Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with the local media on Monday afternoon to kick off Kentucky week. The Vols are coming off their final open date of the season and are facing the final five-week home stretch of the regular season.
Heupel discussed what stands out about Kentucky on tape, the potential for younger players getting more playing time out of the open date and much more. Here’s everything Heupel said.
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Opening statement
“Good to see everybody back. Another rivalry game this weekend, night game in Neyland (Stadium). Dark Mode (uniforms). Looking forward to going and playing in this one. Need our crowd to be a huge part of the football game. And this week we got to continue our preparation as a football team, get ready to go play our best football.
“You look at Kentucky, it’s a group that, defensively, playing extremely well. You just look at them statistically, defensively we got to do a good job follow for formations, motions and control the line of scrimmage, quarterback run game being a part of that as well. And for our special teams, they got a dynamic returner, they can change the game and got to do a great job against him.”
On Tennessee having to prepare for two quarterbacks two weeks ago against Florida and potentially having to do the same this week
“I think defensively you always got to know who the No. 2 is and have a plan for him. It can be through injury or them playing multiple guys. Your defensive players need to understand what type of player that is. Certainly for them, the quarterback run game is always a part of it. Second half of last week, (Kentucky) played the younger kid. And for us, we got to do a great job of controlling the quarterback run game. That’s a huge part of it. And understanding this game, there’s limited opportunities, and I’m just talking about possessions during it, during the course of the game, all three phases got to gotta play that well together. For us, within the scope of what we’re doing schematically, play assignment sound. You got to rally, you got to go make tackles in space and certainly when it’s quarterback run game, your eyes, your keys got to take you to making those plays.”
On any common denominators in Tennessee’s slow offensive starts in the first half of SEC games
“There’s not just one thing. You look a week ago against Alabama, turnovers on a couple possessions, missed field goals, execution, taking sacks in the red zone. It’s a combination of all of us being a little bit better, coaches and players together.”
On if Tennessee is still seeing opposing defenses do things differently than they had showed in previous games
“There’s always subtle changes in every football game. For a couple of weeks there it was a little more dramatic than than usual. Young quarterback having an opportunity to see things throughout. You hear me say it, he’s going to get better with every rep that he takes. Our players having a better understanding of some of that puts them, puts us in a better position to be successful.”
On the first College Football Playoff rankings coming out next week, Tennessee being one of the teams in consideration at this point and the Vols needing to make their case
“You make your case by going controlling what you control, which is your performance on Saturday. So your preparation takes you there. We’re halfway through the conference schedule. There’s a ton of football. If you’re worried about the end result, you’re going to make the mistakes you can’t afford on the way to the end. And for us, being present, being in the now, preparing in a great way, continuing to grow as a football team. You guys hear me say it, players here me say it: Good teams continue to get better. Our best football is still out in front of us. We got to go chase that.”
On playing more 4-3 against 12 personnel, what he likes about the three linebacker sets
“There’s a lot of different reasons that you can get into your base personnel and that’s what you’re facing on the other side of the line of scrimmage, their skillset, how you want to defend the run game and what you want to play out on the perimeter. We’ve worked that all through the, the course of spring ball and training camp, having the flexibility and the opportunity to play different personnel groupings to those personnels that we’re seeing from the other side of the football and they’ve trained that way and have executed really well in that.”
On how high of a level Jermod McCoy is playing at
“It is never perfect. You’re chasing it every day, but he’s playing really good football, playing with great discipline at the line of scrimmage and his press technique. He’s got the athletic traits to recover when it’s not perfect at the line of scrimmage. He’s doing a great job of playing the 50-50 ball, back shoulder fades or vertically all the way down the football field. That comes from his maturity, his fundamentals and technique and competitive composure at the end of the play.”
On what’s allowed McCoy to have so much success so quickly at Tennessee
“I think it just starts with his maturity as a person. Coming out of high school, what he did before he got on the field in three months at the previous stop (Oregon State). Changing his body. A guy that you know was recruited to play some wide receiver, flips over to the other side of the football, he’s a sponge as far as soaking up information inside the meeting room. Extremely bright. It’s not like you’re restarting every single day. He’s able to grow upon what happened in the previous day on the field or in the meeting room. Incorporate those things into his game.
He’s got all the athletic traits that you want, but again, his maturity is a huge factor in why he’s playing the way that he is.”
On if a young guy can make enough strides in an open date to earn more playing time or if that’s unrealistic
“No. I made the point to our a football team Monday after the last football game that how you prepare is not just during bye week. How you practice, you keep the immediate gratification result doesn’t come after one practice. You just keep stacking days and good things inevitably happen and there’s great examples of that on our football team during the course of the season. And so every player, not just young players continuing to invest and improve is really critical. You start showcasing those things, being consistent on the practice field, it will translate over to game day and that’s the challenge for all of us.”
On if freshman wide receiver Mike Matthews is building towards a bigger role during the second-half of the season
“Yeah, you know, Mike’s got some opportunities. I feel like there’s a greater opportunity for execution at times when he is out there. Some of that’s the guys around him, some of that’s him, too. We need him to continue to come on and be a big part of what we’re doing here, you know, on the back-half of this season.”
On where Tennessee is at with any competition along the offensive line
“I want to see those guys continue to improve and you know, that’s in our team setting, some of it’s in pass rush against defensive line. Those guys are in a race to be ready to play.”
On how they get buy-in from a Tennessee defensive line room that has a lot of players who deserve to be playing
“Well I think it comes from them being connected in the meeting room, understanding those guys are playing at a high level, how playing multiple guys makes us better later in the football game and throughout the course of the season. And teammates recognize that guys are ready to play. They understand that they’ve earned the right to go out there and play, and at the end of the day, it’s made our defensive line and our defensive unit stronger.”
On Kentucky’s defensive front, star defensive lineman Deone Walker
“The difference in this league and everywhere else around the country, you’re gonna see elite players with great physical traits and athleticism. (Deone Walker) is a guy that is a dominant player. As they move him around in his front, he’s able to play within their scheme extremely well. Use his hands, he’s physical, he’s active, disruptive; he’s a really good football player. But their d-line in general has great size and plays extremely well with pad level.”
On the second and third level of Kentucky’s defense
“Yeah, they got length, athleticism. They’ll play multiple fronts; three or four down, drop eight at a time. They play with great discipline, pattern-reading and causing issues with window. We gotta do a great job of recognizing their rotations, feeling the underneath coverage and you know, getting to the right spot at the right time with the ball.”
