Tennessee heads into the month of November with its goals still in reach.

The Vols, who opened October with a road loss at Arkansas, responded with wins over Florida and Alabama in back-to-back weeks to stay in the College Football Playoff race. Another opportunity to bolster their resume awaits on Saturday.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Seventh-ranked Tennessee (6-1, 3-1 SEC), coming off of its second bye week after beating the Crimson Tide, 24-17 two weeks ago, host a struggling Kentucky (3-5, 1-5) team at Neyland Stadium at 7:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network.

The Vols have dominated the series overall and have continued that trend under fourth-year head coach Josh Heupel, who has beaten the Wildcats in three consecutive tries.

Heupel made his weekly appearance on the SEC Coaches Teleconference to preview the match up on Wednesday. Here is everything he said.

"Excited to get back into Neyland Stadium here with our football team on Saturday night. You know, going against a good Kentucky team. A game, opponent that we've played for a long time, here historically. Dark mode for us. Need a great effort by our fans. They've got to be a part of the football game. You look at Kentucky, a team that does play all three phases of the football game together. Defensively, statistically one of the best in the league and in the country. That's their run defense and their pass defense as well. Some guys over there that we've played for a long time. Offensively, got to do a great against the run. They're big and physical up front. Quarterback can be a part of their run game. And they've got dynamic play makers out on the perimeter, in the backfield. Same thing on special teams. Big test for us again. Looking forward to it and it should be a great environment."

"It's not easy. From when we got here to now, what our staff has done, what coach (Rodney) Garner has done with the defensive line group, just building accountability and connection inside of that room. As guys prove that they're going to play at a high level, it's our job to put them in position to go play. That group is extremely tight. They work extremely hard. They compete hard everyday in practice. Because of the growth of some of the young guys, some of our vets see the value in those guys playing a lot of football for us. As a group, I think they can see the difference of what it does week-to-week. Their ability to fight and strain, in particular how they're able to play late in football games with guys still being fresh."

"As we've grown inside of our program, it has been important that we develop more depth. That's one of the things that we struggled with early in my tenure here. And a lot of reasons for that. But, it's not just postseason. We're a long ways away from figuring out whether we play ourselves into anything like that. The conference schedule inside of this league, what you go up against every single week. What the collisions look like on the field, you have to (have depth) within this conference schedule. That's something that, again, we've talked about as a staff heading into our offseason all the way back in January, to what we do all times of the year, trying to develop those guys. Your young guys that are new to the program have got to grow up extremely quickly and be ready to learn it, earn it and take a role within every unit that you have."

"I don't think there's just one. But a young player like Boo Carter. His transition into college football, I think is a great example of it. We challenge our young guys, as I meet with them when they first get here and in the preseason, even our bye weeks, understanding that it's a long journey during the course of the season and you've got to keep investing and be ready for when your time comes. It's going to come. You just need to make sure you're ready for it."

"Man, a dynamic personality. Smart football player, really good feel in the backfield. You can see that right away. But has continued to grow in just his ability to play without the football. Really high football IQ. Protection, continued growth in understanding our schemes. His ability to understand what we're seeing up front, you know, press and double teams and hit the right holes. Obviously, a dynamic playmaker. What he's done with his body from when he first got here. A young guy, a track kid, extremely explosive. Developing his frame to be able to handle everything that happens from week to week inside of this league. He's just a guy that has continued to grow every day that he's here. His personality is magnetic, right from the jump. But his ability to grow as a leader has been really important inside of our program, too."

"Good teams always continue to get better. And we've been pressing that. Our guys have had great urgency here the last week during the bye week, but this week as well. The schedule, when it came out a year ago, it's just really unique because we're on the road early for all of our big, Power 4 conference games and ended up being at home for a longer stretch than usual. It's been a unique schedule on both sides of it, early and right here in the middle part of it. For us, taking it one day at a time, one week at a time has been really important."

– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.

– ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION.

– SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOLREPORT YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

– FOLLOW VOLREPORT ON TWITTER: @TennesseeRivals, @ByNoahTaylor, @RyanTSylvia, @Dale_Dowden, @ShayneP_Media.