Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel answered questions on the SEC Coaches Teleconference Wednesday ahead of the Vols’ matchup against UTSA.
Heupel discussed what went wrong in Tennessee’s SEC opening loss at Florida, the UTSA Road Runners, the parity in the SEC this season and much more.
Here’s everything Heupel said Wednesday morning.
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Opening statement
“Had two really good days of practice. The energy in the building has been really good. Obviously, everyone in the building was disappointed when the players came back in the building Monday with how we performed last Saturday against Florida. At the same time, as competitors, you have to take the lessons forward with you. Have to learn from it. Have to go back to work and compete, get ready for the next one. Our guys have done a good job of that so far this week. We have a really good football team that we’re playing. This is a pROUD program with their performances over the last couple of years. (They’ve) Won conference championships. They’re tough,they’re physical (on) both sides of the line of scrimmage and it’ll be a good test for us. Looking forward to getting back inside Neyland Stadium and going and playing well.”
On if he’s noticed the parity across the SEC this season
“It’s hard as far as actually watching video. If you play a day game you get the chance to maybe on a Saturday evening watch some other teams play. But during the course of the season it’s really tough. You see scores but that’s not always indicative of the game and how it was played and those types of things. I think in today’s landscape in college football, every Saturday is kind of its own identity, man. Who shows up, their competitive spirit, a play here or a play there changes how the game’s played, in particular early in the football game. In this league, everybody has really good talent. There’s good coaches across the board. If you don’t show up and perform at your highest level it gets real tough real quick.”
On the energy in practice this week
“Yeah, good competitiveness. Been physical. There’s been strain, so I like all of that. We gotta continue to take ownership of the things that we can control, in particular on the offensive side of the ball. You look at just the penalties from a week ago and even some the previous week, the efficiency and how we’ve hurt ourselves. You can’t do that in college football. You know, put yourself in position to play the way that you need to to help your football team win a football game. We continue to work on that. We always have. We pinpoint those things and point them out everyday and place importance on them. At the end of the day, a week ago, I thought we let one play effect the next a little bit and as a competitor you can’t do that. That’ll show up and be important in this football game, too.”
On his message to the fans and what role they can play on Saturday
“First of all, this is a really good football team. I said it earlier. They’re proud, they’re competitive, they’re tough, they’re physical, they’re coached well and they have really good players in all three phases of the football game. It will be important for us that we show up with the right mindset and competitive spirit, that we compete really hard.
“As always, man, our stadium is as good as anywhere, if not the best in the country. I know our fans are disappointed in last week’s performance, but at the end of the day, we’re going to need them on Saturday. I expect Vol Navy to be packed and I expect 35,000 at the Vol Walk. Once that ball is kicked off, the energy inside the stadium is going to important. We need to make it as tough of a road environment as we possibly can. Our fans are consistent. They do that every week.”
