How Josh Heupel views the Florida Gators ahead of their matchup this week

Two weeks ago, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel was emotional after returning to beat his alma mater, Oklahoma. This week, Heupel is trying to get his team back on track after an upset loss at the hands of Arkansas. He’ll have to do that this weekend against the Florida Gators, a team that has beaten Tennessee 26 times since 1990.

Heupel spoke on the SEC Teleconference Wednesday afternoon, here’s everything he had to say, including his opinion of Billy Napier and this Florida Gators football team.

Opening Statement

“Yeah, good afternoon everybody. Just finished up our Wednesday practice. Had a good day with the guys on the grass. For us, looking forward to being back home. It’s been about a month since we were inside Neyland Stadium. Obviously a huge football game against a Florida football team that just continues to get better throughout the course of the season. Recognize what we’re going up against and we gotta win the preparation and be ready to play smart football and competitive football for four quarters. Looking forward to Saturday night with our guys.”

His memories as a player of the Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma

“Yeah, you know, I was fortunate to play in two of ’em. The first thing that hits me is just the win in 2000. Rainy day inside of the Cotton Bowl, and the start of a huge month for our football team with the opponents that we played, but you know, kind of was a part of spring-boarding us to the success that we had the rest of the season. That’s one of the most unique games in college football. From it being a neutral-site game in the Cotton Bowl, the historical nature of that stadium, all the games (that) have been played between the two schools. The drive into the stadium is unique, both teams pull in through the narrow pathway and the fans are there. It’s a great atmosphere. When you get inside the stadium, the tickets being — the field being split with where it’s at. One side feels like a home game and the other one feels like a road game. So just a really unique atmosphere and obviously it’s a game that both of those fanbases circle on their calendar and you can feel the urgency of that.”

If Tennessee saw similar strategies defensively from Oklahoma and Arkansas in the last two games

“Yeah, there was some similarity in the structure. There were some differences in the structure, too, during the course of the Arkansas game. I thought we adjusted some things early that gave us a chance. But as much as anything in that football game, we didn’t play smart football. First play of the game, we got illegal man downfield on a nice chunk play. There’s multiple times where we’re playing behind the chains with playing penalties or pre-snap penalties. That affected the way — third down and we weren’t good on third and long. So when you combine those two things, that’s a huge part of how that game played out. 

“For us, in that ball game (Arkansas), some of the things that we did well (in our) first road game in the conference at Oklahoma, not having a bunch of those pre-snap penalties, doing the ordinary things at a really high level, communication, alignment, assignment, technique, getting off on the ball, you know, we didn’t do on Saturday night. And that’s been the, challenge for our football team. In particular, the offensive side of the ball is to be better in those things. And we had some communication things on the defense side of the football, too. So coaches and players together gotta be better than we were Saturday. And it doesn’t have to be anything extraordinary. It’s just everybody doing their job at a really high level.”

The improvements he has seen from Florida this season

“Yeah, first of all, their quarterbacks are playing at a really high level. Smart, efficient football. You know, they’ve done a good job of running the football here, understanding the style of game that we’re gonna get into. I mentioned communication. We gotta do a great job with all those shift, trade and motion; formation, variation, all the eye candy. We gotta handle that extremely well.

“Offensively for us, you know, their front four looks like a Florida front four. Their back end looks like a Florida back end, their backers can run, they’re physical. I think they’re playing their best football right now. They’ve continued to get better throughout the course of it. We gotta do a great job at the line of scrimmage. That’s in the run game, that’s in pass protection out on the perimeter. There’s gonna be one-on-one opportunities. You gotta go win out on the outside and inside on the slot, too. So we understand the challenge that we’re getting into with this football team and expect it to be a great environment and a great game.”

What he can point to as to why Tennessee’s point production has been down in SEC games

“The Oklahoma game, we played good football at times early in that game. And then just the flow of the game — the second drive of the second half, we got a holding penalty. We’re behind the chains, second and long, that killed that drive. By the time we got to the third drive, the style of game, it changed the way we played offensively with the way our defense was playing during the course of that football game.

“Last Saturday at Arkansas, to me, that’s a little bit different than the Oklahoma game. I mentioned some of the things that we control, and that’s not taking anything away from Arkansas, but some of the things that we control, and truly it was everybody, coaches and players, all of us being dialed in together. And that can be with things that we had in the gameplan, to some subtle things that we changed, to pre-snap penalties, communication, all of it. The great thing about all those things is a lot of it’s in our control. It’s really all in our control. To me, that’s where we gotta get better. As a competitor, everybody wants to talk about the last week, (but) as a competitor, win, lose, or draw, you gotta move on to the next one and we gotta continue to prepare the right way for this one.”