Josh Heupel reveals how Tennessee's defense has worked to better defend mobile QBs

The Tennessee Volunteers defense struggled against mobile quarterbacks in 2021. In their win over Kentucky, Will Levis ran for two touchdowns. Meanwhile, Matt Corral ran for 195 yards in Ole Miss’ win over Tennessee. It’s not a new problem for Josh Heupel, either, whose defenses at UCF were known to struggle against mobile quarterbacks.

Now, Josh Heupel knows that the Volunteers need a solution to their mobile quarterback woes if they’re going to take a step forward and compete for the SEC East. While speaking to the media, Heupel explained how Tennessee’s defense has worked on improving this aspect of their game.

“I think that’s one of the hardest things to replicate during the course of training camp,” Josh Heupel explained. “With quarterbacks not being live.”

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“You also want them to stay away from the fray. You know, as quarterback’s hands are coming through, trying to keep those guys in red jerseys healthy.”

In other words, you have to be careful in practice because you don’t want to injure your own quarterbacks for the sake of improving on defense.

“In rush integrity, understanding the design of the scheme and what your job is in it,” Josh Heupel continued. “That’s the front four guys, some of our twist game. It’s also, you know, our pressures. There’s times where we’re bringing the linebacker or safety off of the edge, being able to manage those situations is going to be critical. I did a couple of things that were different this year. There are some opportunities where some of the younger guys, we put them in a live situation with the quarterback. I think those little things will add up to us handling the quarterback in a better way win we kick off.”

Josh Heupel expects to see an improved pass rush

One thing that would help stop mobile quarterbacks is an improved pass rush. If Tennessee can get to the quarterback quickly, while they’re still in the pocket, the Volunteers could neutralize mobile quarterbacks. Luckily, for Tennessee, Josh Heupel expects to see improvement here too.

“I do just from their functional movement, individually their ability to bend, explosiveness out of their stance, the fundamentals,” Josh Heupel said. “Coach Gardner and Coach Ekler have helped develop all off-season and then some young guys that have come into our program too that we believe as the season unfolds will be able to help us in some of those situations. So depth, the growth of them individually, some young guys coming in, I do believe that we’ll be better being able to apply pressure with the quarterback without using pressures to do that.”