Josh Heupel previews Tennessee-N.C. State on SEC Coaches Teleconference
Head coach Josh Heupel on Wednesday previewed No. 14 Tennessee’s game against No. 24 North Carolina State on Saturday (7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, ABC) in the Duke’s Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
Here’s everything Heupel said during his turn on the SEC Coaches Teleconference:
Opening statement
“Good afternoon everybody. Excited about the way the team played last week and the way that they’ve turned the page. Our preparation early in the week up until now has been really good. Understand the challenge that we all have in front of us facing NC State over in Charlotte. Really good football team. You can look at their offense. They have dynamic playmakers. Quarterback’s got a ton of experience. He’s a winner, played at the position for a long time at a really high level. Does a great job of making plays with his feet and extending plays outside the pocket. Accurate thrower down the football field. Does a great job of taking care of it too. And, defensively, they’re a veteran group. They have a lot of guys that have been with them for a while now and sprinkled in some transfers. They’re big, they’re physical, they play extremely hard, they tackle well out in space. Going to be a great test for us, and really gotta play all three phases of the football game together here and continue our preparation as we finish up the week.”
His thoughts on taking questions from fans on call-in shows
“We do ours on Wednesday night. It’s an opportunity for our fans to have a conversation with me or ask some things that are on their mind. We do it at a venue where there’s a lot of fans for us, down on the river, so getting an opportunity to meet a lot of people as well. See young kids that are fans of the Vols. So it’s in the middle of the week. It’s hectic, but it’s a good experience.”
Tennessee’s in-helmet communication and tablets on the sideline in Week 1
“The helmet communication was beneficial just situationally being able to remind him certain things and that’s true on offense and defense and the tablets is something that I think is beneficial for the coaches but also the players to get a different perspective of what’s happening. That can be structurally or on a specific play as well, different than a coach having to just sit there and try to draw it up on the board or talk them through it visually with so many visual learners.
“I think that’s beneficial. And you know, with all those things, we’ll continue to find out more here as we go through the season. The helmet communication when you’re on the road, loud environments, how that functions and then obviously, the iPads. There are some things that we gotta get right with that in general, but it was beneficial.”
If Tennessee’s opener against Chattanooga gave the coaching staff a clearer picture for rotations
“For the most part it confirmed things that we were excited about going into the football game. There’s some things that — our front on both sides of the football has gotta get better. On the defensive line, obviously we rotated a lot of people into the football game. I said that we were gonna have the opportunity to play more guys going into it and we liked a lot of what we saw from the guys on Saturday. As we continue to go, we’ll still rotate quite a bit.
“Obviously for us this week, the quality of the opponent that we’re playing, it’s gonna be different than what we faced personnel wise from a week ago. So I’m excited to go play with these guys. We’re gonna find out a lot about our football team this Saturday, too, and looking forward to the challenge in Charlotte.”
N.C. State skill position players that have caught Tennessee’s eye
“Yeah, their kick returner (Hollywood Smothers) and a guy that they move around on offense, number 10 (Kevin Concepcion), is dynamic and really special. They got some good young wideouts on the perimeter, too, that pose a problem in one-on-one situations. They got great speed, but you know, for us also, they got some length out there, out on the outside and so you gotta do a great job on fades and back shoulder plays as well.”
