What Josh Heupel said about South Carolina

Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel met with the media Monday for his usual preview press conference to discuss this Saturday’s matchup with South Carolina.

The Gamecocks (2-2, 1-1 SEC) are coming off a 37-30 victory over Mississippi State Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium. Carolina has losses to Top 25 teams North Carolina and Georgia on its resume with a win over Furman to go along with its win Saturday night.

Tennessee (3-1, 0-1 SEC) has blowout wins over Virginia, Austin Peay, and UTSA this season as well as a 29-16 loss at Florida.

South Carolina and the Vols are set for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on the SEC Network at Tennessee.

Below is a transcript of what Heupel had to say with some questioned edited out for brevity.

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Opening Statement

Hope everybody’s doing great. Looking forward to this weekend, a really good opponent that we’re playing. It’s an opportunity for us to open up conference play here at home. Excited to see our fans and need a great environment on Saturday night for sure. Also special that we get an opportunity to celebrate 25th anniversary of our 98 national championship team, Coach Fulmer and the entire crew. Welcoming those guys back, excited that they get a chance to be there for this one as well. So with that, I’ll open it up.

On having a non-conference game to get back on track after Florida…

Yeah, the schedule is what it is. I thought our preparation was good last week. We went out and did a lot of things really well. There’s still some things we gotta correct, obviously. But we’re excited about this one, getting back into conference play. That’s why you come here, you wanna play in big-time games like this. Really good opponent. They’re good on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Quarterback’s playing extremely well. We gotta be our best on Saturday night.

On if this one means a little more because of last year…

It’s a new week every week. It’s a new year too. Last year, they were more physical than us. They competed harder than we did on that night. We didn’t handle the environment the right way. Those were lessons that had to continue to move forward with us as a program. But last year has nothing to do with this week. Last week has nothing to do with this week. The previous play has nothing to do with the next one, man. We gotta focus on our preparation and be ready to have a great competitive spirit for four quarters.

On South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler’s impact and what he did last year…

He’s a really good player. He’s played at a high level. He’s played a lot of football. He’s playing extremely well right now. He was dynamic in that football game, but he has that in his arsenal. And for us, the line of scrimmage is important. And we gotta do a really good job. We gotta get him in third and longs. Last year, we didn’t get off the field in third and longs. And some of that was coverage. Some of that was him extending and making some really special plays. We gotta do a great job of bottling them up and applying pressure at the same time.

On Shane Beamer saying Tennessee would probably be looking forward to playing South Carolina based on the performance of the pass defense against Mississippi State…

I got home at the very end of the game. By the time, I wish a four o’clock game, I got home early. I don’t, between recruiting and knocking out some of the media things that I gotta do, didn’t get home till the very end. They’re a good football team. They’ve lost a couple of close ones. They played really well on the road at Georgia in all three phases of the football game, lost a tough one to Carolina. This is a really good football team.

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On signs Tennessee would bounce back this past week after Florida loss..

I don’t think there was just one thing. I do think they had great intentionality in the way that they prepared all week long. They had really good practices Tuesday, Wednesday, followed that up, finishing out the right way on Thursday and Friday. Today, I challenged our guys, what are the things that you gotta stop doing in your preparation because they’re not helping you? What are the things that you gotta continue to do and what are the things that you gotta up your game at? And I think that’s important for everybody inside of our program.

On the identity of the SEC this season…

I think college football in general, in this league, every Saturday is its own entity. And your preparation, a play here or there that turns the momentum in the football game a little bit. It’s fine lines, man. So you gotta show up, you gotta be prepared, you gotta have great competitive spirit, you gotta play extremely hard, and you gotta do the ordinary things at a really high level. In this league, and across college football, there’s a ton of parity. And when I say that, the separation is really thin. So you gotta be on the right side of it.

On Joe Milton’s heath…

So for us, I know there’s a picture out there (Editor’s note: There was a picture floating around on Sunday that appeared to show Milton checking into a medical facility), but for us routinely on Sundays, we’re gonna make sure that our players are healthy. We have a diagnosis inside and with our doctors, but we’re gonna make sure that medically they check up on them as well. And Joe’s been good, feels good, he was with us today, so anticipate him being ready to go play really well.

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On home field advantage…

Yeah, home field advantage matters. We need energy, momentum, need to make it extremely difficult for them to communicate. And for us, our fans need to be a huge part of this football game. They have been every Saturday that I’ve been here. I can’t wait, expect to be a lot more boats tied up on the river this week and expect Vol Walk to be electric and cannot wait for the noise and the energy inside of the stadium.

On Rattler’s accuracy this season and problems he presents…

He has played a bunch of football. He understands coverages, sees rotations, he takes himself to the right spot based on the coverage and the beaters that they have up on their schemes. He’s got the ability to extend and make plays with his feet. He’s accurate with the football, you gotta do a great job. You gotta control the line of scrimmage, you gotta apply pressure to him. You can’t let him out of the pocket at the same time. When he does scramble, you gotta match the personnel out in space. He created a bunch of big plays against us last year outside of the pocket. He’s a really good football player that poses a problem. We gotta do a really good job up front and on the second and third levels in our coverage.

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