Josh Heupel looks ahead to Tennessee's game vs. UTSA on SEC Coaches Teleconference

Everything Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said Wednesday during his appearance on the SEC Coaches Teleconference, looking back at the 29-16 loss to Florida Saturday night at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville and looking ahead to Saturday’s home game against UTSA (4 p.m. Eastern Time, SEC Network):

Opening Statement

“Had two really good days of practice. The energy in the building has been really, really good. Obviously everybody was disappointed as players came back in the building on Monday, with how we performed last Saturday against Florida. At the same time as competitor, you gotta take the lessons forward with, you gotta learn from it and you gotta go back to work and compete and get ready for the next one. And our guys have done a good job of that so far this week. We got a really good football team (UTSA) that we’re playing (on Saturday). This is a proud (UTSA) program. The performances over the last couple of years, accomplishments, championships. They’re tough, they’re physical on both sides of the line of scrimmage and it will be a good task for us. Looking forward to getting back inside of Neyland Stadium and going in and playing well.”

The wide open feel of the SEC early on this season

“It’s hard as far as like actually watching video (of other teams in the league). If you play a day game, you get a chance to watch some maybe on a Saturday evening, when you get a chance to watch the other teams play. But during the course of season it’s really tough. You see scores, but that’s not always indicative of the game and how it was played and those types of things. I think in today’s landscape and college football, every Saturday is kind of its own identity man. Who shows up with the competitive spirit, a play here, a play there, changes the way the game’s played, in particular earlier in the football game. And in this league, everybody’s got really good talent. There’s good coaches across the board, and if you don’t show up and perform at your highest level, just real tough, real quick.”

If he has seen the response from Tennessee players that he wanted to see this week

“Yeah, (it’s been) good. Competitiveness, been physical, there has been strain. So I like all of that. We gotta continue to take ownership of the things that we can control, in particular on the offensive side of the ball. You look at just the penalties from a week ago and even some the previous week. The efficiency, how we’ve hurt ourselves, you can’t do that in college football and put yourself in a position to play the way that you need to, to help your football team win a football game.

“So we continue to work on that. We’ve made a (point), and we always have, we pinpoint those things and point them out every day and place importance on them. At the end of the day, a week ago, I thought we let one play affect the next a little bit. And as a competitor, you can’t do that. That’ll show up important in this football game too.”

The role Tennessee fans can play Saturday with a home game against UTSA

“First of all, this is a really good football team. I said it earlier, they’re proud, they’re competitive. They’re tough, they’re physical and they’re coached well. They got really good players in all three phase of the football game. So it’ll be important for us that we show up with the right mindset, competitive spirit, that we compete really hard. But as always, man, our stadium is as good as anywhere, if not the best in the country. And I know our fans are disappointed in last week’s performance. But at the end of the day, man, we’re gonna need them on Saturday. So I expect, Vol Navy to be packed and I expect 35,000 that’s at the Vol Walk. Once that ball’s kicked off, the energy inside the stadium’s gonna be important. We need to make it as tough a road environment as we possibly can. Our fans are consistent. They do that every week.”