Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel earned his second win over Alabama as the Vols’ head coach on Saturday afternoon. It was also Tennessee’s second win over the Crimson Tide since 2006.
The Vols’ defense was absolutely dominant again, holding Alabama to just 17 points, 314 yards and just 75 yards on the ground. After a scoreless first half, Tennessee’s offense found life in the second half to earn a 24-17 win over the Crimson Tide.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel talked both on the field and during a postgame press conference. Here’s everything he said in both of those settings.
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On the field interview
On the defense sealing the game and what he’s seen from them all season
“Fitting, how they’ve played all year, but how they played tonight kept us in the ballgame when offensively we were just a little bit off. There were some things that were close and were just a little off. Young guys have to grow up. They came out and competed really hard. (I am) proud of our team. They’re resilient. They love competing together. They answer the bell every round.”
On how Dylan Sampson sparked the offense
“He sparked it. The guys up front did a really good job in the second half. They started to connect on some pass game. (They) missed some things in the pass game too, but what a night on Rocky Top. This is college football absolutely as good as it gets. I love our fans. They hung in there with us tonight, a big part of the game. Hell of a day to wear orange.”
On Nico Iamaleava’s mental toughness down in the stretch
“He’s going to be a really special player. He was just a little bit off early. The kid is tough. He’s resilient—uber-competitive. Guys believe in him. (It was) a hell of a performance for him tonight, just continuing to compete.”
On what he learned about his team in this top-10 rivalry game
“This group loves competing. They love competing together. They will answer the bell every round. We have a chance to be a really good team. There are some things we have to continue to improve upon, but there’s nothing better than standing in Neyland Stadium listening to this with 102,000. Go Big Orange!”
Postgame press conference
Opening statement
“Third Saturday in October. Football as good as it gets. Neyland effect, our fans, elite. Elite performance from them all night. Appreciate them hanging in with us on the offensive side of the ball when we were struggling. Poor (offensive) performance. Defensively, just absolutely an elite performance. Line of scrimmage, controlling the quarterback, everything that you had to do going into it. Did an unbelievable job on third down.
“Offensively, man, not good early, not far off. And everything’s got to tie together. We gotta be able to run the football. Got to continue to improve. But love a lot of what I saw in the second half.
“Special teams, solid performance at the end. Some things early that we got to be better at. But it was another prize fight, got to answer the bell. These guys answered the bell every single round. And I’ll go to battle with these guys any day, man. Just another great night on Rocky Top.”
On Tennessee’s offensive struggles the last two weeks and still win a game like that one
“Listen, wins are wins in this league. Every Saturday in this league, margins are tight. You got to be on the right side of the scoreboard. You got to be best team on the field. That’s our goal. Our goal is also to become the best that we can offensively. And Nico (Iamaleava has) to settle in a little bit earlier. Things down the football field that we got to execute. Run game, we got to execute the blocking part of it. And pass protection too. So, I mean, the first drive again, just like last week, moving down the field, we’re in the plus territory, we ended up fumbling on the 20-yard line. It it wasn’t pretty early; 102,000 saw it, everybody on TV. We did too. It’s not that far off either. We need to appreciate it when it’s going really well. And you got to be on the right side of it as a competition. And we got to find a way to start faster and be better.”
On the play of Nico Iamaleava in the second half, what he learned about Tennessee’s quarterback in the win
“Young quarterback. It’s going to continue to get better. Guys around him got help too. And that means just doing their job at a really high level. But to me, quarterbacks, it’s toughness. It’s mental toughness. And it matters the most. How do you perform? And how do you control the game? And there’s a lot of things, just physical, mental toughness that I really liked tonight. Obviously there’s some things we got to get better at home too. Keep pushing for that.”
On what he saw from this Tennessee team at halftime, the resiliency he saw in the second half
“Halftime, nobody blinks an eye. They got competitive composure. Understand that we got to make some adjustments. Got to go execute, got to go do our job. But inside the locker room, man, talk about guys that have belief, confidence and trust in one another and continue to play for one another on their side of the ball, on the other side of the ball. It’s awesome. And that’s the culture that you want to have inside your locker room. It’s special.”
On Will Brooks, an Alabama native, sealing the win with an interception on Alabama’s final possession
“You talk about his journey, a journeyman. And coming out on the other side of it, a guy that continues to just invest every single day and reap the rewards. That’ll be a moment in his life, I’m sure he’ll tell that story to all his grandkids and great grandkids and anybody would be able to listen to it as he continues to grow older. But a special, special player but really just a special young guy.”
On if he saw the Will Brooks interception when it happened
“I was on the iPad getting ready for next offensive possession if needed. So I didn’t even see it. I sure liked taking knee at the end of the game, though.”
On the play of Tennessee’s offensive line
“Early, I felt like they were playing on edges and pushing it a little bit. Misidentified one of their protections and Nico was scrambling around on the back end of it. Just the guys that are going to be open on the back end and then the secondary. Run game, not good early. But second half resiliency, physical. I’ll take that part of it for sure.”
On what it meant for Tennessee to beat Alabama in a 24-17 kind of game, after winning 52-49 two years ago
“This group believes that it’s really good and if they played 11 guys together, play physical, got a chance to be more special. And it played really well tonight. This team’s got a lot of confidence. They also know that we got to improve. But on a Saturday night at the end of it, no matter how we got there, they’re able to appreciate a win. Which I think’s really important in the aspect of college football. And you know, as a program and when we got here, I never talked about it because at the end of the day nobody cares. They care what the scoreboard looks like each week. There were obstacles that, as a program, we had had to navigate and overcome. And as a coaching staff and administration, our players did it in a pretty special way. Not perfect, but pretty special way. As a program we got to improve this year. But I do really just feel like we’re just getting stronger as a program.”
On if he knew Tennessee’s defense would be as good as it’s been
“Thought we would have a chance to be a really cohesive unit. Eleven guys tied in, being able to play all three levels of the defense together. The depth up front would give us a chance to be good at the line of scrimmage. How some of our young guys on the back end were growing, develop would be critical. Tim (Banks) and our staff have done a great job. I just talked about some obstacles when we first got here doing a great job of personnel, scheme, just continuing to grow as young men more than anything. Special, special performance tonight, man, that’s an elite defensive performance.”
On winning rivalry games like this, how it makes it feels about his players
“First of all, all of our former players, Darnell Wright, Alontae Taylor, I mean so many guys that were back tonight to be a part of this … *Alvin Kamara pops his head in* AK! I almost forgot, AK. It would help build this thing and still cherish and love it and give back to it. Unbelievable to have them all be back tonight. See what it means. That you’re a Vol For Life. That’s not just words. For it to be the second time, this program, when we’re walking on the field, we feel like we’re good enough to go win on every Saturday. Does this one matter? Yeah, absolutely. You know the historical nature of this game, what it means to the fan base, what it means inside of our walls, and the new landscape of the league, you know what it means too. Expectation was to go out and play great football tonight. Did that defensively for 60 minutes. Offensively on the right side of it enough. Special teams enough and great win. We’ve won in two unique ways the last few times here in Neyland that I don’t think our fans that are players—I’ll remember it for a long time. There’s nothing better walking off with off the field with the crowd surrounding you and cigar in my mouth.”
On the joy of beating rivals Alabama and Florida the last two weeks
“Joy in being on the right side of the scoreboard each Saturday. They’re two big games, historically. Our fan base, what it means to them, you know what I mean? And to our players, it’s big games because it’s league games, man. And to understand what it means in the things that you’re trying to go accomplish and what you’ve been working for since January and the last two weeks on that field— it’s really special because of what it took to find a way to be on the right side of this scoreboard with all the ups-and-downs. Just continuing to compete. Proud of the guys for that.”
On Jermod McCoy’s first half interception
“Huge play in the game. Changes the way the game’s played from there on out just because of the score and offensively got to go do something with that. But again, third down defense, red zone defense— special, special performance and offensively we can’t hurt ourselves when we’re in the red zone. If you don’t get seven, man, you got to get three. You can’t do that all the time either. That would get you beat. But we found a way not to do any of those things for the early part of the game
On what it does for a defense to have an elite cover corner like Jermod McCoy
“Jermod, Rickey (Gibson), Jalen (McMurray) when he’s in, it changes what you’re able to structurally do defensively. Changes the game for the coordinator. Gives you the ability to open up your playbook.”
On how much he thinks about and talks about the expanded playoff with his team
“Our guys are aware of it, you know what I mean? Like I wish I could put blinders on them. That’s not real. Whatever the TVs gonna have on the bottom of the ticker, you know what I mean? But for us to have a chance to be the team that we want to be, man, it’s about being in the present. It’s about competing as hard as you can every single day to grow and play the way that they’re capable and then the unit is capable of and there’s still things on defense and, man, there’s a lot more things on offense that we got to clean up. But good teams get better and this team’s got to continue to get better. If it does that they’ll have a chance to be good team.”
On Dylan Sampson’s performance
“Epitomizes him as a competitor. *coughs* It is this cigar, alright. He’s special. Just feel the ability to run, get out in space, get behind his pads. We blocked a little bit cleaner in the second half. Gave him an opportunity to get started and created some plays so resiliency from him too. He gets banged up a little bit and fumbles early. But just comes back and keeps competing. Huge part of the game tonight.”
On what’s working for the run game in the second half
“Some halftime adjustments. Some just straight execution. And then as you get going, the ability to physically move people as the game goes on. So combination of everything. Capable of being a lot better early.”
