Vols defensive line coach Rodney Garner explains his intense coaching style: "Don't take the tone, receive the message"

Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner has over three decades of SEC coaching experience working with some of the most decorated pass rushers and run stoppers that college football has seen in his time in the league.

Incredibly enough, since entering the coaching profession in 1990, he's spent every single season of his coaching career in the SEC with two stops at Auburn, eight years at Georgia, and he's now in his second stint with the Vols.

His list of players drafted are a literal who's who of decorated defensive lineman including Marcus Stroud, Richard Seymour, David Pollack, Charles Grant, and Dee Ford, to name a few.

Knowing all of that, few would have the stones to question his approach, but a member of the media seemed to question his signature intense and aggressive approach recently, and he offered the following.

"I try to tell [players], that I can probably be a bit aggressive. I can be a bit brutal. I may not say it in the nicest way."

"But I try to tell them, don't take the tone, receive the message. That aggressiveness...that's just me wanting to win. That's just me wanting you to be better."

Garner goes on to share that 99% of his guys love him after their playing days are done, and happily bring their wife and kids around to spend time with him, and he treats them like his own grandkids. 

"Right now, at that moment, they might not like me, and that's kind of like being a parent. Because you're kids don't always like you when you're raising them. But when they get older they love you and appreciate everything that you did for them.

"That's what we're hoping, the same kind of thing transpires."

"I want what is best for them. I want them to be the best version of themselves, so we can be the best version of the Tennessee defensive line, and so we can be the best version of the Tennessee football team."