Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel met with the media on Monday to recap the win over NC State and preview the upcoming contest with Kent State.

Here's everything he had to say.

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"Good to be back in the building with the guys. Opportunity to watch film, grow, learn how we can get better. Good teams continue to get better throughout the course of the season, so, challenge for us is to prepare and practice the right way so we can go and play our best football on Saturday. Looking forward to being back in Neyland, seeing our fans and having the opportunity to kickoff again with this group."

"I think his body language, his demeanor, his composure leads you to believe he's going to go play the next play independently. We don't like to turn the ball over. We'd like to have a couple of those back. But I think one thing we learned about him is how he's going to respond that something that doesn't go positive, doesn't go his way. He came back and played the next play independently and played it like the first play of the game."

"That's kind of laughable to me to be honest. You look at our ability to run the football since we've been here, statistically, over the last close to decade, we've always ran the ball really efficiently and effectively. We have balance. We do create big plays in the pass game but we create those things in the run game, too. I was proud of the physicality that we played with on the offensive line. Our tight ends and running backs played that way, too. Same things on the other side of the football, you look at the way our front seven played at the line of scrimmage, that was a big part of the football game."

"You've got to play smart football. You can't do things that hurt yourself. Keenan wasn't trying to be egregious on his. He thought the running back was still coming at him. We've got to be smart. Special teams, first couple weeks we've had a couple penalties, you can't change the field position game and we've got to grow in that area."

"I am still a kid at heart. You've got to enjoy, this game's hard. They've got good coaches, they've got scholarships, too. Every Saturday, you look at scores across America. Every Saturday, it unfolds differently. That's why you've got to prepare and practice the same way. Be consistent in that, be an elite competitor every day, not just on game day. We talked about that inside of our team room today but, man, if you're not going to enjoy the opportunities that you get if you are successful, I think you're missing the boat. We try to have fun inside of our building, that's after a game in the locker room but also every day. We should enjoy what we're doing and who we're doing it with and we do inside of this building."

"Every Saturday is going to unfold differently. From the structure that you're seeing, from the opponent in all three phases of the game to how the game unfolds, you try to be smart aggressive in everything we do. We want to play with an aggressive mentality, I want our coaches to call it aggressive, let our players go make plays, put them in a position to go make plays. But you've got to play extremely smart situational football, too. Two minute drive at the end of the half, we're in a position to get it going, we have a penalty. Try to play smart football there at the end and try to get points knowing we got the ball coming out in the second half, as well."

"For us, historically, at points in our career, we've been able to do that because of the depth in the room. With everything that we faced when we first got here, scholarship reductions, we tried to be smart building for the future and protecting the current roster. We just haven't had the luxury of being able to do that. Now we have. Those were things we were working on through spring ball, through training camp. Our guy went out and executed and played in a really good way."

"First of all, Tim (Banks) has done an unbelievable job. That's really from day one being here. Building camaraderie, trust, chemistry on that side of the football. All of our position coaches in the position room, as we continue to build our roster, we're able to play more guys which is important. The understanding of our scheme, the fundamentals of it, that's a credit to our players and our coaches. We're playing really good football right now. As a competitor, you're only as good as your next one. Saturday night, that's our next test. I do love how physical, how fast we're playing. We've got to continue to grow. Good teams, good defenses continue to get better. There's plenty of opportunities for us to get better than what we've done to this point."

"At the end of the day, it comes from your leadership inside your position rooms. Guys being selfless. Knowing it's important to celebrate the guys around you and that you pour into them. That's new guys coming into the building, those guys showing them what it looks like to be a Volunteer, what it looks like to be a player inside of this building. Helping them grow as players, outside on the practice field, you see guys coaching up their teammates as much as you see coaches do it. It's awesome to see the energy, camaraderie, chemistry, excitement that they have for the other guys in the position room."

"He's played really well. He's applied pressure to the quarterback. Hasn't gotten home, but he's been disruptive. He's done really good job in the run game. The other night, he does a great job as a dropper in some of our pressure packages. Matching out the skill personnel out in space. He's played really well. In this game, you keep plugging away and stats are stats. At the end of the day, it's about wins and losses and continuing to execute your assignments."

"For us, defensively, heavy mix of zone. Inside, outside zone. Lot of window dressing with motion, shift traits, we've got to do a great job being gap sound. Communicate at a high level. Offensively, multiple in their coverages. A lot of pressure. We've got to do a great job in identification, that's in run game, that's in pass pro and protecting our quarterback when we're dropping back. And we've got to win some one-on-ones."

"We can be better at points within our technique. Wasn't true misidentification. We've got to be a little bit better with our fundamentals and technique at times. That's everybody. It's running back, it's offensive line, our tight ends were involved in it, as well. Couple times he's a little deep in the pocket, too, which applies pressure to the tackles. It's all 11 operating as one. Made that point to our offense this morning and that's in everything that we're doing."

"You can go back and look at the scores from across America each week, there's examples of guys that didn't prepare, didn't practice right, didn't have the right competitive spirit to go take advantage of the next opportunity. There's a lot of work that goes into it. We started in mid-January, you better have the right mindset. There's very few opportunities, this is our next one. Have got to be ready to go take advantage of it. Our players, our coaches this morning were able to show them areas we have to get better in and that started today for us."

"As a first-time starter, he's done an elite job of understanding our concepts. Getting us into a good play if we're not in one. Taking advantage of what he's seeing. From the second and third level off of those structures, done a really good job as a decision maker and controlling what we're doing."

"We'll see as the week goes on but anticipate all those guys being available for us this week."

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