When you look towards next year's defense, you got a lot of nice young pieces, whether it be coming in from the recruiting class, or that group of Tyre West and Josh Josephs and Elijah Herring, some of those players that were freshmen this past year. How do you get those to take a big step this spring? For that group especially, it's go time. Tim Banks: Absolutely. Yeah. They're on the clock now. I tell guys all the time, "It's one thing to be on the bus, it's another thing to be driving the bus." So, some of these young guys are going to have an opportunity to drive the bus. So, how do you get that done? I think number one, as we get back to it, we'll identify obviously the things we did well, but where are the things that we can improve on, and not just overall schematically, but from player to player. So, once we get a chance to deep dive into that, we'll let those kids know exactly where they are, what they need to improve on, and more importantly, how they improve on it. So it's not just spring ball, but it is winter conditioning, it's film study, and then obviously you take it to the spring, and you hit the ground running. Austin Price: All right, let's go rapid fire. One question. Or one answer. One word answers. Greatest of all time, basketball? Tim Banks: LeBron James. Austin Price: Greatest Piston of all time, not named Isaiah Thomas? Tim Banks: Ooh. I would have to go with... My dad will kill me for saying this, but Joe Dumars. Austin Price: I like Joe Dumars. Best thing about Knoxville that you didn't know before you got here? Tim Banks: Wow. Just how nice the area is. I played against these guys a couple times, but you roll in and roll right out. And again, this isn't no sales speak, but college field but has city amenities, freaking awesome. I had no idea the city amenities were here. Austin Price: How often do you hear that from recruits? Because I've heard that for years. "It's a city." And I'm like, "What'd you think it was?" "Well, I thought it was going to be cow fields." You know what I mean? Tim Banks: All the time. But I was that guy. That's what I thought. I had no idea. Austin Price: That's what you were telling the recruits to not come here. Tim Banks: They didn't listen though. No, this town is awesome, man. Because again, I knew coaches that coached here, and they all said the same thing, like, "Bro, you're going to love it." And I'm like, "Okay, man, I coached at a lot of places." And no, this is the real deal. It's a great town, great people passionate about football. And like I said, it's just me and my wife, and certain things we got to have. And that's some nice restaurants. I love Smokey's downstairs. It is awesome. But I like to get out a little bit as well. Austin Price: Foodie, what's the favorite place to eat in town? I won't want to say best, favorite place to go? If you had a date night with the wife, where you going? Tim Banks: This is not unique to Knoxville, but we love Firebirds. You know what Firebirds is? Austin Price: I know what Firebirds is. Tim Banks: We love Firebirds. Austin Price: I eat at Walk-On's all the time. It's right beside of it. Tim Banks: Yeah, Walk-On's is good too, but Firebirds is our spot, every Thursday. Every Thursday we're in there. That's my deal. Austin Price: No kidding. What do you get? Tim Banks: Burger, baked potato. Is this thing live? And some chocolate cake. It's my cheat meal. Austin Price: With vanilla ice cream? Tim Banks: You know the meal. Austin Price: Oh, yeah. Tim Banks: That's exactly right. Austin Price: You got to have that. Tim Banks: Love it. Austin Price: For your wife, how much does she love Knoxville? Because, the one thing is, coaches, yes, rave about it, but it's the wives. The wives never want to leave. Tim Banks: No, you're exactly right. Austin Price: Because it's got enough of a city and it's close enough to Atlanta or Charlotte that they could run to, but it's also not too in your face. Tim Banks: That's right. No, she loves it. She absolutely loves it. And we've been at some places where she liked it, and it's where you work, but it's not like that here. No, she genuinely likes it here. Like I said, we've been blessed to be at a lot of great universities, but to be at a great university where you have a chance to win and win big, and you also love where you're living, we couldn't ask for a better opportunity here in Knoxville. And my wife will second that. Austin Price: Well, Coach, we appreciate the deep dive. We figured out you're still a LeBron guy. How can a Detroit guy really pick Jordan, right? Tim Banks: That's exactly right. I would not say it. We respect him, but LeBron's the man. Austin Price: We've had all these kids on. Coach Banks is the first coach we've had on, and so we're looking forward, we're going to have Coach Heupel next month. We're going to have Coach BJ, Brian Jean-Mary, or for the rednecks like myself, Brian Jean-Mary. He'll be on next week. Tim Banks: I guess I'm a redneck, because I say it too. Austin Price: So, we appreciate the time, man. And good luck heading to spring practice. Okay? Tim Banks: Absolutely. Appreciate you guys.