Quart’e Sapp made 29 tackles as a valuable piece of Tennessee’s middle linebacker rotation in 2018. Darrin Kirkland Jr. and Daniel Bituli both planned to return for 2019, but Sapp surprised some when, in December, he declared his intentions to forego his senior year of eligibility and enter the NFL Draft.
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He worked out alongside his former teammates at Tennessee’s pro day last week, and The Athletic caught up with him over the weekend to talk about his career, his and Tennessee’s future and “the Florida incident.”
What have the last few months of draft prep looked like for you?
It’s been a learning experience. It’s crazy, since we didn’t make a bowl game last year, I took the initiative to get a head start and get ahead of everybody and give myself a head start. I got down there two days before Christmas to get my body right before I started training.
Where did you train?
Down in North Miami at Pete Bommarito’s facility.
What did those workouts look like?
It was different. It wasn’t the typical football regimen, bulking up. It was more working on speed and explosiveness. Becoming more lean and being prepared to run and have more endurance.
On pro day, what did you want to prove?
To show and back up the kind of linebacker I am. Showing that I’m athletic and a versatile linebacker who can play all three downs. And show what I’m capable of and that my numbers are in the mix of guys at my position who decided to declare this year.
How would you assess your performance?
I did good. Obviously, you can always do better. As a competitor, I thought I could do better. But overall, it was a good day. I got a lot of positive feedback from scouts and talked to quite a few afterward, which made me happy about myself and my performance, but I could have done better on some things. But overall, it was a good day.
What are the main questions that are coming up when you sit down with NFL teams?
More about my personality, who I am as a person. Obviously, they already know the kind of player I am on film. They’ve asked a broad range of questions about my family, style of play, where I’m from originally, what kind of defense I like better — the 4-3 or the 3-4 — considering I’ve been through three different defensive coordinators in three years, so it was a broad range of questions.
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What have you been told to expect on draft weekend?
We’re just playing it by ear right now. I’m still waiting to get back some news from pro day. I haven’t gotten anything official, but I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about my position work. I’ve got a couple workouts at the beginning of April set up. So I’m just going from there.
How would you describe last season?
It had its ups and downs, but it was a learning experience.
What made you decide to leave early?
My first goal coming into college, I promised myself and my mom that I wanted to become the first male in my family to graduate. Which I did. So this last December, I graduated with my degree in three and a half years. That played a big role. My family and I made the decision about leaving because that was my No. 1 goal. School. And obviously, football came second. I did my four years and my time was up.
I put the cards on the table, where I was looking at if another year would increase my value or if there was any more of my skills I could showcase. I decided I wanted to better myself and put the cards on the table that I can control what I can control, not what anybody else controls. I wanted to bet on myself.
What did you get your degree in? And what’s your plan for whenever football ends for you?
I got a degree in sports management with a minor in business. I was a business major and I changed it. I was so deep into business and had so many classes already done, and I’m really interested in real estate. My last semester, I did an internship that introduced me to a lot of people in Knoxville and into commercial real estate.
You mentioned earlier having three defensive coordinators. This last transition, what was the toughest part of going from Butch Jones to Jeremy Pruitt as head coaches?
Going to a 3-4 scheme. It’s just totally different. For example, the linebacker in that defense is totally played off the D-line and predicated off of building a wall. The 4-3, we have single gaps. The 3-4 is a double-gap scheme. You have to be able to double-gap with a three-technique or a nose in the middle of the defense. You have to be able to command a double team and play two gaps. That’s the biggest thing for our whole defense, not necessarily for me.
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What was the biggest difference you saw in how the two programs operated?
Everybody has their own unique way of handling things and how they think they want things ran. The biggest difference, I would say, was probably from the defensive perspective and the repetition of doing your job. Of not poking your head into anybody else’s job. Knowing what your job is and handling that first and building trust with the person next to you or the defensive lineman in front of you to do their job. You build their trust, and when both get done, you don’t have to do somebody else’s job.
How would you describe the culture that Pruitt has tried to instill?
Being a hard-nosed football player and being smart. It’s difficult playing football, but he comes back at the end and explains that it’s just football. Most of the guys at this level have been playing for a long time and they want to play for a longer time and drag it into the next level. He follows up at the end of the day with, “It’s just football.” You read your keys. You do what you need to do and be a student of your position.
We never really got to hear your side of the story of what happened the night of the Florida game. Walk me through that night from your perspective.
It was just a big misunderstanding. Both Coach Pruitt and I communicated and talked that Sunday and we handled everything. It was just a learning experience.
What was the conversation on that Sunday after like?
Like I said, it was just a misunderstanding, beginning during the game. The communication was poor on my part and what was going on. Basically, we talked and he got my side and I got his side and we came together and, what’s the word, not necessarily — we made an agreement on what really happened and we just moved on from there. We didn’t really stick on it.
It was crazy that a lot of people stuck on it and dwelled on it, but from that point on, I just wanted to let everybody know, the fans and everybody, that we moved past that pretty fast. We weren’t going to dwell on it. At that point in the season, we were focused on the team, not necessarily the incident or a misunderstanding between us. We were focused on winning.
How would you describe your relationship with Pruitt and the rest of the staff the rest of the season?
Uh, it was fine. Nothing went downhill from there. Coach Pruitt and I still talk. He helped me throughout this whole process. He was very helpful for both me and my mother and helping me with my paperwork declaring. Throughout the process, he checked up on me and called my mom, helping her and making sure everything was right and giving her pointers on what was best for me and what to look out for. So, he was very understanding and helpful. He was very supportive.
What did he think of your decision to leave?
Well, we had a meeting and he was very supportive of whatever decision I made. We talked about it and he was supportive whether I wanted to stay or leave.
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What do you think the next five years at Tennessee look like?
I think it’ll be a very positive road. The change, I mean, everybody accepted change differently. Everybody reacts differently. But I feel like they’re on an upward battle. Especially during my four years, it went uphill and then downhill for a little bit. But I feel like he’s changed the culture there and he’s installing a culture that has a family base with the players and creating relationships with players, so it’s not just you’re playing for your coaches. You’re playing for each other. That allows you to play better. If you have a good relationship with your coach and have a strong bond and a team bond, that itself makes a good team. A lot of teams have good chemistry once they’ve been together for a long time and they trust each other.
Anything else I should know or didn’t ask about?
I’m just excited, like I said. I’ve moved past the Florida incident. It was a big misunderstanding. I was happy with the reaction and results after pro day and most of my numbers were top 10 for the linebackers that went to the combine. So I was really excited about that. I’m just ready to go through the second half of this process. Most of this has been not really football. It’s been testing. Now that pro day is over, it’s more about football and film study and communication about plays and stuff like that. So, I’m excited.
(Photo: Jay Anderson / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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