Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel met with the local media on Thursday morning following the Vols’ second scrimmage of fall camp.
Heupel discussed which skill players had a good day, the performance of guys who didn’t play in the first scrimmage and more. Here’s everything Heupel said.
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Opening statement
“Great to get back in inside of Neyland Stadium to scrimmage again. All in all, scrimmage work went really well — offense, defense. Got good-on-good work on special teams, too. Trying continue to find the right guys on those units. Got a chance to work with situational football. Worked some crowd noise as well, like it was a road game. So I thought the day went really well.”
On what he liked the most and what he liked the least walking off the field after Tennessee’s scrimmage
“I thought just from operations side of it — and I’m just talking sideline communication — again, we tried to take TV timeouts, be intentional working iPad usage. Finished it with a mock halftime for coaches and players. Just organizationally I thought was really clean. We played clean football. Had an (officiating) crew out at the scrimmage and didn’t have really many penalties at all during the course of it. So really liked that. And then both sides of football guys made some plays.”
On the balance at this point in camp of needing to scrimmage or just needing to play a game
“Yeah, end of the day, I think as a coaching staff you’re always trying to balance that in your rep count, your loads that your players players are under from day to day. You need physical work, talking about the physicality portion of it. At the same time we understand what’s coming down the pipe here and getting ready to play. So you’re always trying to balance that in what you’re doing.”
On Tennessee offensive linemen Andrej Karic and Lance Heard returning, what he has seen from wide receiver Dont’e Thornton
“Dante’s done a really nice job here during the training camp, taking more of a load here over the last few days, really like what we’re seeing from him and his comfort inside of what we’re doing offensively. You mentioned a couple of the offensive linemen, thought they did a really nice job today. Obviously want to go back in and watch the film. But again as you’re building towards kickoff, all the guys that are going to be playing, you want to continue to sharpen those guys up and those are the guys that continue to get better.”
On what he can learn about Nico Iamaleava in scrimmage settings that he can’t learn in practice
“For all of your quarterbacks, the green dot communication is different. Situational football, being able to reset, play to play, we try to simulate a lot of those situations during the course of practice, but there’s nothing like scrimmage to get you as close as you can be to what game day is going to be like. So in general I thought the quarterbacks handled themselves really well here. And, just again, situational football being backed up, coming off the goal line, your thought processes, all those things.”
On what he has seen from Tennessee’s new-look secondary
“I’ve said it from the beginning of the offseason to our coaches and our players. It can’t just be one guy at one position. We’re going to have to play multiple guys. It’s just the nature of being in this league and the game that we play. I really do like the length, athleticism. I feel like this last block since our last scrimmage that continued to be better just in their fundamentals technique, assignment, discipline within the structure of of the defense. We got to continue to get better. Good teams do. That’s during the course of the season. It’s here as we’re finishing up training camp. But really like what we’ve seen from that group.”
On the competition at kicker and across special teams
“(We) have great competition at those positions. That’s kickoff guy, punter, you know, your (extra points), your snappers. We’ve been charting everything. They’re still in a real competition here. As we get to the end of training camp, some of those decisions will be made.”
On DeSean Bishop’s improvement from first to second scrimmage
“I don’t know that there’s anything glaring that was different about DeSean from scrimmage one to two. I think he’s got great command, comfort in what we’re doing. He continues to get better in playing without the ball— his pass protection, we’re really confident in him in that. So he’s just continuing to take steps every day to continue to get better.”
On individual skill position players that played well
“DeSean Bishop, Peyton Lewis did a really nice job at running back spot. Wide receivers, Dont’e Thornton played extremely well, Squirrel White played well. I thought our tight end group as a whole, all three of them played extremely well today.”
On if you have to grade the offensive line on a curve facing Tennessee’s defensive line
“There’s no grading on a curve in this game. I wish that were true about Saturday You better line up and be able to beat the guy in front of you. And that may not happen every snap, but it’s got to happen more times than that. So our D line’s deep, they’re athletic, they play extremely hard, they’re playing really good fundamentally just pad level using their hands. That’s in pass rush, but it’s also in the running game snagging off and making plays. So for our offensive line we got to continue to come together. That’s always the case this time of year. But really confident and really like what we have on the offensive line.”
On how Boo Carter has gotten better over the course of fall camp
“Playmaker, that’s extremely physical. Plays extremely hard. I think the biggest area of growth for Boo has just been continued growth in playing within the scope and scheme of the defense. Alignment, assignment and his physical traits will take over from there.”
On if they expect to rotate at tight end
“We’re going have to play multiple guys at that position. All three of those guys are going to play a lot of snaps for us. As we began our tenure here we’ve had to navigate some things and that room’s probably been thinner at times and then you would want it to be, but I really like the three guys that we got in there. All those guys who are capable of playing at a championship level.”
On if guys are itching to get back to practice or participate in a scrimmage if they have missed time, because of the depth and competition they have ongoing at several spots
“The depth and competition is the coach’s greatest friend inside of a position room. And for us, you have to physically get prepared, you know what I mean? Your conditioning level on the physicality of the game, you gotta hit those benchmarks to be ready to go play for 60 minutes when we open up here in a couple weeks, and at the same time, you’re trying to make sure that you get your guys to the starting gate, too,”
On Nico Iamaleava’s command of the offense, tempo through the first two scrimmages
“Nico’s got really good command of what we’re doing offensively. We’ve seen that throughout this offseason, but really in his development from last fall, too. He’s got great comfort. There’s a lot that goes into our quarterback play from protection. It could be changing the protection. Our run game, there’s a lot of things that go into it. That’s RPO tags, it’s loaded box, it’s all those things. So he’s got great command of what we’re doing.
“At the same time, everybody inside of our programs gotta continue to grow and get better. And I’m not just talking about Nico. I’m talking about everybody, right? It’s a journey. Good teams get better throughout the year. We got three practices left in what I would call our true training camp. We gotta continue to get back.”
On if he’s ever had a preseason camp where he’s had to work on so many situational aspects for the coaching staff
“It’s a part of what you gotta do. I think logistically there’s more changes that affected everything outside of the white lines this year. Communication with your players, which is obviously on the field of play, too. But the coordination of that, the iPads. There’s been a lot of logistical changes that everybody inside of your program’s gotta be ready to handle the right way.”
On how to distinguish between a guy that’s super talented today and a guy who’s ready for Saturdays
“You see it on the practice field, you see it during scrimmages. It’s the ability to operate, reset from play to play. Play within the scope of what you’re doing on offense, defense, special teams. So, every rep matters.”
