Everything De'Rail Sims Said Ahead of Tennessee vs Alabama

Originally posted on Tennessee Volunteers on SI
By Caleb Sisk | Last updated Oct 14, 2025 2:08 PM ET

The Tennessee Volunteers have been one of the more productive running back rooms. The Vols have been led by former Cincinnati running back coach De'Rail Sims, and he has got this group into great shape thus far.

He recently spoke with the media ahead of the Alabama game. Here is what he had to say when speaking at the Tuesday press conference. Here is what he had to say in his time at the mic.

Sims on the Running Backs Patience

“Yeah, that’s one of those deals we constantly talk about. I think they’ve gotten better as the season went along because early on you could see them kind of rushing a couple of things and out running their blocks a little bit, but as the season went along, they’ve gotten really good and better at it. Still gotta continue to work on that. That’s just as a running back, naturally, sometimes you want to outrun your blocks. You got to understand that you’ve got to slow it down at times to allow things to be able to set up. And our job is to bring the linebackers and defensive linemen to the offensive linemen. So they’ve done a better job of that in the second half of the season so far. So we just got to keep it going.”

Sims on What the Backs are Looking for on the Sidelines

"Yeah, so with those guys, they do a really good job of staying in my hip throughout the drives and the series and they point out stuff that we talked about during the week. As they’re seeing it as the games progressing. Seeing how the defense is playing, seeing the different types, because we understand we’re going to get a lot of different structures week to week as teams try to play us defensively. And then the biggest deal is how they are fitting the run? Are they fitting it in from the top down or are they fitting it hard from the linebacker, second-level standpoint? And then now they’re able to give pointers to those guys that are coming off the sideline. Same situation in blitz pick up. Little tips and giveaways that defenses are giving to be able to help each other out. So those are the things they do a really good job of.”

If you want to see the remainder of what he said make sure to click HERE.