KNOXVILLE—Butch Jones addressed Vanderbilt, the state of his football program, their momentum in recruiting, and a few injury issues in Monday’s press conference. You can view his comments in the video above. Here are a few highlights.

Jones on recruiting:

“Well, we have a lot of momentum and recruiting is going exceptionally well right now. I think people can see, again it gets back to the small wins sometimes they don’t show up on game day, but I think people see the culture that’s in place now, standard of excellence but also the people. Also, what this place will be in the near future and what it has been. So, I think the big thing is obviously, any coaching staff will tell you this, is maintaining but also building upon that recruiting class as well.”

Jones on depth problems:

“I’ve said it; I’m not going to hide it. We have zero depth and A.J. Johnson is playing too much. Dontavis Sapp is playing too much but that’s where we’re at. How do you correct it? You recruit, that’s bottom line.”

Jones on the bye week and getting to a bowl:

“I have really stepped back and had a time to really evaluate every thing in our football program in this last week, there are no off days, not on a bye week, that is a work week. It is a time now to dig in and really self-evaluate, self-evaluate the program, everything that is going on. Are we a better football program right now than we were December 7, August 1, and kind of really go into that. The big thing, you may not want to say it, I am going back to what we originally talked about, focus on the process. We have taken monumental strides of where we are at right now than when we walked in here on December 7. Sometimes the progress isn’t measured in wins but I see the small victories each and every day.”

“We are getting better in our mindset, our culture. So in success, yes, we need to get back to a bowl game. But I said the number one goal in moving forward is our culture, our standard of excellence had to be in place after year one. Our players understanding, team meetings – they start 15 to 20 minutes early, where we sit in class, our style of play, the effort, the energy, the mental effort that it takes to prepare, the toughness, the grind that it takes, not just showing up on game day and the Vol Walk and just playing the game. You win the game through your effort, your energy, your focus, your small details, your detailed excellence throughout the course of the week. And toughness. Those are all things that develop. We aren’t dealing with robots, we are dealing with 17 to 22 year old individuals.”

Jones on QB depth:

“As of right now and where we are at, obviously you always take into consideration the circumstances by which they occur, but if it was a couple plays, or the question that you guys ask me every week, if Josh Dobbs’ helmet comes off, who is the quarterback, it would be Nate Peterman. Nate continues to progress, I would say he is probably 98 percent back to full strength, so he would be the quarterback.”

Jones on Vanderbilt:

“Jordan Matthews is as good as any receiver in the country. They do a tremendous job of finding ways and creative ways to get him his catches and get him the football. They are very well coached and they believe in their system and they play exceptionally hard. I think one of the things that really stands out when you watch them play on defense is that they don’t have missed tackles. I think it’s a by-product of running to the football, the effort, but their back end is very talented. They don’t give up big plays, they don’t hurt themselves. Same thing offensively – they take care of the football and they’ve done a great job on special teams….I have known Coach Franklin for a while. That was a time when we spent a lot of time together. There is one particular individual on their staff, Herb Hand, that we coached together at West Virginia and I consider him a very good friend. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Franklin and what he has done at Vanderbilt.”

Jones on his seniors:

“It should be a great opportunity for our seniors on senior night in Neyland. This is a game you always remember – your last game at home. You always guard against the emotional factor as a coach. We don’t want an emotional football team, we want a passionate, energetic football team. I think sometimes seniors plan their last home game forgetting the task at hand. They’ll be able to reflect back when it comes February. So right now, we have a great challenge ahead of us.”

Jones on Marlon Walls:

“Yeah we fully anticipate him, he was out with injury last week, in the previous game, but again you talk about your depth. There’s three defensive tackles that our football team has been down with Trevarris Saulsberry, Mo Couch, and then Marlon Walls we move him from d-tackle to defensive end. So, you take three individuals that were sharing reps and you take them out of your front, there’s a lot of teams, which we’re one of them, that have a hard time recovering from that.”

Jones on needing big plays from the offense:

“You have to be efficient but it is extremely difficult in today’s world of football to play perfect. It is extremely difficult to methodically move the ball down the field four yards, five yards, at some point in time you need a big chunk play. You need a 20-yard gain, you need a 30-yard gain, you need a 15-yard gain. Effective offenses usually 65 to 75 percent of their first downs are generated on first and second down, those are byproducts of staying on schedule, getting four yards at a time but also explosive plays as well.”