Everything Edwin Spillman and Mariyon Dye Said Following Tennessee Football’s Win vs. Kennesaw State

Vols’ linebacker Edwin Spillman and defensive lineman Mariyon Dye spoke to the media following the Tennessee Volunteers 42-9 victory over the Kennesaw State Owls. Both players contributed to the Volunteers’ victory, with Dye recording 2 tackles, with one being for loss, and Spillman recording 5 tackles and a pass deflection.

Here’s what they had to say.

Mariyon Dye on When He Realized Things Were Coming Together for Him on the Field

“Yeah, it was really like halfway through fall camp, I started to really see myself uh changing and really making plays,” Dye said.

Edwin Spillman on What the Linebacker Room has Done to Improve Their Tackling from Last Season and What They can Do to Keep Improving

“Um, like you said, um, just extra work. Um, whether it’s before practice or after practice, just getting extra tackling in, extra, uh, tackling circus,” Spillman said.

Edwin Spillman on How Much They Heard About Week 4 Opponent Texas During the Offseason

“Uh, I mean, we didn’t really hear a whole lot. Uh, more so just focusing on ourselves, um, getting better, improving in a new system, uh, new coaches and everything like that, building relationships. So, it’s more just focusing on us and what we got to do,” Spillman said.

Edwin Spillman on Playing #1 Texas in Knoxville Next Week

“Yeah, exactly. A great team. Number one team in the country. We’re just excited to go and compete and go put it out in front of the world,” Spillman said

Edwin Spillman on What the Defense Needs to Improve Heading into SEC Play

“Uh, we definitely need to be better at um to the boundary, whether it’s the woolbacker, um just getting underneath the one flats. Uh and then I also just say uh better tackling. We all got to finish up setting the edges and then tackling,” Spillman said

Mariyon Dye on What Made Rickie Collins so Hard to Tackle and How They Slowed Him Down as the Game Progressed

“Yeah, he was a really slippery, real fast guy. So, that was really the biggest thing for him. Like halftime, Coach J was telling us um working our rush lanes. So that was really big for us, our rush lines and just everybody standing our gap,” Dye said.

Mariyon Dye on if He Felt Like He Got Better as the Game Went on

“Yes, ma’am,” Dye said.

Edwin Spillman on Holding Kennesaw State to Three Field Goals and Only Nine Points

“Um having a goose egg on the scoreboard is probably what we’re going for. Um but anytime nobody gets in the end zone, it’s a win for Tennessee,” Spillman said.

Mariyon Dye on if He Feels Like the Defensive Line is Reaching the Consistency that Coach Rodney Garner is Looking for

“Yeah, most definitely. I say we just got to keep working on being physical every play, just dominating a man in front of us every play,” Dye said

---

Send your questions, comments, and hot takes to our email [email protected] for the chance to be featured in an article!

Follow Our Social Media Accounts

• Follow Vols on SI on X (Click HERE)
• Follow Vols on SI on Facebook (Click HERE)
• Follow Vols on SI on Instagram (Click HERE)
• Subscribe to Vols on SI on YouTube (Click HERE)

Sign up for our newsletter to have articles sent straight to your email daily HERE.