Tennessee football stayed unbeaten on the young season by dominating Kent State 71-0 Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. The Vols didn’t leave any doubt, jumping out to a 37-0 first quarter lead before cruising to the victory.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel discussed the play of Nico Iamaleava, the Vols’ defense posting a number of shutouts and much more. Here’s everything Heupel said.
More From RTI: Four Quick Takeaways: Tennessee Dominates Kent State At Neyland Stadium
Opening statement
“First of all, just our fans. Awesome atmosphere coming back, Vol Walk was electric, packed out. Had a lot of former players, former basketball players, DK (Dalton Knecht) is back, too, around the building. So great to have so many former players come back and be a part of it, too.
“Just as a football team, started fast. There’s some things that we got to clean up. But all in all, good performance. Controlled the line of scrimmage, got off the field on third down. Offensively, was able to run the football and create some big plays as well. Special teams was a solid performance as well.”
On if he believes Tennessee playing well in the non-conference schedule can carry over into SEC play
“Every week is its own identity, man. Prefer to play well. Prefer to continue to gain consistency in the execution and fundamentals and technique. So there were some things that we did well in that there’s some things that we got to clean up, too, and take the next step as a program.”
On his thoughts on Tennessee freshman Mike Matthews and other players that got more snaps in the game
“How a lot of young guys have played, some of them late in football games, some early. Mike is the guy that we’ve had great trust through spring ball. Early part of training camp, got nicked up. We were able to use our four-wide package now with him being healthy tonight. So it was good to have him out there and make plays. He handled himself within the flow of the game extremely well. Really excited about what he did, but a lot of our young guys too.”
On what they’ve seen from Tennessee running back DeSean Bishop since the start of the season
“Yeah, well he comes into into the meeting room, to the practice field, he’s the same dude every day, man. He’s competing. He wants to grow. He challenges himself. He responds well to the challenges from his coaches. I thought he did a really good job tonight pressing around the line scrimmage and getting to the second level and creating big plays.”
On his thoughts on how Nico Iamaleava played
“I thought he played really well. He used his feet when it was time to use his feet. There were a couple things early in the football game and we had a drop early in the game over the middle of the football field. He missed on a little RPO, just fundamentally not in a great position, but all in all played extremely well. Good decision maker.”
On the defense having not given up a touchdown in 16 quarters
“Tim’s done an amazing job building it. Our staff, but how our players understand what we’re doing, fundamentals, technique, playing with them. Playing really hard. The challenge was, no matter who’s in the ball game, to go play the standard of how we play and to win the fourth quarter. Really proud of how we played in the second half.”
On if a running clock or reduced quarters was discussed
“You’d have to talk to our administration on that side of it. And I say that meaning that it was something that was talked about but ultimately didn’t happen.”
On if he’s ever been apart of a game that was 65-0 at halftime
“I don’t know. At the end of the day, we played good football early. Came out and played good football in the second half. Got a win.”
On why Dylan Sampson has had success this season
“He’s got great vision, got great pace. Presses the line of scrimmage. Delivers blocks. He is elusive out in space and you combine all those things. You got somebody that can be efficient with football in his hands and certainly he would give credit to five offensive linemen, the tight ends and all the skill guys out the perimeter to that big part of it as well.”
On Lance Heard not playing against Kent State
“We held a couple of guys (out) tonight that could have gone just for the longevity of this season. We held them out tonight.”
