'I ain't say that' - Syracuse coach Fran Brown clears the air before playing the Tennessee Vols after quote gets twisted by reporter

Syracuse head coach Fran Brown had to clear the air on Monday while previewing his team's upcoming matchup against the Tennessee Vols.

Brown was asked on Monday if playing Tennessee on a national stage in the season-opener has been a source of motivation for his team.

"I'm just motivated that I wake up every day," said Brown. "I'm not sure. I mean, some of the questions y'all are [asking] me are like set-up questions. I don't want to give anybody else ammo to be happy about us playing them or us happy to play [them]. Man, we're happy to play football."

A reporter followed up with a question that Brown quickly cut off.

"You've mentioned a couple of times that you don't necessarily feel motivated by Tennessee or the opponents you're up against," said the reporter.

"I ain't say that," interjected Brown. "So watch how she said that and don't try to mark that and have them all like, 'Fran said he ain't motivated [to play Tennessee]'. I said I am self-motivated. And I said that Tennessee is one of the better programs in college football.

"When it comes to this school (Tennessee), they're a really good program. I'm just saying I'm trying to focus on today -- because they're entirely too good for us to try to focus and worry about playing them all week long. If we just focus on playing them, and not focus on all the little intricate details that we need to do every day, we're not going to give ourselves a chance. So to give us a chance to be able to compete against them, we got to be where our feet are. So that way, on Saturday, we got an opportunity of at least being able to keep the game close, because they be putting 50 or 60 up on people early in the beginning of the year. So I just don't want to be that team that gives up 50 or 60."

You certainly can't blame Brown for not wanting to give the Vols extra motivation — especially since he never said he's not motivated to play Tennessee.