On Saturday, Tennessee football downed Kentucky 28-18.

After the game, Vols head coach Josh Heupel met with the media.

Here's everything he said.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Awesome environment again tonight. Crowd, huge part of the night. Excited about the win. Don't take any of those for granted. Still a lot left out for us. Just starting fast, offensively. Special teams putting it through the uprights. All in combination of turnovers, penalty sacks on the plus side of territory. Some of the shots we're close on. I mean, it's just felt like we practiced really well. We're continuing the game. Put all the pieces of the puzzle together to go play our best football. It's never gonna be perfect either, but, again, excited about the win. But there's a lot of things that we can improve upon.

You kinda saw some, I thought he played with great confidence, great poise. Made plays when they presented themselves. Was close on some deep balls down the football field. We're close, man. He saw things really well. So all in all, really, really good command and presence from him throughout the course of the night.

Some of it's just what what they're giving you. Situational football can dictate that, too. End of the night, you know, he gave us an opportunity to move football.

Don't know who those teams are. Every week is its own season. You gotta be good enough to go win on that Saturday and play all three phases together. But you have to play smart football. Some of the penalties that we're in control of, but there's there's gonna be some on the playing field. But that's just the nature of the game playing hard. The things that we control, we gotta be better in. You gotta tie it all together with special teams. Some things we did well tonight. Some things we've gotta be a lot better in. Offensively, the turnovers, you just you can't have those. They're never good in the red zone. Well, they're never good on the minus side of the territory either. So you just can't do it. We gotta be be better with some of those things. Practice well the last couple of weeks. We're gaining, it's just you gotta put the pieces of the puzzle all together.

Players making a play. Understanding all the traffic that's going on on the backside of it, too. So that's a it's a big time play by him.

I do have confidence in him. He's gotta find a way to start faster during the course of the the football game. He's kicked it extremely well up until the last couple of weeks. Hit big one late against Bama, too. Kicked it well in in practice. Routine, getting rewarmed up after coming to locker room, wherever it might be, just gotta get him into the flow of it. And, you know, because of some of what we've done offensively, it's not like he's had chip shots to start out, either. But, he's good enough and confident enough to go put it through the uprights, too. So gotta keep pushing.

I don't have an update on on Bishop. D-Samp, you know, just an elite night. Obviously, wants the fumble back. Hard yards, hitting the hole, playing with pad level. Solid night from him. Peyton ran really well. He really did. Young guy that just continues to keep coming on. Like I said early in this thing, that every position, but the running back group, like, you can't just be one guy. You're gonna need them throughout the course. And gotta get Cam back and fully ready to go and just healthy. Hopefully, DeSean will be ready and keep pushing those guys.

I think that's a a demonstration of just how hard they're playing and and finishing the play. D-Samp, that's that's an old record, I think, and a pretty special one. But I said in the locker room, too, is we recognize some of the guys with big plays and turnovers on defense, that type of thing. Running backs don't get to do that unless they got 10 other guys doing their job, too. It's a credit to everybody starting with five guys up front, tight ends and perimeter blocking and quarterback, too. D-Samp is the first guy that would say that, too. So, end of the day, it's a special moment for him and some of the guys, but, a lot still out there for us us, too.

I don't feel like the playbook hasn't been open. I'm not sure that's the right way to verbalize it. At the end, situational football, like, understanding the scheme, all 11 matchups. Like, it all comes into how to play the game. We got great trust in in Nico and quarterback is not a position of perfect. It's just not. He's a young player that continues to get better with every play. You guys heard me say that before the season. His competitive makeup and ability to make plays and be a good decision maker back there. He had a great night and he's played a lot of really good football. Good news for for him and for us is his best football stuff in front of him.

Big part of the outcome of the football game. Brooks, big time play and and just overall defensively, second half, played really good football. Offensively, able to take advantage of it and go finish the drives off. So, big part of finishing the game the right way and keeping us on the right side of score board.

I thought there were some really positive things. There's some things that, you know, they'd wanna finish off. You know what I mean? Some plays on the perimeter and illegal formation. Some little things like that that we're in control of, that we can be better. But all in all, they've played and strained hard in the core, made some plays in the pass game. It was a good night.

– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.

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