Everything Josh Heupel said after Tennessee's loss at Georgia

What head coach Josh Heupel said after Tennessee’s 27-13 loss to Georgia Saturday afternoon at Sanford Stadium, the Vols’ first loss of the season:

OPENING STATEMENT

“Credit to Georgia. They won critical plays. They played clean early in the football game. Offensively, early in the football game, the false starts, the communications issues, hurt us. Defensively, didn’t play well in the early part of the game, after the first series. Then got out footing and did some good things on the back end of it. All in all, critical plays, critical opportunities when you’re on the plus side of the 50. We didn’t win many of those. That’s a credit to them. And some things we’ve obviously got to be better at, too.”

HOW THE 75-YARD PUNT CHANGED THE GAME EARLY ON

“End of the day, run gains some positive yards. You’re backed up. Then second down we don’t get anything out of it. Sack, obviously, changed the way the game is played. Momentum swing. It was a big play in the football game, obviously. But in this game, you’re going to have to reset, comeback. You’re going to have to make plays. At the end of the day we didn’t do enough things early in the football game to be able to apply any type of pressure to them.”

IF GEORGIA DID ANYTHING DEFENSIVELY THEY DIDN’T ANTICIPATE, IF HENDON HOOKER WAS CONFUSED BY CERTAIN LOOKS

“No, but there were some things that showed up from their tape that appeared more often. We anticipated seeing a bunch of different looks from them throughout the course of the football game. Protection, there was a couple things in the fourth quarter that we didn’t communicate very well. I didn’t think all in all we handled the noise very well. False starts, it’s being in sync, communication up front. At the end of the day, that hurt us. Certainly early in the football game then through the course of it.”

IF GEORGIA’S COVERAGE FORCED HENDON HOOKER TO HOLD ONTO THE BALL LONGER

“When it looked the way that it did tonight at times, where you’re struggling and not efficient and not playing ahead, there are times guys are winning, we came off early. There were times that we didn’t win, there were protection issues, miscommunication. So you put a little bit of any of those things together and you’re not efficient, not able to play ahead, not able to play with any tempo. Again, that’s part us, part them, too.”

Tennessee ‘can be a whole lot better’

GEORGIA LIMITING TENNESSEE’S CHUNK PLAYS IN THE PASS GAME

“At certain points they were able to play two high safeties. Sure, there were opportunities that we had down the football field, too. Tonight we didn’t connect. Early with Jalin (Hyatt) down the football field. Certainly opportunities through the course of it in the middle of the field. Then late in the game too, down the sideline. You know, there are a lot of things that we’re going to look back on that we have to be better in, when you’re going to play a football team like this.”

NOT HANDLING THE NOISE WELL

“There are things that we have done to handle it. Have to be way more efficient than we were tonight. There are things that we’ll learn from tonight. As a program you have to understand what you’re getting yourself into and the atmosphere and the energy and the focus that you’re going to get from everybody. Not just their program, but from their fans, too. You heard me say it early, the emotional part of the football game. Had to be able to settle into it early in the game. We did not do that in a positive way. It’s an opportunity for us to learn. We’ll be better, can be a whole lot better. We’ve handled it at times well. Our guys will be right when they get back in the building. We’ll get back.”

THE MESSAGE AT HALFTIME, DOWN 24-6

“We talked all week long. If it starts fast, great. If it doesn’t, that’s alright too. No matter how it starts, you’ve got to continue to compete. The ability to refocus, reset and go play the next half. Offensively, had the football, needed to go do something with it. Defensively, get a couple stops and try to close the gap and make it a tight football game at the end. We weren’t able to do enough of that.”

WHAT’S STILL IN FRONT OF THIS TEAM

“Getting to Atlanta (for the SEC Championship Game) is a whole lot tougher now, right? Certainly. That’s the No. 1 goal inside of our program.”

WHAT IT WILL TAKE FOR THIS TEAM TO BOUNCE BACK

“Our kids have handled a bunch of adversity throughout their careers inside of this program. They’ve continued to fight and scratch and claw and be connected and come together. There’s not doubt in my mind that when we get back in the building on Monday, they’ll continue to do that. That’s how we got to the point of making this a big football game. We’ve got to go reset and continue to grow individually and collectively as a program. Everybody has got a hand in this. Starting with me and our staff and our players. Learn and grow and continue to climb as a program.”

MISTAKES MADE IN THE GAME THAT HADN’T BEEN MADE THIS SEASON

“It can happen at any time if you’re not invested, prepared, you’re not in control of your emotions, you’re (not) playing your best brand of football. It certainly reared its head tonight early in the football game and at times throughout the course of it. These guys are resilient, these guys are competitors, these guys have a great amount of pride. We’ll reset. We got to this point by focusing on one game at a time. For us, hate the way that this one turned out, for sure. Everybody hurts inside of that locker room. We’ve got to reset and get back to work on Monday.”

GEORGIA’S DEPTH

“(Georgia has) been recruiting at a really high level for a really long time. Next man up for them. They’re a deep football team, for sure.”

Tennessee has to ‘reset and continue to go fight’

THE MESSAGE TO THE TEAM AFTER THE GAME

“Well, be real about what happened tonight. The energy and the type of environment and the competitive arena that you’re in. As a program, on the road, we’ve got to grow and be able to handle that in a much better way tonight. And it’s not that our guys didn’t prepare, didn’t prepare well. Just being within ourselves in the early part of the game, in particular, changed the way the game plays. Learn from that, understand what that is going to be like here. Continue to grow as a program and have more of these opportunities to play in these types of ballgames. Be real about what we all need to do to be better. This isn’t just players. At the same time, understand we’re a good football team. It didn’t happen tonight on this 60-minute clock. That’s the great thing about sports. You only get one opportunity, man. Reset and let’s come back to work.”

THE SIDELINE DEMEANOR OF THE TEAM DURING THE GAME

“They didn’t stop playing. They didn’t stop competing. We did some things. Got the ball on the plus side of the territory and inevitably something goes wrong. And it’s not all 11 at one time. It’s one guy. And you can’t do that against a good football team. We did not play our cleanest, best football. Part of that was (Georgia), a really good football team too. There are some things we can control and be a whole lot better in, too. At the end of the day, I hate the outcome. Everybody in our program does. We’ve got to reset and continue to go fight.”

IF THE DEMEANOR ON THE SIDELINE CHANGED DURING THE GAME

“Early in the game, were we the best version of us? No, we weren’t. That’s why you see the things happen early in the football game that happened, you know what I mean? False starts out on the perimeter, right? Miscommunication up front and protections, false starts up front. You can’t do that. Against a really good football team, you just can’t do that. So we changed the way the game was played in a negative way early. And we did that in all three phases.”