Tennessee football worked inside Neyland Stadium on Friday night for its first scrimmage of fall camp with its season opener just over three weeks away.
Following the scrimmage, head coach Josh Heupel met with the media to discuss the scrimmage and the last week of practice. Heupel discussed the play of Nico Iamaleava, replacing the injured Jourdan Thomas in the secondary and much more.
Here’s everything Heupel said on Friday night.
Opening statement
“Great, at this point, to get to scrimmage day. Find out a lot about our football team. Excited to go watch the video here tonight and get them in the building tomorrow. Great to be under the lights here inside of Neyland Stadium. And tonight we had a bunch of families that were out watching their sons go compete. So it was a lot of fun just hanging out with them a little bit before we got started with warmups. And a great night for Tennessee Football.”
On what he liked about Tennessee’s offense in the scrimmage
“I thought Desean Bishop had a really nice night — efficient, effective, ran hard thought. He did a really nice job. I thought our wide outs did a good job of operation. Chris Brazzell, obviously Squirrel (White). But seeing Chaz (Nimrod) and Kaleb (Webb) out there competing, playing extremely well. I thought the quarterbacks operated really well for almost the entire night, so it was good work.”
On how Tennessee tight end Ethan Davis performed in the scrimmage
“Ethan did a really nice job. The tight ends in general handled themselves really well. Just from where we finished spring ball, how we started training camp to tonight, just continued growth from that entire group. Ethan Davis made some really nice plays over the middle of the football field. Excited about what he’s done, but also what the entire group has done.”
On if he liked the back-and-forth between Tennessee’s offense and defense during the scrimmage
“There’s going be give and take. Or hopefully there’s give and take. In particular, though, I thought our defense played extremely hard, played really physical. Early in the scrimmage, did a great job on third downs. Front four, relentless. Thought our secondary played really well early in the scrimmage as well. Really, really pleased with how they started.”
On the progression of Tennessee redshirt freshman receiver Nathan Leacock
“He was injured during a good amount of spring ball, hampers a little bit of his development. His growth through the summer, but how he started here in training camp, catching the ball extremely well tonight. He did a really nice job playing wide receiver — efficient, makes his plays after the catch as well. And then special teams did a really nice job early in the scrimmage when we were in special teams.”
On what he liked about Tennessee’s secondary in the scrimmage
“One they’ve been great for the seven days before we got to the scrimmage tonight. (They) compete extremely hard, take coaching, they’ve made plays, they learn from mistakes. Their athleticism tonight, played some really tight coverage down the field. Just within the game, the subtle details that allow you to play it at a really high level in particular corners tonight, I thought they did a really, really good job.”
On if they used in-helmet communication during the scrimmage
“We had a trial run with all the changes inside of college football, the headset communication. We’ve been using that at practice as well as tonight. That was really pretty seamless. We used the iPads on the sideline as well. Tried to structure in some timeouts where we got a chance to figure out how we’re going to use it, operate it, all the logistics that go with it, which there’s a lot more than than we would think.”
On how Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava played in red-zone situations
“I thought he looked good throughout the course of the night. Just decision making, body position. There is going to be some throws that he is going want back, but he played really well.”
On Jourdan Thomas’ injury and Boo Carter stepping up since
“I haven’t talked to you since Jourdan’s injury, I don’t think and hate it for him. A noncontact (injury) and that’s a guy that’s just steadily grown inside of our program. As a player, as a person off the field, as a leader inside of our room. It’s a tough thing about this game and he’s handled it with a ton of maturity. Just being in the building, being around, being out here tonight with the guys. It matters to him. The guys care about him in a great way too. So it gives other guys opportunities.
“Boo’s played really well. I I thought the last couple days even leading into the scrimmage have been his best day just within the scope of what we do defensively playing within the framework of that and making plays at the same time. He’s a young guy that needs to and will continue to get better every day, but he’s a dynamic playmaker.”
On what he saw from freshman running back Peyton Lewis
“First time for contact since coming back off of the injury. Young player, you would expect it, but it’s happened for him. He’s gotten better, more comfortable absolutely every single day. Tonight, a lot of really good things. Playing with great pad level. There’s some runs that he’ll have an opportunity to grow from as well.”
On holding some offensive linemen out, how he wants to handle those veterans’ reps
“Listen, vets in the NFL play too, you know what I mean? There’s a ramp up and a build up to be ready to go play. Some of the guys that have missed the last couple days gotta get back and get some of that work. Whether it’s got to necessarily be a scrimmage, depends a little bit on the player and the amount of time that they’ve had on task. The balance for myself, our coaching staff is always to have these guys ready to go play. They got to grow as players. They got to be prepared for the opening kickoff in the schedule that we’re gonna play. At the same time, have them as fresh and healthy and ready to be for the duration (of the season).”
On wanting to develop more depth and rotate on the offensive line
“As a program, we want that and we need that. Everybody here, our fan base understands, how we took this program over and how we’ve had to have a really detailed plan in managing the space that we had to navigate. We are creating more depth, but this is a long season. Inside of this league, you get into league play. You got to have multiple guys ready to go. And so it’s been important to us this off season. I’ve stated that this off season. We’ve also talked about that in previous years too. It’s just being able to build to that.”
On the structure of the scrimmage
“This one, there’s some special teams for us at the very beginning. We get some drives, we get some coming out, we get some short yardage and operate ones, twos and threes and let them go play. Tonight was unique because it’s the first time for iPads on the sidelines. So we adjusted and tried to create TV timeouts where you had an opportunity to do that between your sets.”
On how clean he thought the scrimmage was
“Yeah, I mean there were some yellow hankies on the field. I didn’t yell at the officials tonight. I thought the officials actually did a great job on the back end of the scrimmage talking to our football team about some of the things that they saw. It was a pretty clean scrimmage for scrimmage one. Communication, personnel. There weren’t any issues with any of that. There’s some playing penalties that we gotta get smarter at. That’s always the case at this point. And gotta learn how to play extremely hard, but play it with great technique and know when the play is over and get yourself in a position to where you don’t hurt the team.”
On the players being used to having iPads on the sideline from when they were in high school
“Yeah, I’m more concerned about the coaches than I am the players to be honest. It’s a better tool than somebody having to draw something up on the whiteboard, visual learners. It’ll be a good tool as long as you use it the right way as a coach.”
On who else in addition to Boo Carter has stepped up at Star in the wake of Jourdan Thomas’ season-ending injury
“Christian Harrison has done a really nice job. We got multiple guys that can bounce around, you know, from the safety position to the Star. So we gotta continue to build our guys in the secondary, but again tonight, really pleased with what they did.”
On how he felt Gaston Moore and Jake Merklinger operated the offense
“Yeah, both of ’em did a great job operating the offense, but they really have all training camp. Merk’s a young guy, continues to get better every single day. He has great confidence. He works extremely hard at it. He’s got a really good energy in the huddle. His demeanor is really positive. Gaston just has done a really efficient job tonight. Made some really nice throws out on the run. He’s done that all through training camp. He’s taken pretty good care of the football throughout the course of training camp too, so I’m pleased with the development of those guys.”
On running back Dylan Sampson
“Yeah, D-Samp wasn’t in the scrimmage tonight. We held him out of the scrimmage.”
On what defensive back Will Brooks has done to position himself to play in the secondary:
“Yeah, a guy that’s played a lot of football for us. He’s been out on defense, obviously his role on special teams, a guy that’s a leader inside of that secondary room. He’s played really well and Will’s gonna play a lot of football for us.”
On what makes DeSean Bishop an effective runner and a good fit for the offense:
“Yeah, a year ago before he got hurt. Really liked how he was flashing in practice and early in the scrimmage. He’s very consistent. Really proud of how he’s rebounded from the injury. Just his continued growth as a person is — the way that he approaches every day he comes into the building. He’s got great vision, great pace. He does a really good job of using the blockers in front of him and setting those blockers up. Ran with great pad level tonight. Got pad under pad.”
