Tennessee stayed unbeaten at home by knocking off Texas A&M 20-13 at Neyland Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Aggies scored a touchdown on their opening drive but mustered just six points the rest of the way as Tennessee’s defense dominated.
Heupel discussed the dominant play of the defense, the offensive issues in scoring range and much more. Here’s everything Heupel said after Tennessee improved to 5-1 (2-1 SEC).
More From RTI: Four Quick Takeaways As Tennessee Football Defeats Texas A&M
Opening Statement
“How about that, man? Wow. I haven’t been involved one like that in a long time. First of all, just, I said it earlier today and I’ve been a lot of different places, this is the best thing, atmosphere in college football. Man, there’s nothing like Neyland loud. When (the fans) come and they’re fully engaged and they typically are, man, our fan base is awesome. A huge factor in the ball game today. Love being with them on this journey this year, man. Appreciate them. Fitting on a day that Eric (Berry) is recognized for going into the Hall of Fame that we have the type of defensive performance that we did, honoring one of the best that’s ever come through here and really one of the best that’s ever played the game.”
“So, man, it was a tough game, fun game. Love the resiliency of our football team defensively. The line of scrimmage was relentless. We dominated it. Just an unbelievable performance by them. But we did a great job on the second and third levels as well. Did a good job in the run game. Proud of that performance on special teams. We challenged them all week long. They had dynamic returners. We did a really good job all day long in our cover units and Dee (Williams) and the punt return changed the game. And man, it was awesome to see those guys make the play. That makes a difference in the football game and offensively some really good efficiency in the run game against a really good defensive line. Protected relatively well for most of the night. Gotta play smarter in the red zone, just absolutely crush ourselves in that part of the field. So, gotta get better there. But a great win in this league. Enjoy every one of them and get ready for the next one.”
On Tennessee’s defensive performance in the win
“You know, really the first drive, after that they played really pretty dialed in football, man. Gap integrity, did a good job in the run game, got after the quarterback. The mixture of our coverages. We were in the right place at the right time. They hit a couple of play actions. But all in all, man, just the physicality, the effort, the strain and playing smart football, you put that together and it’s a great performance by those guys today. Man, great performance.”
On Dee Williams returning the punt for the touchdown in the second half to take the lead for good
“Huge. One, we down it, Dee downs it, sets up the defense. Defense goes out there, handles their business, does a great job on their zone concepts and smashes it in the mouth. We do a great job, Coach Ek (Mike Ekler) with that return unit. Dee does a great job making a play, but you got 10 guys competing their butts off and getting them in the end zone. Man, that’s a huge momentum swing play. Offensively we had gotten the ball on the plus side of it and hadn’t gotten anything out of it there in the last couple of drives. So a huge turning point in the football game.”
On how it feels for Tennessee to win a low-scoring, defensive game
“I can’t remember a lot of that. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in one of these. And I’m good with it. I like coming out on the right side of it. Obviously, offensively, want to be more efficient when we can be, but I’ve said it from when I got here, the expectation, the standard is to play elite defense here. Not just good defense. This is the home of Eric Berry, Al Wilson, Reggie White, the standard is to be elite. And when I got here, we were devastated on the other side of the defense side of the football, just with things that were outside of our control, we continued to build it. From scheme, understanding the scheme to recruiting guys, the depth on the defense side of the football. We’re just getting started as to what we will be on that side week in and week out. But I love the performance of those guys tonight.”
On how good James Pearce is playing on Tennessee’s defensive line
“James is a great football player. He’s still not anywhere near what he’s gonna be. He’s gonna continue to get better, needs to continue to get better every week. But he’s starting to mature and be the same competitor, relentless, every single rep. But it’s all of those guys together. There’s not just one guy that you can slide, you can chip. It’s all of those guys up front operating and functioning as one. If it’s just one, you can do things from a protection standpoint to try to limit a guy. It’s all of those guys compete in the way that they did. He had a great game, but man, everybody that stepped up there looked like they competed extremely hard tonight.”
On the strangeness of coaching a game like that
“Yeah, there were a lot of variables tonight. The flow of the football game, the wind, who you’re seeing on the other side of the football, all of those variables. Didn’t look like I made a lot of the right decisions tonight for the most part in those critical situations. I say that just because we didn’t execute some of those.”
On if the defense wanted to prove how physical they were this season
“Our defense wants to play at an elite level and they want to be known for being extremely physical and that defensive line wants to be known for changing the way games play. Absolutely.”
On if Joe Milton being uneven was about Texas A&M or Milton
“The decision in the red zone, just can’t make that one. That was a critical error by him. Sometimes that happens at quarterback, don’t want it to happen anymore. A little bit of what’s going on the back end is some just with the wide receivers and some scheme, all of us being on the same page. There’s some efficiency there that’s really good and obviously not consistent enough from all of us across the board. And for me to Joe, to the wide outs to tight ends, to the offensive line— it’s all gotta be a piece of it.”
On what else was going wrong for Tennessee’s offense in the red zone
“The penalties just, absolutely they kill you, man. They kill you. We talked about playing smart football a few weeks ago when we went on the road— self-inflicted wounds. You can’t do that. You change the game. You can’t play in second-and-20. Not against good football teams and everybody in this league’s got good talent and good skill, man, so we gotta be smarter. And as the field restricts, it gets even harder, you know what I’m saying? You’re getting into the red zone, so got to be better there.”
On why they decided to start Chas Nimrod in Bru McCoy’s place
“You’re gonna see all those guys. Chas gotta start tonight. Practice really well. Kaleb practiced well too. We’re gonna need all of them throughout the course of it, so have great trust in them. Believe Joe does too. That’s Chas, that’s Kaleb, that’s Dont’e (who) got a chance to get back in the slot too. We’re gonna need all those guys. We can be better than we were today in the pass game. We expect us to be.”
On what went well for the run game
“Great job. Glen Elarbee, Alec Abeln, Jerry Mack. Real credit to them. What we did in the run game tonight. Credit to oline, tight ends, running back too. Huge part in the football game. They are really good against the run and they’re really good attacking the quarterback and we had some efficiency. We obviously were capable of doing some more things than we did tonight, but the run game part of it, you know, the scheme and our guys executing some of it at times was really, really good.”
On Kamal Hadden bouncing back from early season criticism
“It’s hard for young people to drown out the noise that it shouldn’t matter. And I say that meaning there’s nothing you can do about past performance. All you can do is control the controllables and that’s how you come and work and compete every single day. Let your preparation and your practice dictate your mindset as you go into the next football game. It’s easy for me to say that. Hard to do. Kamal, his growth since he’s gotten here being able to just continue to fight and compete and make some plays tonight that were huge and critical in football game.”
On the secondary’s improvement as a whole, growth this season
“We give up a couple plays, play action, you know there’s a third and 15, 17 that we give up. There’s things that can be better at the same time. I thought all in all we played really well tonight. We matched things out. We passed things off in our zone and the combination between the first level defensive line, our second level drops and third level we were able to get off the football field and have the type of performance that we did tonight.”
On what he liked about Joe Milton’s performance
“Through all the ups and downs (he) continued to fight, continued to compete, continued to be willing to go out there and play the next play. And it’s where it starts as a competitor, so love that part of it. There’s things that offensively all 11, we gotta get better. Coaches included.”
