On Saturday, Tennessee football downed Alabama inside Neyland Stadium.

Afterward, Vols head coach Josh Heupel met with the media.

Here's everything he said.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Third Saturday in October, college football is as good as it gets. Neyland effect. Our fans, elite performance from them all night. Appreciate them hanging in with us on the offensive side of the ball when we were struggling. What a performance. Defensively, just absolutely elite performance, line of scrimmage, controlling the quarterback.Everything that you had to do going into it. Did an unbelievable job on third down. Offensively, man, not good early, not far off. Everything's gotta tie together. We gotta be able to run the football. Gotta continue to improve, but love a lot of what I saw in the in the second half. Special teams, solid performance at the end, some things early that we gotta be better at. But I said it was another prize fight. Gotta answer the bell. These guys answered the bell every single round and to go to battle with these guys any day. Just another great night on Rocky Top.

Listen. Wins are wins in this league. Every Saturday in this league, margins are tight. You gotta be on the right side of the scoreboard. You gotta be the best team on the field. That's our goal. Our goal is also to become the best that we can offensively. Nico's gotta settle in a little bit earlier, some things down the football field that we gotta execute. Run game, we gotta execute the blocking part of it and pass protection, too. So, I mean, the first drive, again, just like last week, we're moving down the field, we're in the plus territory, we end up fumbling on the 20-yard line. Like, it wasn't pretty early, right? 102,000 saw, everybody on TV, we did, too. It's not that far off either. That's why you need to appreciate it when it's going really well. You gotta be on the right side of it as a competitor and we gotta find a way to start faster and be better.

Young quarterback, it's gonna continue to get better. Guys around him gotta help him too, and that means just doing their job at a really high level. But to me, like, quarterbacks, it's toughness. It's mental toughness. It's when it matters the most, how do you perform and how do you control the game? And there's a lot of things, just physical, mental toughness that I really liked tonight. And obviously, there's some things we gotta get better at and him too. We'll keep pushing for that.

At halftime, nobody blinks an eye. They've got competitive composure. Understand that we gotta make some adjustments. We gotta go execute. We gotta go do our job. But inside the locker room and talk about guys that have belief, confidence and trust in one another and continue to play for one another on their side of the ball and the other side of the ball, it's awesome. And it's the culture that you wanna have inside your locker room. It is really special.

You talk about a journeyman and coming out on the other side of it, guy that continues to just invest every single day and you reap the rewards. That'll be a moment in his life, and I'm sure he'll tell that story to all of his grandkids and great-grandkids and anybody who'll be able to listen to it. You know what I mean, as he continues to grow older. What a special, special player, but really just a special young guy.

I was on the iPad getting ready for next offensive position possession if needed. So I didn't even see it. Boy, I sure like taking the knee at the end of the game.

Early, I felt like we were, they were playing on edges and pushing it a little bit. Misidentified one of their protections and Nico's scrambling around on the back end of it. Some guys that are gonna be open on the back end in the secondary. Run game, not good early. But second-half resiliency, physical, I'll take that part of it for sure.

This group believes it is really good. And if they play 11 guys together and play physical, got a chance to be really special. They played really well tonight. This team's got a lot of confidence. They also know that we gotta improve. On a Saturday night, at the end of it, no matter how we got there, they're able to appreciate a win, which I think is really important in the landscape of college football. And as a program when we got here, I never talked about it. Because at the end of the day, nobody cares, right? They care what the scoreboard looks like each week. But there were obstacles as a program we had to navigate and overcome and this coaching staff, the administration, our players did it in a pretty special way. Not perfect, but pretty special way. As a program, we gotta improve this year. But I do really just feel like we're just getting started as a program.

Thought we would have a chance to be a really cohesive unit, 11 guys tied in, be able to play all three levels of the defense together. The depth up front would give us a chance to be good at the line of scrimmage. How some of our young guys on the back end would grow and develop would be critical. Tim and our staff have done a great job. You know, I just talked about some of the obstacles when we first got here. Doing a great job of personnel scheme, just continuing to grow the young men over there. Special, special performance tonight, man. That's that's an elite defensive performance.

First of all, like, all of our former players, Darnell Wright, Alontae Taylor, I mean, so many guys that were back tonight to be a part of this.

*Alvin Kamara peaks head through curtain*

AK. AK. I almost forgot.

They've helped build this thing and still cherish and love it and get back to it. Unbelievable to have them all be back tonight and see what it means, you know, that you're a Vol for life. That's not just words For it to be the second time, like, this program, when we walk on the field, we feel like we're good enough to go win every Saturday. Does this one matter? Yeah. Absolutely. You know the historical nature of this game, what it means to the fan base, what it means inside of our walls and in the new landscape of the league. You know what it means. Expectation was to go out and play great football tonight. Did that defensively for 60 minutes. Offensively, we're on the right side of it enough, special teams enough. Great great win. We've won in 2twounique ways the last two times here in Neyland. Our players, I'll remember for a long time. There's nothing better walking off the field with the crowd surrounding you and cigar in your mouth.

Joy in being on the right side of the scoreboard each Saturday. You know, those are, they're two big games historically, our fan base, what it means to them. You know what I mean? To our players, it's big games because it's league games, man. And understand what it means and the things that you're trying to go accomplish and what you've been working for since January. The last two weeks on that field, it's just, it's really special because of what it took to find a way to be on the right side of the scoreboard with all the ups and downs just continuing to compete. Proud of the guys for that.

Huge play in the game. Changes the way the game's played from there on out just because of the score. And offensively, gotta go do something with that. But, again, just, you know, third down defense, red zone defense, special, special performance. And, you know, offensively, just, we can't hurt ourselves when we're in the red zone. If you don't get seven, man, you gotta get three. Can't do that all the time either. That'll get you beat but we found a way not to do any of those things for the early part of the game.

Jermod, Rickey, Jalen when he's in, like, it changes what you're able to structurally do defensively. It changes the game for the coordinator. It gives you the ability to open up your playbook.

Our guys are aware of you it. Like, I wish I could put blinders on them, you know? That's not real. Whatever the TV is gonna have on the bottom of the ticker. But for us to have a chance to be the team that we wanna be, it's about being in the present. It's about competing as hard as you can every single day to grow and play the way that they're capable and then the unit is capable of. And, you know, there's still things on defense. Man, there's a lot more things on offense that we gotta clean up. Like, good teams get better, you know? And this team's gotta continue to get better. If it does that, they'll have a chance to be a good team.

Epitomizes him as a competitor.

*Coughs*

It's the cigar, alright? He's special. Just feel ability to run, get out in space, get behind his pads. We blocked a little bit cleaner in the second half, gave him an opportunity to get started and and create some plays. Resiliency from him, too. Gets banged up a little bit and, you know, fumbles early, but just comes comes back and keeps competing. So huge part of the game tonight.

Some halftime adjustments, some just straight execution. And then as you get going, the ability to physically move people, you know what I mean, as the game goes on. So combination of everything. Capable of being a lot better early.

– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.

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