Everything Josh Heupel said Monday about Tennessee's game vs. Virginia

No. 12 Tennessee opens the new season with a neutral-site game against Virginia on Saturday at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, a Noon Eastern Time kickoff on ABC. Josh Heupel started game week with his weekly press conference on Monday.

Live updates from Heupel’s press conference can be found on The General’s Quarters.

Opening Statement

“Officially game week. Great to have everybody here. I just want start by expressing my condolences, the football program’s condolences to Coach Kredich and his entire family. The tragic loss of their son, Ben, cannot imagine what the family’s going through. Ben is somebody that you know, here locally, impacted a lot of people and stood for the things that were right. So wanted to express my condolences to them. Also Coach Fulmer, continue to wish him a speedy and well, recovery. Texted back and fourth with him, seems to be doing really well, good spirits. So look forward to having him get healthy and get back around.

“You know, the best five words in Tennessee, is it’s football time in Tennessee. And (it’s) officially game week. Looking forward to the opportunity, going and playing with this program. It’s awesome that we get an opportunity to inside of the mid-state, a huge fan following there. But you look at the opportunity we have, we got a great opponent, where SEC Nation is gonna be there, national TV audience as we kick off the ’23 season. So looking forward to being there, having an opportunity to recruit on Friday night as well. And continue to showcase ourselves in front of the entire country, but have our followers in the mid-state, they have an opportunity to host us there. So, looking forward to that and kickoff. Time to go. I’m here. I’m gonna say a bunch of words, but it’s time to go play.” 

If execution or tempo is the priority for Tennessee’s offense in a season opener

“On the offense side of the ball, at the end of the day, execution is paramount. Doesn’t matter how (fast), if you’re not executing, but I think in openers, all three phases of the game, you have a game plan. Everybody’s had seven-plus months of an opportunity to suddenly change who they are. Personnel’s gonna be different. You have to do a really good job of adjusting, and play your core principles in all three phases. Players gotta be able to communicate, adjust, in-game adjustments are paramount in those too. So as you go to the sidelines, absolutely critical. But our staff and players do a great job.”

How he feels about Tennessee’s special teams return game entering the first game

“I’m excited about. The guys that we have there. but also, we talked a lot about the depth of our program, how to continue to grow over the three years here. That shows up in special teams a bunch too. So we got guys that are ready to compete, play as hard as they can on most plays, but play great fundamentals and technique. Feel like that has an opportunity to help us in recovery units, but certainly the return game as well.”

If Tennessee approached last week in practice, preparing for the start of the first game week

“I feel like our guys were dialed in, did the things that we were asking to. We moved ahead with a little bit of preparation for this coming Saturday. But we still did a lot of really good, all-gear work throughout the course of it too. And every player inside of your program has gotta continue to grow. Good teams do that throughout the course of the season. So for us that week before the week is as important as any other week.”

What Tennessee has seen from Virginia’s new quarterback, Tony Muskett

“Been a really good decision-maker. Thrown for a bunch of yards. Has good pocket awareness, him being in Week 1, year one within their system. One of the new things that they do to try to put him in a position, we’ll find out on game day, but their guys have played really good football at a high level and been a good decision-makers. So for us, we gotta do a great job of handling the run game. We gotta apply pressure and do pressure package, but it can also just be a forward inside of pocket.” 

What Tennessee has seen from Virginia’s defense

“They do have some new transfers, in particular on the back end. They have experience in their front seven. They’re doing a good job against the run. We gotta do a really good job of being dialed into our protections, our run schemes, make sure we’re targeting right people. Questions brought up earlier. do our assignments. Handle our assignments at a really high level. Be good.”

Tennessee’s depth at wide receiver entering Week 1

“We’ve had a lot of guys that have played really good football for us. Ramel (Keyton) played really the last eight, nine weeks of the season for us on the right side. Bru (McCoy) played at a really high level. Squirrel White when given the opportunity last year  played extremely well. Dont’e (Thornton) continued to come on. And then two young guys that, that I’ve talked about, Kaleb (Webb), Chas Nimrod, we feel really confident about the growth that they’ve had inside the program, their ability to play at high level.”

What it means to him to see Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton wait his turn and get another shot as starting quarterback

“He’s the guy that did it the right way. When it didn’t go his way early on, looked at himself, here’s how I need to improve to get better and trusted his coaches, the program. I believe in the guys around him too, inside of the locker room. (He) has put himself in a position to play at a really high level because of the work ethic that he’s had inside of our program. Really, (since) the back half that first season, he’s become very mature and who he is, what he’s about, how he’s gonna work, how he’s gonna impact his teammates, the leadership role. It’s not just going into the Orange Bowl. He’s been that guy for a long time inside of our program. So he’s someone that has continued to grow, has great understanding of defensive alignments, which allows us to communicate and adjust really quickly with him. I think that’s really important and (he) has complete command of what we’re doing offensively.”

An update on Tennessee center Cooper Mays

“Cooper, we’ll find out here as the week goes on, his availability in this one. We’ve had two and a half, three weeks of different guys having an opportunity to play on the interior (of the offensive line), if he’s not able to go. Feel really confident in those guys.”

Rotations in Tennessee’s defensive backfield and how comfortable they feel there

“In the second and third level (of the defense), we got nicked up a little bit in the middle part of training camp. I know you guys saw a little bit of that. Those guys are all back and healthy. They’ve been with us all last week as well, gotten really good work. That gives us the ability to rotate on the back end. We have a plan. We’ll see how it holds on a game day, but it’s expecting to see a lot of people rotating in, star, corner, safety in the nickel spot as we go there.”

How he feels about Tennessee’s offensive line

“I do feel good about the development of our young guys. Some of the guys that have had experience playing, rotating some of those guys at the guard and tackle positions in this first one as well.”

The importance of Miami transfer John Campbell giving Tennessee some clarity at offensive tackle

“Absolutely. The competition to earn to earn that starting spot and play at a championship level. His maturity, the amount of football that he’s played all certainly help us. And he’s had a great camp. We got great trust in him and to play at a really high level.”

Virginia playing its first football game since the shooting occurred last fall

“Obviously, a horrific tragedy that took place there on their campus. They’ve had a long time to try to grow through that and you also recognize what happened. There’ll be a moment of silence before kickoff and then we’ll wear a decal (for) the three individuals that lost their lives on the back of the helmet.”