Josh Heupel: Parity in college football makes it important to stay locked in

Week 2 caught a lot of people off guard by the sheer number of upsets it held. For many, it was a reminder that these are college students and parity exists within the sport. So, now, Josh Heupel knows that he’s going to need to keep Tennessee focused on the task at hand moving forward.

While speaking to the media, Josh Heupel was asked about the amount of upsets that happened during Week 2, and how, with that kind of parity, he keeps his team locked in.

“The challenge, every week, is really us,” Josh Heupel said. “We talk about that every week–talked about it this morning too. Our players got to buy into it.”

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

“I didn’t think a couple of the practices last week were our best. You know, it showed up in the way that we played at times over the course of the football game. Our preparations got to be consistent. Your process of how you approach and get to game day is what takes you to game day to play your best football. If you ever deviate from that plan and change it, you’re setting yourself up for failure. We talked about that in the team meeting today,” Josh Heupel explained.

“College football has always been this way, but certainly this past weekend and the first weekend you see it, right? Like everybody’s got 85 and they got good coaching staffs, so you better prepare and be ready to compete in a really good way. Your competitiveness cannot deviate from week to week.”

Next up for Tennessee is Akron.

Tennessee still has room to improve

While the Volunteers need to stay locked in going forward, they also need to improve. Josh Heupel explained that Tennessee has plenty of room to get better and improve as the season goes on.

“This game is never going to be perfect, either. I said that after the game–say it to the players and I do all the time,” Josh Heupel said.

“There’s things that we can control that we can be better, you know, and offensively the way we started, really in all three phases of the football game, the way we started…the third quarter, just offensively and special teams being more dialed in, and as coaches and players together.”