Watch: Josh Heupel's final press conference before No. 11 Tennessee's game at Florida

Head coach Josh Heupel met with reporters Thursday morning, holding his final press conference before No. 11 Tennessee (2-0) plays at Florida (1-1) on Saturday (7 p.m. Eastern Time, ESPN) at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville:

What Tennessee does during the week to prepare for a hostile road environment 

“The communication in particular on offense is a huge deal. Defensively, actually, you end up dealing with it while you’re at home. There’s things that we do during training camp. We actually have portions of our training camp where we work on the mechanics of playing in this type of environment. Guys have been good this week. You try to create crowd noise and simulate those things. Obviously the environment is tough to completely simulate here in practice, but we work through all those things. We’ve got to handle it in a really positive way here on Saturday Night.”

What Tennessee has seen from Florida QB Graham Mertz through two games

“I think he has increased his mobility. Just having known him all the way back to when he was in high school, he’s been a really sound decision maker for them. I think his experience that he has, the first couple weeks, but also all the time that he spent at the previous spot, he’s ready for these types of games and environments. We gotta do a great job. I’ve said it, we gotta apply pressure to him, make him uncomfortable inside the pocket, but a lot of that starts with being really efficient defensively on first and second down. So you gotta do a good job with the running it.”

What it would mean for Tennessee to get back-to-back wins over Florida

“Man, I don’t think about that or our team doesn’t think about it. Yesterday has nothing to do with today. This thing’s solely about Saturday night, this football team, being able to reset and play each play independently for 60 minutes.”

Tennessee players saying they need to turn it up a notch in practice and if he’s seen that

“I said earlier this week, yeah, I didn’t feel like our preparation was off last week either. There some things situationally that we gotta be better in, in particular offensively, but some things defensively too. Continue to compete in your preparation up until kickoff. This week has been really good. Obviously you’re starting league play. You understand that the type of opponent, the type of environment you’re going into. It’s got everybody’s complete attention.”

Keenan Poili traveling with the team and the impact he’s had on his Tennessee teammates since the injury

“He was gone for, I don’t know, a day. And then right back in the building. So he’s approached it like he’s playing. He has been really good with it. His teammates, really kind of approaching like a coach would and he’s got a great impact on our football team.”

If Tennessee center Cooper Mays will make the trip

“Yeah, he’ll be going with us. He’s been really good all week long. So (I) anticipate him being ready to play.”

What it would mean for the Tennessee offensive line to have Cooper Mays back

“He’s smart, competitive, communicates at a really high level. So he helps. His experiences is beneficial for us.”

How they will approach the return of Cooper Mays

“The conditioning is one thing, but he’s been, even before he was back on the grass with us, through a lot of things that he is doing with our strength staff. The flow of the game will dictate a little bit, how he’s feeling out there, that type of thing.”