What Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said during his weekly press conference on Monday

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with reporters for his weekly Monday press conference, reviewing the 45-14 win over UTSA on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium and previewing this week’s game against South Carolina:

Opening Statement

“Looking forward to this weekend. Really good opponent that we’re playing. It’s opportunity for us to open up conference play here at home. Excited to see our fans and a great environment on Saturday night for sure. Also special, we get an opportunity to celebrate the 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.”

If it was good for Tennessee to have a non-conference game after the Florida game, before hosting South Carolina this week

Yeah, I mean 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. 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 want to play in big kind of games like this, a really good opponent, good on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Quarterback’s playing extremely well. We gotta be our best on Saturday night.”

If each season is different or Tennessee will be thinking about what happened last season at South Carolina

“It’s a new week every week. It is 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 (we had to learn) to continue to move forward with as a program. But last year has nothing to do with this week. Last week has nothing to do with this week. Your previous play has nothing to do with the next game. We gotta focus on preparation and be ready to have a great competitive spirit for four quarters.”

Spencer Rattler’s play against Tennessee last season and how he has performed since then

“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. We gotta do a really good job. We gotta give him third-and-long. Last year we didn’t get off the field in third-and-long. And some of that was coverage. Some of it was, some of that was him standing and make some really special plays. We gotta do a great job of ling up and applying pressure at the same time.”

Shane Beamer saying Tennessee was probably watching South Carolina’s game against Mississippi State Saturday night and looking forward to playing South Carolina because of their pass defense

“I got home at the very end of the (South Carolina-Mississippi State). I wish a 4 o’clock game, I got home early. Between recruiting and knocking out some of the media things that I gotta do, I didn’t get home until the very end. (South Carolina is) 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.”

What he saw last week that made him believe Tennessee would bounce back from the Florida loss

“I don’t think there was just one thing. I do think they had a 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 your program.”

If Tennessee’s tempo early against UTSA was the best it has been this season

“Yeah, a week ago I talked about self-inflicted wounds, not playing smart on the offense side of the football. Curbing ourselves. And this last one, we didn’t do those things. So that allows you to play in tempo, allows you to be ahead of the chains or in manageable situations where you’re not third-and-15. And that helps everybody out. It helps your quarterback out. It helps your offensive line out. It helps us stay in the rhythm, helps us move the football.”

What he saw on film and what went wrong for Tennessee in the third quarter against UTSA

“For me — I believe I said it after the game to you guys, I know I talked to our football team — the competitive edge that you have to have in this game, and it’s razor thin margins that you’re playing on. And if you’re not on that edge the right way, the game will turn quickly, for a play or for however long you’re not on it. So, again, this football team’s gotta continue to grow and mature and that shows up in not hurting ourselves, being assignment and fundamentally sound. But it also shows up in the way that we handle it, no matter what is going on in the game. We talk about playing at like its 0-0 for 60 minutes. Don’t look up until scoreboard says zero. In this football game, that will be important. It’s a good team. They got good players, got good coaches. They’ll make plays at some point during the course of the ball game. You gotta continue to refocus and go play the next one.”

If there were any other changes Tennessee made with the offensive tempo against UTSA, if there were less checks to the sideline

“Yeah, we really haven’t done a bunch of checks to the sideline. Joe (Milton) controls most of the football game for us and it’s been true since we got here. So that’s not really something that has slowed us down typically.”

What he thinks the identity of the SEC is 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 a 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 a ton of parity when I say that the separation is really thin, so you gotta be on the right side of it.”

What he’s seen from Elijah Herring the last couple weeks

“A guy that played a lot of football for us on special teams a year ago, has continued to develop at the linebacker position. When he first got here, in high school he played on the first level. So he’s continued to progress with his ability to have his eyes in the right spot. Sees pullers, gets to the right gap and continues to do a better job of tackling. He’s violent, he’s disruptive, he caress, he practices hard, he’s got the right makeup.”

If there’s any concern with Joe Milton’s left knee after he appeared to hurt it against UTSA

“I can’t believe it took this long to get that question. I know there’s a picture out there, but for us, routinely on Sundays, we’re gonna make sure that our players are healthy. We have a diagnostic in inside and with our doctors. But we’re gonna make sure that medically they check up on him as well. And Joe’s been good. Feels good. He’s with us today, so anticipate him being ready to go play really well.”

The importance of the home crowd for a Tennessee night game at Neyland Stadium

“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. Can’t wait. I expect to be a lot more boats tied up on the river this week and expect the Vol Walk to be electric. Cannot wait for the noise and the energy inside the stadium.”

The challenges of defending South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler

“He’s just 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 scrimmage, you got 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 second and third levels in our coverage.”

How wide receivers Kaleb Webb and Chas Nimrod performed against UTSA

“Saturday was a great opportunity for those guys to get more reps than they had early in the season. I think I said it last week that we had planned on playing those guys some more. I really like what they did. There’s a little bit where we can be a little bit better between quarterback end and wide receiver. On some of the downfield plays and we’re close on it. We gotta go hit those things this week. But I like what they did. Competitive, played with fundamentals and technique, played hard.”

What he has seen from Tennessee special teams and South Carolina special teams

“Special teams, like some of the things I was talking about offensively, you can’t do things that hurt you, that change the field position, change the momentum of the football game. We gotta clean up a couple of those things that everybody saw on Saturday. At the same time, we’re playing extremely hard, playing with great fundamentals. I like some of our discipline in it. So there’s some real positives too.”

“(South Carolina’s special teams are) aggressive. You’re gonna see face, you’re gonna see them try to create an extra possession on special teams. Cover units are really solid. You gotta do a really good job in that phase of the game this week.”

What Tennessee has seen from South Carolina’s defense

“Physical. Their safeties are heavily active in the run game. A year ago they hurt us in some of our protections as well. Defeated us in some one-on-one situations. Big, strong, physical. Long at corner. They’re playing good defense.”

What was impressive about Dylan Sampson from the film of the UTSA game

“Dylan’s a great teammate in here and yeah, he wanted more touches for sure the previous week (at Florida) and for whatever reason we just didn’t get that done. But he’s the same guy inside of the building. Competitive and cares and embraces every role that we put him in. He competes for both roles too. But he’s dynamic in the things that he does at the line of scrimmage that are real subtle, pressing the aiming points, delivering a center-guard, guard-tackle combination to the second level. Being able to feel things that are happening on the backside of the run when it’s fast flow over the top, to be able to come out the backside. Those are all really special. Everybody sees his gift when he gets to the third level make people miss the ability and speed to take it to distance. But it’s the things that he does early in the run that give him the ability to get to that spot.”

The play of Tennessee’s offensive line at this point in the season

“Some really good things. Some of the efficiency in the run game. There’s been times where we’ve pass protected extremely well too. At the end of the day, we gotta continue to get better in that area, keep the quarterback clean and be able to make some plays down the football field.”