Tennessee football beat Kent State 71-0 on Saturday.
Afterward, Vols head coach Josh Heupel met with the media.
Here's everything he had to say.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Opening statement
"First of all, just our fans. Awesome atmosphere coming back. Vol Walk was electric, packed out, had a lot of former players. Had former basketball players, (Dalton Knecht is) back, too, around the building. So, great to have so many former players come back and be a part of it, too. You know, just as a football team, thought we started fast. There's some things that we gotta clean up, but all in all good performance. Defensively, control the line of scrimmage got off the field, third down. Offensively able to run the football and create some big plays, as well. Special teams was solid performance."
On if it's important to play well before conference play
"Every week's is it's own identity, man. Prefer to play well, prefer to continue to gain consistency in the execution and fundamentals and technique. So, you know, there were some things that we did well tonight. There's some things that we gotta clean up, too, and take the next step as a program."
On playing young players
"Had a lot of young guys that played. Some of them late in football game, some early. You know, Mike is a guy that we've had great trust just, you know, through spring ball. Early part of training camp got nicked up, you know, we were able to use our four wide package now with him being healthy tonight and so it was good to have him out there. He made plays, he handled himself within the flow of the game extremely well. Really excited about what he did, but a lot of our young guys, too."
On DeSean Bishop's performance
"One, he comes into the meeting room, to the practice field, he's the same dude, every day, man. He's competing. He wants to grow. He challenges himself. He responds well to challenges from his coaches. You know, I thought he did a really good job tonight pressing the line of scrimmage and getting to the third level and creating big plays."
On Nico Iamaleava's performance
"I thought he played really well. Used his feet when it was time to use his feet. You know, there are a couple things early in the football game, I think we had a drop early in the game over the middle of the football field. He missed on a little RPO just fundamentally not in a great position, but all in all played extremely well. Good decision-maker."
On the 16-quarter no-touchdown streak
"(Tim Banks has) done an amazing job building it. Our staff, but how our players understand what we're doing, fundamentals, technique, playing with them, playing really hard. The challenge was no matter who's in the ball game, to go play to the standard of how we play and to win the fourth quarter and really proud of how we played in the second half."
On the idea of implementing a running clock at halftime
"That, you'd have to talk to our administration on that side of it. And I say that meaning that it was something that was talked about but ultimately didn't happen."
On if he's been a part of a lopsided game like that
"I don't know. At the end of the day, we played good football early, came out and played good football in the second half and got a win."
On Dylan Sampson reaching over 100 yards again
"He's got great vision, got great pre-pace presses. The line of scrimmage, delivers blocks. He is elusive out in space and you combine all those things. You got somebody that can be efficient with the football in his hands and certainly he would give credit to the five offensive linemen, the tight ends and all the skill guys out on the perimeter, too. They're a big part of it, as well."
On Lance Heard not playing
"We held a couple of guys tonight that could have gone just for the longevity of, you know, this season. We held them out tonight."
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