Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel is returning to Oklahoma as his Vols take on the Sooners this Saturday.

Ahead of the matchup, Heupel met with the media.

Here's everything he had to say.

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"Good to see everybody. Had a good morning with the guys. Came in, great energy, focus, you know, able to look at the film and find some ways that we got to continue to grow into to be the best team that we can be. Great that we're getting an opportunity to kick off conference play. It's finally here. Big week in front of us, big challenge. Have a ton of respect obviously, for the program. Everybody that's involved over there. Know a lot of them, but it's a football team that's playing really well. If you look at them defensively, doing a great job really in every category, applying pressure to the quarterback, sacks, turnovers and being extremely good against the run. Offensively, got dynamic playmakers, young quarterback that's playing really good football. They do a really good job on special teams. So huge test for us. Opportunity for us to go on the road in a really good environment and at the same time have an opportunity to put our brand in front of the entire country."

"It'll be unique. I had teammates and friends back there. They hit me up a little bit early. They were starting last week already. It'll be unique going back into that stadium. It's going to be a viewpoint, I'm not sure I've ever spent a day on the opposing sideline inside of that stadium, not even for a scrimmage. So it'll be different, but it's one that I'm really looking forward to. There's so many people that have been a huge part of my journey that I get a chance to go back and hopefully get a chance to say hi to a bunch of them. You know, it starts with teammates. It's coaches that I had. It's a lot of coaches that I coached with. There's a lot of personnel that's still there, guys that I coached, guy that was in my wedding. There's a lot of people back there that I'm familiar with and have a lot of respect for."

"He takes great care of the football. You know, I think he's got great command and presence in what they're doing offensively. He has the ability to use his feet to make things right. That can be when the pocket breaks down. Design, quarterback run read game. You know, he's a really talented young player."

"I thought I handled the first one really well. I'm good with any question about Oklahoma. You know, like the opportunity that I got, you know, from Bob and from Mike to come there and play. What we were able to build there in a short amount of time as a player but then my coaching career, from the guys that I played for to all the coaches that were there during my career, all made a huge impact on me. And I wouldn't be here today at Tennessee if I didn't have all those experiences. So, tremendously grateful for all those people. You know, Brent is somebody that I learned and grew from as a young coach so much and a ton of respect for him."

"Should be a great crowd. It's a passionate fan base. I'm expecting them to be extremely quiet for us out of respect to me and our program, too."

"I think his personality will translate extremely well. It wasn't a true road game, but being over in Charlotte, crowd being divided in half, I think, is a part of preparing him but our entire football for this, too. The way we've prepared spring ball training camp, our guys will be ready for this. It doesn't make the challenge any less difficult because of those things. You got to do ordinary things at a really high level and you got to do them consistently in this. And that's communication, that's where it starts. In particular on the offensive side of the ball with crowd noise. But it's everybody, you know, all three phases of the game, alignment, assignment and technique after that."

"Certainly we've been able to play a lot more guys than we have at any point. A big part of that is our roster, the opportunity that every young player gets. They're only going to grow that much more quickly with those experiences on game day, you know, practice is awesome and it matters, but those game day experiences matter, too. To understand what it looks like, what it feels like and where you got to continue to grow. So it's been really important to us here in the first three weeks. The depth of our roster and the experiences that they have is really important."

"I don't think there's just one. First of all, you know, I talked about their defense, their offense. They're well-coached. They play extremely hard. They've been on the right side of the turnover margin. They got really good personnel. So this is a really good program."

"We do trust Peyton. Peyton's gotten better every single week coming off of the injury, getting the opportunity to grow on the field during training camp. He's gotten better every day and he's gotten better every week during the course of the season. I really, I love what he's doing as a young player."

"I think there's nothing better than being in front of your home crowd, but there is something special about knowing that you're going on the road and the focus, the effort that it takes to go out there and be successful in those type of environments. That is something that is special that competitors relish."

"Depth in your personnel gives you the freedom, the luxury to do more things, and that can be within your scheme, but it certainly within our personnel groupings, too. The first couple of years, we really primarily played two tight ends. In the structure of what we do, that limits how much exposure you want those guys to have in 12 personnel. A year ago, we had, I think, six scholarship wide receivers, got guys banged up. You know, with our roster now, you have the ability to go into a four wide set and go play really good football in it."

"10 is the right number. Their front really active. They play tight coverage on the back end with all the structure that they show you on the back end. They play really assignment sound. They understand where they're supposed to be in recognizing patterns and getting into windows. They tie all three phases, all three levels of the defense in extremely well. And then when you have the ball in your hands, they're extremely active, punching, ripping, putting their hat on the ball. You know, they've changed the way the game's played with a lot of those turnovers."

"We have really strong leadership. It's not just the veteran guys, you know, the guys that are on our councils do a great job, but we have a lot of strong individuals inside of our position rooms, as well. I've said it, you know, I think maybe training camp, this team was really good just in how consistent they were through spring ball, in training camp. They've been that way during the course of the season. As a player, man, you better enjoy the win Saturday night and enjoy it on Sunday, too. But Mondays, you know, getting back to reality and understanding how you gotta grow and understanding you're only as good as your next one as a competitor. And this group's been really mature that way and certainly the opponent that we have this week will capture everybody's attention."

"No pregame throws on the road, so not sure if my kids will be able to make it yet, but we're working on that."

"We like those two guys, but we like the guys right behind them, too. Jalen and Jordan have done a really nice job as well. Those guys are playing really good football. They're playing with fundamentals and technique, but they're understanding, you know, the contour of what they're seeing on the offensive side of the football. Being able to play with an anticipation of what they might see playing really good football."

"A guy that, again, I got so much respect for, got a great family, somebody that poured into me as a young coach and learned so much from him. He's as good as they come. When you look at what he's done, you know, historically as a defensive coordinator, a lot of respect. Huge challenge for us this week."

"No. You know, believe that what we're doing during the course of the week is preparing those guys to be ready to play for 60 minutes. This will be a 60 minute football game. You gotta be physical at the line of scrimmage. You gotta win one-on-ones out on the perimeter, and you got to play with an aggressive, competitive composure for four quarters in this football game."

"We got great trust in those guys. Nico's got a great trust with those guys that, you know, the route patterns, they're going to see it the way he sees it. They're going to be able to settle in zones and win vs. man-to-man. Those guys have all done a really nice job, you know, really through spring ball and certainly as they got more comfortable in what we're doing. And speaking specifically to the transfers, as we got into training camp, those guys took a big jump. Just being able to operate within our system as we got to training camp."

"I thought he did a great job hitting the hole, making the third level miss when he got into space, got under his pads when he needed to. He's taking a step every single week, as well. Our staff's got a lot of trust in him. That's a guy that saw flashes last year, then, you know, hurts his ankle in training camp and misses a majority of the season. It's been fun to see him just grow through that experience, become really mature and how he handles himself in the building and outside of the building.

"Your research, if you've got any solutions for the problems, talk to Hawk and his crew this afternoon. Alright, no, anticipate, it's worked well up until this point, but we'll find out on Saturday."

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