What Josh Heupel said after No. 9 Tennessee's win over Austin Peay

What Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after the ninth-ranked Vols beat Austin Peay 30-13 Saturday in the 2023 home-opener at Neyland Stadium:

Opening Statement

“First of all, fans, unbelievable tonight with the delay at the beginning. Their energy throughout the course of the game, appreciate them, our student body section, the whole deal. Thank you to them. A win? Absolutely. Do we need to be a whole lot better? Yes, absolutely. In particular, offensively, there’s some things that we control, give credit to them too. They played well, they played hard and they forced us into turnovers and created negative plays.

“At the end of day, there’s a lot of things that we can look at in the mirror, watch the video. And we have to take another step on the offensive side of the football. Some positive things on special teams and probably defensively a lot of positives. Were out there on the football field too much, certainly by the end of the football game.”

How he wants this Tennessee team to respond to this performance

“Listen, the job for us is to be the best football team on the field every Saturday. You walk off the field and you see the scoreboard and you either accomplished that goal or you (didn’t). We gotta come back in, we gotta learn, reset and grow from it. Certainly as we head into conference play we’re gonna need to be better than we were tonight. Are we capable of doing those things? Yeah, absolutely. They’re really small things. Some of our wide receivers, we’ve seen those guys operate, function and handle all that at a really high level. So urgency in how we come back tomorrow afternoon and on Monday, I think it is absolutely critical for us. I’ll say this, I didn’t feel like we were unfocused, we last week. We just gotta take strides. Obviously the environment will be a bigger one next week (at Florida).”

If the lack of downfield throws was on Joe Milton, Tennessee’s wide receivers or just the game plan with what they got from Austin Peay

”This was a combination. There’s times where we were pushing it down the field. We were a little bit off in particular early in the football game. There’s some things, situationally, where we were off. Joe, wide receiver combination of both things where we’re just not in sync in some critical situations. Third down, we gotta be better than we were tonight. We gotta be able to sustain drives and go score points in the red zone. Turnovers, not getting a fourth down, there’s a lot of things. The penalties there that took us out of those field zones. So there’s a lot of things that we can control and do at our level.”

If he was surprised to not see Tennessee improve more from Week 1 to Week 2

”There’s some things that we did really well tonight. You look at defensively, after the first series, there’s some real positive things. Offensively, efficiency and effectiveness, right? It takes 11 guys operating as one. And there were times tonight where we’re one, two guys off, and that’s how it ends up looking a little bit like it did tonight. I believe in our guys, believe in our staff, believe in in what we’re doing. We’ll continue to get better.”

If Tennessee receivers missing time during fall camp has led to a slow start

“I don’t necessarily believe that. Just, I feel like we’ve been really effective and been on the same page at time during the course of training camp. And we’re just a little bit off here in particularly in the ball game. We gotta do a better job of settling into the game early.”

The Tennessee running back rotation with Jaylen Wright, Jabari Small and Dylan Sampson

“At the end of the day, you’re gonna see all three of those guys. You’re gonna see some of the young guys as the season goes on. Inevitably guys get nicked up and (we) believe in that entire room. But those three guys, really feel strongly about, so we’ll see him rotate.”

What he saw from Tennessee linebacker Aaron Beasley

”I thought he tackled extremely well. He was violent. I thought you saw his speed athleticism on some of his pressures, affected the quarterback. Had a sack, thought he played, really well here.”

What he saw from Tennessee freshman linebacker Jeremiah Telander

“A guy that we have great trust in this athletic (ability). He’s gonna continue to grow and develop as a young player, but (we) ’elieve that he can play at this level. And he got out there and did some really positive things tonight.”

Tennessee kicker Charles Campbell making three field goals

A few more than we want him to get. Love Charles. Really confident guy. It matters to him. This opportunity matters a great deal to him and his family. He’s a great teammate and really confident guy and we’re extremely tough fan in him too. So happy that he formed the way that he did, made a difference in the football game.”

The play of Tennessee edge rusher Joshua Josephs

“Josh’s got athleticism, has continued to grow on and off of the field. His best football is still out there for him. We got great trust in him, excited to see him come back and have a better day than he did a week ago. That’s the kind of growth that we need from everybody on our football team, that we’re capable of as we continue to go through this journey. And certainly next week when we go to Gainesville.”

How Joe Milton handled the slow start

“Yeah, I thought he was calm. I thought our sidelines in general were calm. We gotta get into the flow of the football game and that can be Joe driving some of those big drops, it can be us going up and making a difficult catch. It can be great ball security out on the perimeter. I haven’t seen the video, but I guess we probably need to get our hands inside on some of the perimeter blocking too.“

How Tennessee handled the delayed start

“The fans did a great job. How did we handle it? There’s nothing that you can do other than (say) hey, here’s the situation, here’s when the expected moment of when we feel like we’re gonna have an opportunity to go out. Here’s what you need to do in the meantime because of an extended break coming off the field. That’s rolling out, it’s hydration, it’s fueling. And then here’s the plan as we go out. And at the end of the day, it’s nothing that you’ve practiced, right? And your players gotta handle it in a good way. Your coaches do too. Thought we communicated what we were gonna do in a good way.’There’s some things that we did really well early in football game, but offensively I don’t think that that’s the reason that we didn’t function as well as we’re capable of early in football game.”

How he can this offensive to settle in more quickly in games

“It can be on us, make sure that we try to do some things specifically to get the personnel to fit into to the ball game early. Some of it is them releasing some of that anxiety, energy, nervousness, whatever it might be. And settling in.”

The effectiveness of Tennessee’s defensive front through two games

“One of the areas that we’ve been intentional in having to address that. Some of the guys that have come in and the development of those guys, with Coach (Rodney) Garner, their ability to affect the game. Not just some pressures but the front four. And we’ve done that now. We’re gonna go play a better opponent next week. We gotta do that on the road. But for us to be successful defensively, we need to continue to have that from those guys. And the depth of that group is a strength for us right now too.”

The lack of a vertical passing game for Tennessee’s offense and if the passes out wide were an attempt to get the offense in rhythm

“Some of the deep over the top shots were not, but there’s some things in the middle of football field that were wide open that we did not execute. Bru (McCoy) caught a nice deep dig in the second half on the drive where we got going. Those are things that were open early in the football game.”

If the lack of deep shots was Joe Milton not seeing receivers

“No, I mean, we threw some of them too. We missed them on the throw. We dropped a couple and got shot down the field we busted protection too. Offensive football, and defensively too, but offensive football, you gotta have 11 guys operate at a really high level and do their job. They gotta operate as one and we’re capable of being better than we were tonight at that. But I’ve got great trust and belief in these guys for sure.”

Keeping Ramel Keyton’s confidence up after a slow start

“For me, one, reset to the next play. We talk about that next play mentality all the time. Perfection in this game’s never gonna happen, individually and collectively. This football team, have you seen Bru or Ramel make a bunch of plays out on that football field? Yeah, I have too, right? So he’s fully capable. He’ll be ready to roll here as we get going, but we gotta get him there real quick. And not just him. I mean, all of our guys can settle into it. Listen, you work for something and you want something so much, sometimes that means it can be a hindrance too. And our guys were relaxing, enjoying the moment, settling in the games is where we gotta get to.“

Bru McCoy’s downfield block to help McCallan Castles score the long touchdown

“Great screen. Cali does a great job on the run, keeps his Feet in bounds. But Bru’s effort, energy strain, blocking, whatever going on, that’s who he is. That’s who our fans see. That’s who his teammates see every single day. He’s a great teammate.”