After Tennessee football beat Florida on Saturday, 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
Fans, awesome tonight. Huge part of the game. Appreciate them throughout the course of it, you know, for us as a football team, love the win. I think the resiliency of the group, you know, I don't know, seven minutes left in third quarter offense, not playing good at all. Continuing to play, continuing to compete and find a way to make some plays and get back in the football game and then go into overtime and come back and reset and go finish the game the way that you're capable of and that you want to. So really proud of our guys. Defensively, elite performance, you know, physicality, strain most of the night, assignment sound, made plays. James (Pearce), I think it's James on the goal line, forcing the fumble. I mean, just so many things that they did at a really high level and kept us in the game. And offensively, there's so much that we can be a whole lot better in and that's all 11 on the field. But continue to fight and made some plays, so gotta clean some things up, man. Everybody needs to enjoy this one. It's hard to win in this league and tomorrow we'll move on and get ready for another big one here at home.
On not scoring in the first half, moving Nico Iamaleava out of the pocket
Moved him on, you know, early in the football game, had a completion on the sideline early in the football game, first drive, got things going. We're on the plus side, reading the edge and ball ends up on the ground, there's another drive, maybe the third one where we're on the plus side of the territory, holding call, get pushed back again. It's not doing anything out of the ordinary. It's really all 11 operating as one and we can play a lot better than we did tonight. With Nico, misses a couple deep balls during the course of the football game there. Sometimes that's gonna happen. We gotta be better at protection inside the pocket for him but I do love the way that he continued to compete throughout the course of the game.
On Dylan Sampson's improvement since he was a freshman
He has always had great vision, great pace, obviously, he has got good long speed but he is really good between the tackles and I think his growth of continuing to grow in the understanding of what we're doing. But you know, physical development, just his strength in the middle of the football field and those runs between the tackles just continues to make a bunch of plays for us. Finish the game out the right way, man. Huge.
On if Dylan Sampson's performance showed off is leadership qualities
I think his competitive maturity when it's not going good to still have great body language, energy, feed that to his teammates. Understand that man, it's the next play we gotta get to and having great beliefs. So, I thought those guys at halftime, the competitive makeup as a whole was good. We didn't come out and execute. We got really good field position to start it out and just a little bit off and so we gotta go back and clean it up, coaches and players together.
On playing a 4-3 defense at times
You talking about from us? Man, I'm gonna be honest with everything that was going on, I'm gonna let you talk to Tim (Banks) about that.
On balancing a good defense with bad offense
As a football team, you're just trying to find a way to be plus one on the scoreboard. And if you can find a way to be a lot more than that, that's awesome. You know, at no point since I've been here, has it been anything other than all of us together, man. And I just like our defense, their competitive makeup but also their belief in the other side of the football that they're gonna go make a play. It's what a team's about and we haven't been perfect. We can be a lot better. That's a positive, though, that we got an opportunity to get better.
On the defense's confidence
They're confident. Yeah, but, you know, I don't ever feel like they just think it's gonna happen, you know what I mean? Like they understand that they gotta go make it happen and they trust one another. There's some things that we gotta clean up but they trust one another, compete really hard and continue to play better, smarter football.
On play calling in overtime after Florida missed the kick
I don't wanna center it right away depending on the down and distance and where you're at, that becomes a thought a little bit later as it goes on. I think running the football and being sound in it, for me that's way I wanted to go. And obviously, as we got close to the goal line gives you an opportunity to step into it.
On using defensive players on offense and going for it from his own 10
Yeah, brought some defense guys in. Go set an edge right there, you know, just the flow of a game, everything that had transpired, the distance. Yeah, I talked with Tim (Banks), too. So, just felt like had to do something to try to keep them off the field but get something going, too.
On Omari Thomas' performance
Some huge negative plays in the football game. Defeating blocks, interior tackling, tackling the back behind the line of scrimmage. You can look at the overtime and you know how that sequence played out from our defense and it's just, it's elite man and he played extremely well. He's playing his best football since we've been here.
On if the offense is close to where he wants it in the passing game
Man, not tonight. I don't think we're far off, you know what I mean? But it's, man, there's, it's not just the pass game, it's the run game, too. Like, you know, missed assignments, fundamentals, technique. Like it's guys open, we don't hit it, guys open, we're getting pressure. It's everybody taking their turn and at some point we gotta say we're gonna man up and do our job and make this thing go the way that it's capable of.
On offensive play calling with a good defense
I think situationally it does (impact it), did tonight some of the third downs, what we were willing to do. For us offensively some of the things that happened on the plus side of the 50 and just killed us from having opportunities to go score points. It hurt us in the way the game was played but it is different than it probably has been since I've been here.
On how Nico Iamaleava can avoid sacks
Some of it's us blocking it. That's five guys. It's your tight ends, it's your running backs. Some of it's him finding the soft spot in the pocket. Some of it's recognizing what's going on in the back end and hitting your hots. Some of it's their wide receivers. Winning takes all 11 to go play good football and everybody's gotta do their job.
On if he has an injury update on Keenan Pili
Don't have an update on on Pili, you know, we'll know more tomorrow. Not sure there's a better representative of what a Volunteer is than, than Keenan Pili and you talk about a selfless guy that cares about the people around him way more than he cares about himself. That's an elite competitor, great leader, tough as nails, athletic, explosive, everything that you want, you know, just he's a dude man. Special dude.
On James Pearce's game
James, man, violent, destructive, making plays, huge play on the goal line, locked in, focused as a competitor throughout the course of it no matter what was going on. Just really, really strong performance.
On why two defensive linemen on offense worked
Defensive structure that we saw from them on the field is why we went to that this week and you know, just they're two big, thick, explosive, long guys, you know what I mean? Like you got the ability to move people. So hopefully I said that the right way. Saw a couple faces down there.
– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.
– ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION.
– SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOLREPORT YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
– FOLLOW VOLREPORT ON TWITTER: @TennesseeRivals, @ByNoahTaylor, @RyanTSylvia, @Dale_Dowden, @ShayneP_Media.
