Tennessee coach Josh Heupel met with the local media Thursday morning for the final time before the Vols face UTSA at Saturday evening at Neyland Stadium.
The Vols are looking to bounce back from last week’s poor performance against Florida before resuming SEC play next week against South Carolina.
Heupel discussed the challenges of preparing for two quarterbacks, the status of a number of keys Vols and more. Here’s everything Heupel said.
More From RTI: San Antonio Express-News Previews UTSA’s Trip To Neyland Stadium
On the challenges of preparation while being unsure who will start at quarterback for UTSA
“They’re a little bit different, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to prepare for both of them. At the end of the day, it’s a lot about us too. The things that we struggled with last week, we’ve got to be disciplined and then go make plays. That comes down to winning one-on-one situations.”
On the status of Gerald Mincey and Cooper Mays
“Gerald’s been with us all week long, and he’ll play on Saturday. Coop has been with us all week long, too. He was last week. At the end of the day, he’s a little bit of a game-time decision based on how he’s feeling at that point.”
On how to help the team improve communication as head coach
“There are subtle things that we do. At the end of the day, how we’ve operated—offense, defense and special teams—we’ve done that at a high level. Guys have got to take ownership of it and make sure that we are in sync.”
On what he did to block out criticism as a player
“Nobody was ever critical of me when I was playing quarterback, so I didn’t have to deal with that situation (sarcasm). Listen, and this is for everybody in the building, if you think your value is based off of outside opinion when it’s going well or when it hasn’t gone as well as you would like it to, you’re putting yourself in a situation to be up and down. Being consistent in your preparation, you’ve got to plan for those guys every single week. Be into your routine. It doesn’t ensure that you’re going to play perfect. It’s hard in this game to do that. You’ve got 11 guys on the other side of the football. You’ve got strategy from the coaches. At the end of the day, you prepare the best you can to put yourself in a position to go play your best.”
On advice he’d give to quarterback Joe Milton III
“Joe’s got things that he can do better, but the guys around him have to do things better too. At the end of the day, if you’re in second-and-20 all day, it makes things really difficult. Offensively, we’ve got to control the controllables. We can’t have a bunch of self-inflicted wounds. You’ve got to play smarter football. You do that, you give yourself a chance to move the football and score points.”
On if any of the young offensive linemen are able to break into the rotation
“The guys that have been in rotation, we continue to anticipate (them) to play. I said it early in the week this week, the way the game unfolded last week, we as a coaching staff probably didn’t do a good enough job of rotating. Sometimes the flow of the game can dictate some of that as well, too. The guys that are going to play need to play at a high level. The developmental guys that we have inside of our program have to continue to prepare and get yourself ready to go play at a really high level when you get your opportunity. So as the season goes on, we want those guys to continue to develop and put themselves in a position to play.”
On penalties on the offensive side the first three games and what he attributes them to
“We chart it every single practice since I’ve been here, but certainly this year too — from spring ball to training camp, all those things. Why it transpired the way that it did last week, I don’t have an exact reason. I do think the momentum of the game, we didn’t reset from play to play. You can’t do that in this game. That was a point of emphasis in my communication to them last week. We do have new guys inside of what we’re doing. You look at the left side of the offensive line, from center all the way over, those are new guys inside of our system. Tight ends are new. So, some of those things are growing pains. When I say growing pains, not that you have to have those things during the course of the season. They’ve got to settle in and do their job at a high level.”
On how difficult it is to correct tackling during the season
“You have live tackling sessions, you have game reps. The fundamentals of your tackling are something we work on every single day. So, you have to continue to work on those things. Even when you’re not in live tackling situations during the course of the week, it’s about putting yourself in that fundamental position. If your eyes are right, your body position is right, you’ll continue to grow as a tackler. So, we’ve made a point of emphasis, and I’m not just saying that this week. We made a point of that long before that, too.”
