Volquest Exclusive: 1-on-1 with Tennessee’s Josh Heupel previewing Year 4

On the cusp of Year 4 at Tennessee, head coach Josh Heupel sat down with Volquest to discuss the season ahead and how he thinks his the Vols will respond this fall.

AP: Here with Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel. Coach Heupel, you roll into Year 4. A lot has changed since last year. So many changes, in the college football landscape. Your team has changed in certain ways. What do you like most about this group?

Heupel: Really I said it after spring ball. Just their competitive makeup, how hard they work, how intentional they are in that work every single day. The chemistry that they have together. I love being with these guys every single day out on the practice field. Can’t wait for kickoff. But I just love the competitive maturity this group has got. 

AP: When you’re watching your defensive line go against your offensive practice, do you ever go, man, like there’s no let up? I mean, they just keep rolling different guys in and there’s really no drop off. 

Heupel: No, it’s the deepest that we’ve been. It’s an extremely deep group — that’s in the middle with a ton of experience, it’s out on the edges with some experience as well. Influx of young guys, athletic traits, length it. It’s probably the deepest group that we got on our football team. That position room has changed so much. The players that we have in the room, but also their makeup. It’s an elite group. 

AP: The versatility of that group, because it’s not like they’re cookie cutters, where one guy comes in and it’s the same guy coming in, just in a different jersey number. It feels like you have a lot of different guys that have different twitches and abilities.

Heupel: You want the length, you want thickness, strength inside but being explosive with that. It’s a little bit in comparison, like your wide receiver position, you want different utility knives within that. And the skillset that those guys have, they play hard, they play physical, they’ve grown so much in the ability to use their hands. But as you alluded to their athletic traits, they each play the position a little bit different within the scope of their athleticism. 

AP: Is this the deepest team you’ve had? Do you feel that way? 

Heupel: Yeah, I think it’s really unique. When we first got here with everything that we were navigating — roster management and having to deduct some scholarships — we’ve been intentional on how we’ve tried take care of the current team for the current season, but also project and build our roster. This is definitely the deepest football team that we have. 

AP: When you were at UCF, you had Dillon Gabriel. He was a young kid at the time. Since then, you’ve had older quarterbacks, maybe they were new to the system, learning your system, but they were very mature — 22, 23, 24 years old. You’re back now to a 19-year-old in Nico. How different is that? And do you have to handle him differently than you had to handle other guys? 

Heupel: In some ways you’re helping him grow as a person and as a player. Really in his preparation, but also his communication and leadership. You’re having to build upon those things. That’s something that we enjoy. Nico has been unbelievable in his growth since he got here. He’s wired the right way. Highly competitive, but obviously the traits that he has for playing the position, really excited about getting out there and going and competing with him this Saturday.

AP: The player that played against Iowa and the player that you’ve seen in fall camp, how are they different? 

Heupel: Mastering his movement in the pocket. Understanding of our offense. There’s so much that goes into playing the position. Twenty-one other bodies have moving parts on the field while the ball is being snapped. His understanding of what we’re doing, (it) can be protections, could be run game, can be our pass game as well. Just really excited about the growth that he had from playing well in the bowl game, but also understanding, man, here’s the areas that when you get on the field that are going matter. The subtle details of it. Just how hard he is worked this offseason and the player that he’s continuing to become here during training camp and as we kick off this week.

AP: How blessed have you and Coach Elarbee been with the fact that you’ve had Cooper Mays your entire tenure here? It’s a nice luxury to have just to have that one guy that’s kind of a steadying force at center.

Heupel: Yeah. From an outside fan perspective, I don’t think they can understand how valuable Coop is to us. The center position obviously is in charge of all the communication really for everybody. The tempo at which we play, being able to recognize, identify, get everybody on the same page. That’s in the run game, it’s in your pass protections. There’s so much that’s on his plate. We don’t ever take it for granted, but we understand that the amount of football that he’s played within our offense, how intelligent he is, his ability to communicate along with the fundamentals and technique of playing the position. It’s a luxury to have that type of player with his hand on the ball. 

AP: You flip it to the other side, James Pearce, ESPN ranked him as the top player in all college football in the preseason. A guy that’s got a ton of run as far as preseason NFL (Draft) projections and all that stuff. What was it about him that you all were able to identify and then all of a sudden, boom, he’s turned out to be a phenomenal player.

Heupel: Having an opportunity to watch his tape, you’re looking for the traits to develop. Having the explosive power, the length, the fluidity and movement, being able to play on the first level, drop into space, long speed, short-area, quickness. He had a lot of those tools and now it was just about growing into his frame, refining the body, and then also growing fundamentally and technically. And our defensive line coaches, within the scope of what Coach Banks wants, have done an unbelievable job in developing him. And one of the things that I think outsiders may not understand with James is just how bright (he is), his football IQ, his retention with our ability to move him all over the field. He’s playing multiple positions within the framework of our defensive structure and he handles it extremely well. 

AP: I go back to spring practice and rarely do you hear schools working on crowd noise in spring, which you guys were. And this schedule is kind of different, right? You don’t have a real, meaningful, big SEC home game until mid-October. You have these road games and the neutral-site game. Was that in preparation for that? Because this first month is critical to the success of the overall team. 

Heupel: Yeah, every game matters on your schedule. This is a unique schedule, three of your first five are really on the road. And being ready to handle all of that from a communication standpoint. Young quarterback, really his first experience in that, those types of environments you wanted to make some of the subtle changes to how you have to operate on the road. You wanted to make those seamless for him as he gets into those weeks. So we’ve been intentional in doing that. I think it’s made us a better football team and on the offense side of the ball. But also it forces our hand on the defense side of the ball too, when they’re playing at home. In Neyland Stadium, third down, it’s hard to communicate. And I thank our fans for that, but you got to prepare those guys for that moment too.

AP: Does the new helmet communication make it easier to go on the road early in the year? Or in just in general? 

Heupel: Well, I think we’re all going to find out a lot about the helmet communication as it unfolds. In this league, those road environments, how clearly they’re going be able to hear you, the system working consistently. I think you got to prepare like it won’t be there, but also prepare to use it and create an advantage for the guys that are on the field.

AP: What’s the one thing that, that you feel like this team is going to be known for? 

Heupel: Well, I think we’re going to find out what this team’s going to be known for as we go through the journey of it. And you got 12 regular-season games. Each one is its own identity. We need this group to play extremely hard, be aggressive, attack and play extremely hard from snap to whistle. That’s the very ground floor of becoming the team that you need to be.

AP: I asked you this last year, gimme two or three guys that you know, maybe aren’t household names that you feel like have taken strides this all season that can be that by the end of the year.

Heupel: I’m really excited about two young corners for us — Jermod McCoy, Rickey Gibson — what they’ve done in their offseason, pushing forward to where we’re at, getting ready to go play. Really excited about what we’ve seen from them. Our tight end room, the depth of it is the deepest that we’ve been. But Ethan Davis, Miles Kitselman, Holden Staes. I really like that group as a whole. Their competitive makeup, their ability to make plays, play in the box, play out in space, excited to go see those guys play. 

AP: Which goes back just to how deep this whole thing is and just how far you’ve come in four, four short years. The College Football Playoff, is that something you kind of embrace or talk about that with your team?

Heupel: You have end goals. Everybody inside of our team room sure understands what we’re working towards. Great teams focus on what’s before them. It truly is one game, 60-minute clock, one week at a time. It’s our job to go be the best team on the field that Saturday. Good teams continue to get better throughout the season. We got to have the right mentality to go compete and get better throughout the course of the season. That’s a long ways down the road. We’re excited about kicking this one off and starting this journey together. 

AP: Alright. And it all gets kicked off Saturday with Chattanooga. Coach Heupel, good luck the rest of the way.

Heupel: I appreciate it. Go Big Orange