What head coach Josh Heupel said Monday about Tennessee's game at Alabama

What head coach Josh Heupel said during his weekly press conference on Monday, looking back at the 34-31 win over Arkansas and previewing No. 11 Tennessee’s game at No. 6 Alabama on Saturday night (7:30 Eastern Time, ABC) at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa:

Opening Statement

“Third Saturday in October. Great historical game, rivalry game and I know it’ll be a great environment against a great football team and looking forward to it. Got to go do a great job in our preparation. You look at how they’re playing offensively, defensively, special teams, playing at a really high level right now. Quarterback, playmakers out on the outside offensively for them. And defensively done a great job throughout the last few weeks here. Pass defense is one of the top in the country. Their front seven is big, strong, physical and athletic. So it will be a great test. And again, this is why you come to Tennessee to play in a game like this, a great rivalry game with Alabama.”

The two different paths Alabama QB Ty Simpson and Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar took to get to their current positions

“Everybody has got a journey inside of this game. You mentioned Ty, great talent that has continued to grow as a player. You can see that in the way that he’s playing right now. Playing with a lot of confidence, great decision maker, taking care of the football. And has the ability to use his feet, extend and make plays too. So he’s done a great job. And Joey’s path was Joey’s path. He has continued to grow and get better and is doing a great job for us.”

Alabama not having many turnovers this season, Tennessee’s defense forcing a lot of turnovers 

“Well, we need to win the turnover battle, first of all. (Ty Simpson has) been great with the football, been really sound in decision making. For us, we gotta go play assignment sound. You gotta apply pressure to the quarterback. That’s part of creating turnovers. You gotta do a great job of matching out and making plays on the back end too. And gotta put her helmet on the football and get some punches too, and try to knock it out that way.”

What Tennessee has to do better defensively on third down

“Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. Appreciate it. We got to play assignment sound. And I think that’s where it starts. So there’s things that we control that can allow us to go execute at a higher level.”

Tennessee DB Jourdan Thomas becoming a student assistant, the conversations he had with him

“Jourdan is a guy that demonstrates everything that’s good about Tennessee football. He cares about his teammates more than he cares about himself. Through all the ups and downs, the hardship that he’s faced, he’s been a great teammate and continued to fight his way through it. And he sees a future inside of this game. Jordan can do whatever he wants to. He can go be an elite preacher, impact people that way. It can be in the business world. He’s going to find a tremendous amount of success. I think it’s cool that he sees something in coaching, about impacting other people, and a passion that he still has. So really proud of who he is, how he goes about his business, and how he’s helped this football team.”

Having a solid receiving game despite Chris Brazzell being quiet, developing the receiver room

“Coach Pope and our wide receiver staff did a great job, starting when we got back here in January. Individual plan for those guys on specific areas that they needed to grow in and then collectively as a group, continue to push them every day. Coach Pope does a great job teaching fundamentals, but defensive concepts, understanding the scheme, the nuances of playing that position and the guys have invested in a great way. You reap rewards not always on your time, but you reap them if you continue to invest, and those guys have and because of who they are and how they competed, they put themselves in a position to go make plays and they have done that.”

What Braylon Staley’s performance can do for his confidence

“Braylon’s played at a really high level. Braylon played that way Saturday because he’s full of confidence because of how he works really from the time that he got here and just continues to progress in his development. I think it’s cool that you’ve seen different wide receivers on a given Saturday kind of been the lead guy for whatever reason— coverage, call, whatever it might be. And Braylon’s made a tremendous amount of plays, but Saturday was a great day for him.”

Rotating David Sanders and William Satterwhite on the offensive line against Arkansas

“I thought both of them handled themselves really well. Sat (Satterwhite) with his hand on the ball, different defense structures, unknowns going into it. I thought he handled things extremely well, including the adjustments on the sideline. David played really well as well. Continues, just from being out to now, getting all the reps in practice, just continues to get better. Got great trust in those guys. Like I’ve said, we’re going to need them all.”

Giving up 200 rushing yards the last two games

“At times we’ve played it extremely well, and in particular early the other night we didn’t. Some of it was just fits off of our rotations and what we’re seeing from them scheme-wise. And some of it was just destructing blocks and making plays, tackling. But as the game went on, we sure handled it in a better way. We just got to start faster.”

Where Tennessee is running back wise behind DeSean Bishop

“I feel like DeSean will be ready to go in this one, but we trust all those guys. Peyton had a great game the other night, finished it off in four minutes really, really good way. Couple goal line situations. Star’s played really well throughout the course of the year, and the young guys are ready to go play too.”

Gap integrity being a focus for multiple weeks

“No, I just talked about it. Early in the football game. I didn’t think we did a good job in that. As the game went on, we did a lot better.”

The headset issue in the Arkansas game, coaches having to come down to the sideline briefly in the second half

“I thought we handled it well. Different defense structure, personnel from what we were seeing in the first half, too. And guys operated really well. We got to go finish that drive, but unique situation. Felt like junior high football for a little bit, but it was handled well.”