Tennessee coach Josh Heupel answered questions from the media Wednesday on the season opening SEC Coaches Teleconference.
Heupel discussed Tennessee’s lack of defenders on the Preseason All-SEC teams, the development of cornerback Doneiko Slaughter and more.
Here’s everything Heupel said on the teleconference Wednesday morning.
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Opening statement
“First, I hope everybody’s having a great day. Entire team and program are excited to kick off the season here. Unique that we get a chance to kick off in a neutral-site game, but it’s in inside of our home state here. A lot of our alumni, fans reside over there in Nashville in the mid-state, so excited to have the opportunity to go play a really good Virginia football team over there. And training camp has been really good. The week so far of game prep has been really good. Great energy and focus from our players. Getting close to being time to just go kick it off and see where we’re at,”
On what offensive lineman Dayne Davis and defensive lineman Austin Lewis have meant to the Tennessee program
“(You) couldn’t find two guys inside of our program that are better representatives of what a college athlete should be, but what a Volunteer stands for. Those guys care so much about the guys around them. They bring their lunch pail and compete and work extremely hard every single day. (You know) what you’re gonna get from them every rep, every single day. Both guys that have continued to grow inside of our program and guys that have a huge impact here and they do it right off the field too. And just two great representatives of Tennessee football.”
On Doneiko Slaughter settling at cornerback, his development
“Little bit like a Swiss utility knife. He’s got so many skills that, (it’s) early in his senior year (and) he’s played multiple spots. And I think that’s a strength for him because he understands the game from all the different perspectives on the back end. He’s been in all of those positions, understands the intricacies of the coverages. But I think having a home here at corner since late last year and really being able to refine his fundamentals and technique has allowed him to really continue to grow and blossom as a player. That also allows him to be extremely confident in what he’s doing. So he’s had a great training camp, expecting to play a really high level this season, but on Saturday as well.”
On Tennessee having no defenders on Preseason All-SEC teams, if that serves as motivation
“Our guys probably saw that. It’s not something that we talk about as a coaching staff with our players. Preseason ballots have little to nothing to do with what transpires in the fall. For us, as we’ve gotten back in January it’s about competing at a really high level every single day individually and us collectively as a football team. It’s about making the right decisions to put yourself in the right position on a consistent basis to compete at the level you want to here. And our guys have been really good all offseason. Great through training camp. Love the mindset that we see from these guys and at the end of the day, postseason stuff (awards) happens because of team success so it’s all about this football team.”
On why working with a fast-tempo has led to so much success and what level of understanding do player have to have of the offense in order to go as fast as they would like to go
“You can be successful doing a lot of different things. That can be on offense. That can be on defense. There’s a lot of different schemes. You have to have great trust and confidence and belief in what you’re doing. You have to work at it every single day, but no matter what you’re doing, it comes down to execution and so, our players having a great understanding of the concepts that we have, how to play within the tempo to get their cleats in the ground, communicate at a really high level, and then go play with great fundamental technique, and execute, has allowed us to be successful. At the end of the day, it always comes down to the players. We’ve had a bunch of guys that are still with us that have played at a really high level and guys that have moved on because of the way that they’ve played.
“We’ve got great coaches. Coach (Joey) Halzle, the offensive coordinator, and Coach (Glen) Elarbee, our offensive line guy. Coach (Jerry) Mack, Coach (Kelsey) Pope, Coach (Alec) Abeln. All of our guys have been in this system for a long time. We have great understanding of who we are, what we want to do and how we want to attack people and also have the ability to adjust during the course of a ball game to put our players in the right position, right spots.”
On if they’ve talked to Joe Milton about getting down as a runner the same way they did with Hendon Hooker
“Yeah, we talk about that with all of our guys. Situational football is going to dictate that you have to go pick things up and someway sacrifice your body at certain moments during the course of ball games, but at the same time, you need to take care of yourself. So, understanding when you’ve drained everything out of a play, unless it’s third down or in the red zone. Those are things we’ve talked about with all of our quarterbacks in the meeting room.”
