Watch: Josh Heupel's press conference after Tennessee's 45-14 win over UTSA

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with reporters for his postgame press conference after the Vols beat UTSA 45-14 on Saturday at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.

Opening Statement 

“I appreciate our fans showing up early. Vol Walk was awesome. Great start to the football game, played well early in both phases and and special teams. And then  obviously third quarter, end of the second quarter, there’s some things that we didn’t operate as efficiently as we needed to. G ot to be better than that as we continue to go. But again, finish strong. Lo ve the effort. W e got to be a little bit smarter in some of the unique things that transpired during the course of the ball game.”

What confidence Tennessee can gain from that kind of start to a game

“Yeah, the first half, starting fast, being efficient, blocking well, big runs.  Joe obviously starts the game with a huge play off of his read key. And  then we’re efficient in the pass game too.  I also said  in the locker room late at night,  it’s a fine line. So it’s again a reminder for the competitive edge that you have and continue to heat during the course of a ball game too.”

Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton starting 14-for-16 passing before slowing down in the second half, how much the incompletions are on him, the receivers or something else

“A couple of them are him. There’s a couple deep balls that were a little bit off. Wide receivers being in the sync on some of their route patterns, too, in the middle of the field. So it’s a combination of all those things in the middle that didn’t let us operate as efficiently as we needed to.”

What has to be done to avoid those lulls in Tennessee’s offense

“You got to block well up front. You got to get the quarterback time. You got to go win one-on-ones. Quarterback’s got to be accurate with the ball. And I know that sounds redundant a little bit, but at the end of the day, that’s what we got to do. So the efficiency in the run game in the middle part of the game, too, was a part of it. All of us got to play together together.”

The response from Dylan Sampson (139 yards rushing, two touchdowns) after not playing in Tennessee’s loss at Florida

“Dylan’s been the same guy on the practice field, been good leader in the locker room. Competitive, willing to do whatever to help the team. When he has the ball in his hands, he’s done a good job of reading it, delivering blocks, made the back-door cut tonight as flow over the top happens. Been really efficient in what he’s done, so we’re going to need him as we continue to go, too.”

Tennessee’s defense rotating more players early in this game

“It was the plan. I told you guys last week, I don’t remember, or this past week, the flow of the football game a week ago, the way it transpired, we had planned on rotating more than we did. That could be on coaches, the situation, whatever. Listen, it’s going to be physical football games as you go. You’re gonna continue to need to play a lot of guys. Guys that have a hot hand at whatever position, will be the guys there in the critical moments as the game goes on. But anticipate again, playing more guys than we did a week ago.”

Tennessee doing a better job this week of not letting one play affect the next play

“I think the lull combination of efficiency, effectiveness and what we’re doing structurally. A little bit of change from them, us countering that a little bit better in our targets. In particular in the run game. I felt like, a little bit, it affected one play to the next in a little bit of that lull, but I also thought they were able to reset and come back and make some plays.”

What they need to continue to see from Joe Milton

“Continuing to, to make plays. Going to have to use his speed. You saw it tonight in the run game. As we go, in our drop-back pass game, he’s going to have to work the pocket, climb the pocket, skate and make plays with the speed. Then make plays with his arm. That’ll be critical. He continue to go, even take great, great care of the football. And there’s still a level of efficiency that we can get to in our passing game. And I’m saying that’s Joe, it’s a wide outs, its tight ends, it’s all that together.”

Kaleb Webb and Chaz Nimrod making plays at wide receiver for Tennessee

“It was cool to Kaleb Webb make a play. Uh, Chaz (Nimrod) got some playing. Two young guys that got to continue to grow. At some point, just like tonight, we inevitably need those guys and so it was good to see them out there and handle the situation. Kaleb obviously the touchdown catch too, so that was awesome.”

Updating the injury status of Tennessee center Cooper Mays

“We’ll see next week. End of the day, he didn’t feel he was ready for this one. So hopefully we’ll have him back.”

The play of the offensive line without Cooper Mays

“Again, some efficiency in particular early in the run game, later in the football game, too. Pocket was clean for the most part early and then got in the middle part of the game a little bit muddy right there.”

If there’s any updates on the multiple Tennessee players that left the game with apparent injuries

“Yeah, we had multiple guys feel like we should have most of those guys back here next week. I’ll know more here tomorrow (when we) back from the building.”

Cam Seldon jumping on the blocked punt, allowing UTSA to recover the loose ball

“A teaching moment that you don’t want to have to go through. A lot of scenarios and situations and obviously a young guy just made a mistake and hate that for him. He’s playing with great effort, continuing to grow. I believe he’s gonna be a really good player for us. But hate that. It changed the momentum. And that first quarter, I think it’s 14-0 at that point. Got a chance to push it to 21 nothing there early in the first quarter. Just a couple of unique things that transpire that change the way the game’s played. You can’t do that as a football team. And so we gotta continue to grow in that way.”

Stopping UTSA on the fake punt

“They’ve been aggressive on special teams throughout (head coach Jeff Traylor’s) history there over the last couple of years. And that’s been on the kickoff, but also felt like in that situation, the score of the game, potentially didn’t have a base defense out there. But those guys on punt return team did a really good job.” 

Joe Milton running more early in the game and if his left knee was part of missing throws in the second half

“I don’t think that was the issue in the pass game. Sometimes you get keep reads on some of the edge reads. Sometimes you don’t, based on the structure and how teams are are playing it. We’ve had that in, that’ll be a part of our quarterback run game as we continue to go.”

What he learned about Tennessee in the past week coming off that loss

“You don’t want to have to learn them, learn about them, that way. But I think we learned a lot about our football team in the second half of last week’s game, too. And, I say that, resilient, tough, competitive, willing to go out and compete. They did that today too. They had a really good week of practice. I came back, you could tell it hurt and (the players) came back to practice well too. So this group has been pretty consistent in that. I expect that.”