Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel met with the media on Wednesday to recap the win over Alabama and preview the bye week.

Here's everything he said heading into the open date.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Good practice today. Obviously, after the last bye week, we didn't play very well. Being intentional on how we work and how we prepare this week, We try to correct some things that we're in control of and continue to get better as a football team. So that was good work today. Gotta continue that tomorrow.

There's multiple reasons for us not executing the way that we needed to on game day. Us controlling what we can control. Point of emphasis is us continuing to get better as a football team and that's always the case but, certainly, pointed those things out yesterday as our our guys came into the building. And at the end of the day, you're in the middle of your conference season and a lot of football to be played and we gotta take steps to to play our best.

Great to see our defense go finish it out. Obviously, offensively, didn't control it and pick up a first down on the four-minute drive. For those guys to go out and execute the way they did, apply pressure, and then Brooks to be able to drive on it and make a play at the end of it to seal the game. Huge play by him and playing with fundamentals technique and, making the plays that are there for.

You're mindful of some of the injuries. Today was a was a work day and tomorrow will be, too. Fundamentals technique, special teams, offensively, real point of emphasis. Some subtle things that we're doing differently is to try to get some of that work. The guys are banged up. Get the work that they can while still trying to get them healthy here for a long run on the back end.

I think it's tough when you play that position. That's whether you're young or you've played a lot of football. But, certainly, when you're young, when things aren't going well, you can hear certain members of the crowd and you've made some mistakes, which happens in this game when you play that position. You got the ball in your hand every time. You've missed some throws. You've turned it over. You haven't moved the ball, whatever it is. You know, the quarterback takes ownership of all of that. When it's not going well and I describe it as it feels like the walls are kinda pressing in on you to have the courage, the strength, the fortitude to push back on it and and go play really good football. Not perfect, but really good football and find a way to to come away with the win. You gotta be a tough, tough dude mentally and physically to withstand all that. It's one of the real positives that you take away from the game with Nico.

There's a couple of things fundamentally. Where you're at on the field dictates some of how you get to throw the ball. Safeties can dictate how you get to throw it. You know, there's a way that you wanna throw it. All that together with what's going on upfront protectionally, there's times that you're not gonna be in a perfect position. You gotta find a way to complete it. There's a couple of things just with his eyes leading to where he's at body position. Wanna wise on a couple of those things. Made some really nice throws, too. You look at some of the big plays, Dont'e down the sideline that's a special throw on the run to be able to complete, Chris in the end zone on the 3rd down. There's some things that he's gotta continue to grow in, but that's all a part of continuing to grow as a player.

I don't think anything, like, super different. Missed a couple throws over the middle. Some of that's the windows being tight and maybe the timing being off just a little bit. With the wide receiver getting his eyes around it's all parties being a part of it. I do think, you know, settling in, being able to push back on everything that hadn't gone right in the first half, shows growth but, shows you what he's made up of on the inside too, mentally and just his heart and and competitive makeup.

Feel like Squirrel will be ready to roll when we get to the next football game. He was limited today. One of those guys has been dinged up a little bit, feel like he'll be ready to roll.

Big time games, elite environment inside of Neyland and it's always special. But for some of those rivalry games, it's ratcheted up another notch. I think those are great environments to see the competitive makeup of playing in this league in the big games, recruits get an opportunity to see how special playing football on Rocky Top is, what the Neyland effect looks and sounds like. Those are are huge pieces of the recruiting puzzle for us.

Fundamentals, execution, precision in everything that we're doing. Defense played really good football, but there's things that they can clean up, too. Obviously, offensively. Special teams, as well. So you point those things out. As you've heard me say, good teams continue to get better throughout the course of the season. Every week's it's own identity. The takeaway from this football team is they're tough. They got competitive composure. That's all phases of the game. When it's not going well on one side, how the other units are responding,The unit that's not playing well, finding a way to get on the right side of it. For us, there's a lot of football left to be played. It comes down to growing every single day. Being intentional in your work, competing for everything that makes a difference from fundamentals to technique to eye discipline within the scheme that you're playing in. So we just gotta continue to grow.

I had not heard that. Neyland and doesn't need anything fake piped into the stadium for that to be the loudest place in America. Hopefully, our fans take that personal and enjoy this bye week and come back and we'll be louder than ever the next time we're at home.

The last couple of weeks, they've continued to grow in what they're doing. Chris Brazell's a a great example of that. Happens because of how you practice and how you prepare. You start stacking days weeks of performing high at a high level on the practice field and it will translate to the game. There's still a lot of growth left in that wide receiver room. We've played a bunch of bodies. We need that room to continue to grow. That will be a part of the puzzle of us executing the way that we need to.

I wouldn't say that anything's truly surprised us. Had great trust in in who he is, his competitive makeup, you know, continuing to add to his frame, durability piece. He's a dynamic player, man. He's a part of changing the way the game's played for us and him creating explosive plays. He's been a part of getting us jump-started when we haven't been necessarily functioning at at our highest.

it's a position that's never gonna be perfect. Ultimately, quarterbacks get judged on wins and losses no matter what. It's looking like being able to go lay it on the line, play aggressive, play the next play. You know, those are the the biggest things that we continue to talk about with him. Really proud of what he did in the second half against Alabama.

Really special what what they've done in those situations. A lot of forced turnovers. They found ways to to push units the wrong direction and take them out of field goal range or make it a long field goal. I think that, you know, besides just execution, alignment, assignment, technique, the competitive composure, the resiliency, the mental makeup of that group as a whole is really special. And we got to keep that moving forward. We got to continue to grow in it. It's really special how they've competed and played no matter what the situation is. Competitive maturity is, you know, the best way for me to describe it.

– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.

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