Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with the local media on Monday afternoon to put a bow on the Vols’ blowout victory over NC State while previewing their week three matchup against Kent State.
Heupel discussed Nico Iamaleava bouncing back from turnovers, whether his defense has surprised him and much more. Here’s everything Heupel said.
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Opening statement
“Good to be back in the building with the guys. Opportunity to watch film, grow, learn how we can get better. Good teams continue to get better throughout the course of the season. So a challenge for us is to prepare and practice the right way so we can go play our best football on Saturday. Looking forward to being back in Neyland, seeing our fans and to have an opportunity to kick off again with this group.”
On if Tennessee tends to be conservative in play calling with a young quarterback in Nico Iamaleavea
“I think his body language, his demeanor, his composer leads you to believe that he’s going go play the next play independently. We don’t want to turn the ball over. You’d like to have a couple of those back, but I think one thing we learned about him is how he’s going to respond to something that doesn’t go positive, doesn’t go his way. And he came back and played the next play independently, played like the first play again.”
On Tennessee’s offense usually getting the publicity as an air raid-style passing attack, but the Vols being able to dominate a game on defense and run the football well
“That’s kind of laughable to me, to be honest. You look at our ability to run the football since we’ve been here statistically, over the last close to a decade, we’ve always ran the ball really efficiently and effectively. We have balance, we have to create big plays in the pass game, but we create those things in the running game, too. And I was proud of the physicality that we played with on the offensive line, our tight ends. Running backs played that way too. And same thing on the other side of the football. We liked the way our front seven played at the line of scrimmage. That was a big part of the football game.”
On how much the Tennessee coaching staff emphasizes cleaning up penalties, especially personal fouls
“Yeah, you got to play smart football. You can’t do things that that hurt yourself. Keenan (Pili) wasn’t trying to be egregious on on his. He thought the running back was still coming at him. So we got to be be smart. Special teams, first couple weeks we’ve had a couple penalties. You can’t change the the field position game and we got to continue growing that area.”
On how much he balances showing excitement as a coach and not showing as much emotion
“I’m still a kid at heart. You go to enjoy this. This game is hard. They got good coaches, they got scholarships too. Every Saturday you look at scores across America every Saturday, it unfolds differently. So that’s why you got to prepare and practice the same way. Be consistent in that. Be an elite competitor every day, not just on game day. We talked about that inside of our team room today. But man, if you’re not going to enjoy the opportunities that you get, and if you are successful, we think you’re missing the boat. And so we try to have fun inside of our building that’s after a game in the locker room, but it’s also every day we should enjoy what we’re doing and who we’re doing it with and we do inside of this building.”
On if the play of the defense changes the way he game plans as a head coach
“Every Saturday is going to unfold differently and, from the structure that you’re seeing from the opponent in all three phases of the game to how the game unfolds. You try to be smart and aggressive in everything that we do. We want to play with an aggressive mentality. I want our coaches to call it aggressive, let our players go make plays, put them in a position to make plays. But then you got to play extremely smart situational football too. Two minute drive at the end of the half, we’re in a position to get it going. We have a penalty, tried to play smart football there at the end and make sure we got points knowing that we were getting the ball coming out in the second half as well.”
On what using two tight end sets does for the offense
“For us, historically at points in our career we’ve been able to do that because of the depth of the room. With everything that we faced when we first got here. Scholarship reductions, you try to be smart in building for your future, protecting the current roster and we just haven’t had the luxury of being able to do that. Now we have those are things that for us, we’ve been working on through spring ball, through training camp and our guys went out and executed and played in a really good way.”
On defensive coordinator Tim Banks
“First of all, Tim’s done an unbelievable job. And that’s really from day one being here, building camaraderie, trust, chemistry on that side of the football. All of our assistant coaches in their position room. As we continue to build our roster, then we’re able to play more guys, which is important. The understanding of our scheme, the fundamentals of it. It’s a credit to our players and to our coaches.”
On if he expected the defense to play as well as it has
“We’re playing really good football right now. As a competitor, you’re only as good as your next one. So Saturday night, that’s our next test. I do love how physical, how fast we’re playing. We got to continue to grow. Good teams, good defenses continue to get better. There’s plenty of opportunities for us to be better in what we’ve done up until this point.”
On the selflessness of Tennessee’s team, where it comes from
“At the end of the day, it comes from your leadership inside your position rooms. Guys being selfless, knowing that it’s important that you celebrate the guys around you and that you pour into them. And that’s new guys coming into the building, those guys showing them what it looks like to be a Volunteer, what it looks like to be a player inside of this building. Helping them grow as players out in the practice field. You see guys coaching up their teammates as much as you see coaches doing it. And it’s awesome to see the energy, camaraderie, chemistry, excitement that they have for the other guys in their position room.”
On how he feels James Pearce Jr. has played through two games this season
“He’s played really well. He’s applied pressure to the quarterback, hasn’t gotten home, but he’s been disruptive. He’s done a really good job in the run game. The other night, does a great job as a dropper in some of our pressure packages, matching out the skill personnel out in space. So he’s played really well. In this game, man, you just keep plugging away. Stats are stats. At the end of the day, it’s wins and losses and continuing to execute your assignment.”
On Kent State
“For us defensively, heavy mix of zone, inside and outside zone, and a lot of window dressing. You know, with motion shifts, trade. We gotta do a great job being gap sound and communicate at a high level. Offensively, multiple in their coverages. A lot of pressure. So we gotta do a great job on identification. It’s in run games and pass pro and protecting the quarterback when we’re dropping back. And we gotta go win some one-on-ones.”
On how Nico Iamaleava performed when facing pressure
“Yeah, we can be better at points within our technique. Wasn’t true misidentification. We gotta be a little bit better in our fundamentals and technique at times. And that’s everybody. It’s running back, it’s the offensive line, our tight ends were involved in it as well a couple times. He’s a little deep in the pocket too, which applies pressure to the tackles. So it’s all 11 operating as one. Made that point to our offense this morning. And that’s in everything that we’re doing.”
On how hard it is to have everyone’s attention this week when preparing for Kent State
“You can go back and look at the scores from across America each week and there’s examples of guys that didn’t prepare, didn’t practice right, didn’t have the right competitive spirit to go take advantage of the next opportunity. There’s a lot of work that goes into it. We started in mid-January. You better have the right mindset. There’s very few opportunities, this is our next one. Gotta be ready to go take advantage of it. Our players, our coaches this morning, were able to show them areas that we have to get better in and you know, that started today for us.”
On how well Iamaleava is doing in identifying and checking calls based on what the defense is giving him
“Yeah, it’s a first-time starter. He’s done an elite job of understanding our concepts, getting us into good play if we’re not in one. Taking advantage of what he’s seeing from the second and third level off of their structures. Done a really good job as a decision maker and controlling what we’re doing.”
On the availability of Cameron Seldon, Jakobe Thomas and Kalib Perry
“We’ll see as the week goes on, but I anticipate all those guys being available for us this week.”
