Josh Heupel talks Beer Barrel, tempo, Will Levis on SEC Teleconference

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel was up before Mark Stoops on today’s SEC Teleconference, and, as you might expect, fielded questions about the importance of tempo in Saturday’s game, his connections to the Stoops family, and what he’s expecting from Will Levis and Kentucky’s offense.

Heupel was also asked about the Beer Barrel, the trophy previously given to the winner of the Kentucky-Tennessee game. In 1998, both sides agreed to retire the trophy after a DUI crash killed Kentucky Football player Arthur Steinmetz and passenger Scott Brock in the days leading up to the game. Steinmetz’s teammate Jason Watts was driving the car and survived the accident.

What did Heupel say about the barrel? Listen to the replay or check out the transcript to find out.

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Opening statement…

Our football team is excited for this one. We just finished up our Wednesday practice. We understand the type of opponent that we’re playing. A really good football team. They do a nice job in all three phases of playing complementary football. Offensively, great quarterback. He’s got some weapons on the outside and a special running back room there and we’ve got to do a great job of being extremely physical on the defensive side of the football and trying to win the line of scrimmage.

Defensively, what we see from them, multiple in their looks, and do a really good job. You look at them, they’re top 10 in scoring defense, top 15 in total defense. They do a really nice job on the defensive side of the ball. Special teams have made some big plays. Dynamic returners that can change the momentum of a game at any time. They’re coming off a bye week. They’ll be healthy. Our preparation’s got to be urgent and get ourselves ready to go play a great game on Saturday night.

On the Beer Barrel and where it is currently located…

I have not seen the barrel. I don’t know where it’s located, if it is located here in Knoxville. The importance of this game, just bordering states and understanding the rivalry, I think that’s one of the unique things about being here at Tennessee. You have different fans that are going to circle a different game. This is one of the games that a lot of our fans point to every single year.

On whether or not trophies bring value to rivalry games…

I don’t know that it matters for the two teams that are on the field. You know, I’ve been in games where there is one and where there hasn’t been one. It doesn’t change the importance of the game and the rivalry itself. You know, I think for fanbases, obviously, it’s something to point to for sure.

On the development of Tennessee’s secondary…

Yeah, some of it, I just want to see everybody healthy and get everybody on the field at the same time to rotate our guys. Obviously, we’ve been nicked up in that area for a multitude of reasons here over the last four or five weeks. You know, for us defensively, on the coverage side of it, we can continue to be more disciplined in our zone coverage, pattern-reading, and thinking, and then when we’re playing man defense, you’ve got to do a better job of mashing them out and playing with good technique or when we’re in press coverage or the same thing when we’re in off coverage. There are opportunities for us to be just a little bit better and we can do that. And then the last piece of it, it’s always all 11 together and doing a better job of applying pressure and getting to the quarterback.

On the importance of dictating tempo in a matchup like this…

Well, I think you understand that the game itself will probably be a limited number of possession game. That’s just the contrary style to this one. Your possessions will probably be less frequent and so you got to maximize your opportunity. That’s true. Whether you’re getting 10-11 possessions in the game or getting 14.

The tempo in this one, obviously we’ve got to get drives started. We’ve got to play from ahead of the chains. That’s one of the things in the middle part of the game last year that we didn’t do. Some of that was them, some of that was inflicted wounds from ourselves. And then defensively, we got to do a good job on the line of scrimmage and get off the field on third down. Last year, we gave up a lot of long extended drives. So, we got to do a good job. Early downs on defense and get off on third down and we got to move the football offensively.

On how well he knows the Stoops family…

Yeah, I worked with Mike and Mark at the University of Arizona and obviously was with Bob for a long time in Norman. There are differences in their personalities, for sure, but there are some very similar traits in all of them. A very competitive family that obviously has done an unbelievable job. You look at their playing careers and their coaching careers, they’ve done a really good job at the collegiate level.

On whether or not the Alabama receiver should have been suspended for the next game…

I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t seen the video or paid much attention to anything that’s happening outside of our program. You know, there’s enough going on here in Knoxville that we’ve got to continue to develop our roster and our program. So, don’t really deal with hypotheticals. As far as that happening, it’s out of our own program.

On what he’s seen from Kentucky’s passing offense and Will Levis’ development…

First of all, Will’s got great arm talent and can push the ball vertically and horizontally. You got to send all field zones when you’re playing against them. He’s a really good decision-maker and I think has complete command of what they’re doing offensively. I think he does a lot of things in the run game for them too on early downs but does a great job on play-action pass. And he does have some weapons out on the perimeter and you definitely don’t want to let those guys get started.