What Josh Heupel said after No. 11 Tennessee's loss at Florida

GAINESVILLE — What Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after his 11th-ranked Vols lost 29-16 to Florida on Saturday night at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium:

Opening Statement

“Extremely disappointing start to the football game, first half. Not very good in any sense of the way. Offense had the one drive and defense got the one stop. Other than that, not the way you wanna start. I do appreciate the competitiveness of the guys come out and compete and play in in the second half. Still didn’t play as clean as we need to, as well as we need to in a lot of ways. But they did fight. We gotta get a lot better. Hats off to, give credit to Florida. They did a good job. But we gotta get a lot better. We need to be cleaner.”

Tennessee not being able to get stops on third down in the first half

“Didn’t get off the field. Had been some third and long situations. Applied some pressure to the quarterback. We didn’t match out on some things. Yeah, we gotta be better. Gotta get off the field.”

The decision to use Tennessee last timeout in the closing seconds

“Timing of when it was. Chance to try to push one into the end zone and, obviously at the end of it, by the time, when it happened, you weren’t gonna be able to have a full sequence of plays to try to get back in, you know what I mean? Into the end zone.”

How he assesses the play of Tennessee’s offensive line and quarterback Joe Milton

“Will go back and watch it. The first half, at end of the day, nobody was doing what they needed to at the level that they need to. That can be run game, can be protection, can be quarterback play, can be wide receiver play. That’s how they lose the way they did after the first drop. And that starts with me and our coaching staff too. We’re in it together.”

Tennessee’s pre-snap penalties

“Myriad of things that, on those sequences, end of the day we gotta operate fully capable of it. Part of the disappointment.”

If Tennessee had issues communicating offensive plays from the sideline 

“First half we didn’t get it going. We’re behind the chains the entire time, so you’re not gonna see the tempo at that point.”

How capable he believes Tennessee is to play better than it showed at Florida 

“They are capable of it, absolutely. But we gotta be better.”

If there’s a sense of confidence lost that he thinks Tennessee will have to regain

“We gotta go back to work and continue to grow.”

Gerald Mincey and Doneiko Slaughter not playing for Tennessee

“Doneiko wasn’t available and Mincy, we just made a decision to go with JJ (Crawford).”

Tennessee’s struggle with tackling in the open field

“Not very good in the first half. It was part of the problem. You can look at tackling and not getting off the field. And third down, defensively and offensively you can look at pre-snap penalties and lack of efficiency and all.”

The poise he saw from Joe Milton down the stretch after Tennessee’s struggles

“Early in the football game we as an entire unit weren’t playing the way that we needed to move football consistently. So Joe’s done some really good things. He, like the rest of them. I was proud that of the way that they competed in the second half. Still not clean enough, still not as efficient as we need to be, but they came out and competed.”

Cooper Mays being out for Tennessee for a third straight game

“Just wasn’t available tonight at the end of it. Didn’t feel like he was in a position to play his best football.”

Florida taking control in the second quarter and Tennessee not being able to reset

“Resetting, just handling all of it, efficiency of it, we gotta put them in better situations. They gotta go execute. We gotta move football that’s in the ground game. It’s protection. It’s win one-on-ones. It’s all of it.”

How not having Cooper Mays affected the offensive line

“End of the day, man, you line up with the guys that you got. There’s no asterisks at the bottom of the box score who was available, who wasn’t. We’re good enough to play better than we did tonight.”

Tennessee playing poorly on the road in recent road games

“You gotta give yourself a chance early in the football game. You gotta play efficiently. You gotta line up and tackle on the other side of the football. You gotta play three phases. Early in the football game, did not play well enough after that first drive on both sides of the football.” 

If opposing defenses are allowed to make substitutions after the ball has been reset

“I’m thinking about which one that you’re talking about there. The fourth down. I guess the official kicked the ball, moved the ball, then re-spotted it and then they allowed them to sub.”

If there is a rule that allows that

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an official kick the ball. You gotta go check the rule book.”

The sequence at the end of the game where the two teams came together

“That sequence right there, we’re trying to get the ball back here. Trying to get a shot in the end zone. I don’t know if you’re gonna have enough time for an onside and maybe get it and get it, a shot back. But you’re trying to finish and compete the right way. He’s dancing around. Do you want the targeting? Obviously not. If the guy’s dancing around, you gotta go tackle with the guy too. So do we want to be composed in that situation in all situations? Absolutely.”

What allowed Florida to be successful running the football

“Well, one, when guys were there, we didn’t tackle very well, fundamentally. Two, we got out-gapped a little bit at times. Just misfit it. Those were the biggest things.”