What Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said Wednesday on the SEC Coaches Teleconference

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel made his weekly appearance on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday, looking back at the 41-20 win over South Carolina, updating the progress of the Vols during the bye week and looking ahead to next week’s game against Texas A&M:

Opening Statement 

“Good afternoon, everybody. From Saturday night, just  excited about the effort and physicalness that we played with across the board. I challenged our guys to win the line of scrimmage and then win one-on-ones out on the perimeter, offensively and defensively. And I thought we did that for a majority of the night. But the biggest takeaway to me was just the competitive spirit, the ability to reset from play to play and go attack the next play. Proud of our football team for the way that they competed on Saturday.

“Heading into the bye week here and players and coaches got a chance to catch their breath a little bit early in the week. Coaches will be out on the road on the back end of the week recruiting. And the challenge for our football team, we gotta get healthy at this point in the season. Got a long back half of the season here that we’re staring down. And we also gotta continue to get better here this week. Good teams get better throughout the course of the season. Got a lot of guys, in particular young guys, that are playing a lot of football for us. We gotta continue to grow fundamentally and within our scheme. So those are a couple of points of emphasis here as we get started during the bye week.”

How much concern there is about perimeter blocking in the run game with the loss of Tennessee wide receiver Bru McCoy

“I wouldn’t say a concern. We work those fundamentals with all of our guys inside of our program, really every single day that we’re on the grass. That’s during the season, it’s training camp and it’s during spring ball as well. But you are correct, no doubt that Bru is a special player and his level of physicalness, whether he is blocking on the perimeter or had the ball in his hands, was special and was a big part of what we did offensively. And you hate seeing the injury that he sustained. And I say that just because of who he is, what he’s come through, how much work he put into to being ready for this season and was at his best. And he is a great leader for our program.

“Can’t wait to have him back in the building, because he is still a huge part of this football journey here during the ’23 season. But he’s a special player and anytime you lose a guy like that, now you’re gonna miss him. But the next guy or guys have to step up into those roles. And, the other night, Kaleb Webb did some really good things. Dont’e (Thornton) wasn’t available last week, anticipating him being ready for, for (Texas) A&M. So it’ll be a handful of guys that we’re gonna have to continue to fill that role with. But anticipate all those guys playing extremely well.”

How he assesses the perimeter blocking from Tennessee receivers so far this season

“Kaleb (Webb), Chas (Nimrod) and Ramel (Keyton), guys have played a bunch on the outside. They’re big, strong guys. Maybe not quite as long as Ced (Tillman) was, but they’re extremely physical out there too. And we’ve been really efficient. And in our perimeter tag game, we see that kind of as an extension of the run game. And those have all been really pretty efficient plays. I like a lot of what those guys have done out there.”

The plan for the bye week and how Tennessee will use it to prepare for future opponents 

“On the front end of the week, we had some recruiting to do on Sunday, but he players were off as usual. Coaches were off on on Sunday afternoon for sure. So we got a chance to catch their breath a little bit. Our players really didn’t come back into the building until they had something on Monday morning, but it was limited. And a full day on Tuesday, Wednesday. We spend a lot of time on the fundamentals, continued growth. I mentioned that earlier. 

“We got a lot of young players inside of our program that are playing a lot offensively, defensively, but also on special teams. We gotta continue to grow. Those guys gotta have great urgency in their continued development. We need them to continue to grow quickly for us to play the way that we need to here on the back half of the season in conference play. And at the same time, our staff on the back end of the week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, will spend a lot of time out on the road recruiting. I think we’re in like 12 different states over those three days on the back end of the, the week. So it’s a combination of both. You gotta continue to grow as a team, but it’s also important to get out on the road and go recruit.”

His assessment of Tennessee’s offensive line through five games

“There are things that we gotta continue to get better at. There’s still more efficiency and we can do better in the run game and the pass protection. But all in all they’ve performed really well. We’ve had a lot of moving pieces up front because of a few different injuries that have happened. At the end of the day, I feel like they’ve handled it extremely well. You look at the other night (against South Carolina) and Ollie (Lane) bumps out the guard, JJ (Crawford is) not available and he goes out and plays extremely well. There’s some young guys that on the back half of the season are gonna have to step up and play for us. And those guys are continuing to compete the right way. I don’t know what our rushing stats are as far as where we’re at in the country, but we’re one of the top teams rushing the football, been pretty sound in in our pass protections. So I like what they’re doing, but we gotta continue to grow, man. Each week is a new week. They gotta come out with the same competitive mindset and same physicality every single Saturday.”

His thoughts on Saturday’s game between Texas A&M and Alabama, Tennessee’s next two opponents

“Man, I haven’t thought about it at this point at all. This weekend my son’s got a football game early Saturday morning, so I’m gonna get a chance to be a dad and go watch him play. Haven’t gotten a chance to really since we started training camp. I got a chance to watch some practice in July and that was a lot of fun. So I’m looking forward to seeing him play and, at some point, my daughter and I will sit down and watch a game or two on Saturday afternoon. But those are two really good football teams. Got great talent, got great coaches. It should be a great contest.”

How well his daughter breaks down the game

“She gives me just as hard time as my wife does. So she’s fully into ball, man.”

The importance of Tennessee’s run game

“Yeah, at the end of the day, the efficiency of what we’re doing, whether we’re playing on tempo or not, is the most important thing to me and our staff and our players. And we’ve created a lot of explosive plays in the pass game for a long time, and sometimes people get caught up in those numbers. But the key to the ignition is our run game. And always has been and always will be. And our offensive line has done a really good job.

“So much of the game is predicated for us on the ability to run the football. That sets up your play-action pass, opens up or changes the way the game’s played in situational football. Our offensive line, tight ends and our running backs are all playing at a really high level within the efficiency of our run game.”

The environment at Neyland Stadium during his time as Tennessee’s head coach

“Yes, not a better place in all college sports to call home than Neyland Stadium. And it starts early in the week. There’s a bunch of boats tied up on the river, Vol Navy on game day, you know, a 100, 150 deep. You take the Vol Walk into the stadium and there’s 35,000-plus people there. Every Saturday, 102,000 (fans) on game day. Man, challenge our fans to be a huge part of the game. They always are. They were on Saturday night. And that’s important to us and this football team as we continue to go through this journey. Man, they gotta play a factor in the football game. I told our fans to enjoy bye week and get ready for a big one against A&M. And I’m sure they’ll be ready when the Aggies come to town.”