It's game week for Tennessee football.

To kick things off, Vols head coach Josh Heupel met with the media.

Here's what he had to say.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Good afternoon everybody. Excited talking season is over and we get to go play ball. So, looking forward to seeing all of our fans inside the stadium. It’s been a long time. Unique kick-off time for us. Look forward to seeing everybody at the Vol Walk at 10:30. You guys know this week, we’ll wear the Smokey Greys and wear those for this design for the first time. Facing a Chattanooga team that’s a really good opponent. Preseason ranked top-10 in their division. Return a lot of really good players. At the end of the day, this is the first step in our journey. Look forward to going and competing with this group.

We continue to build our roster, certainly. We’re not quite at that full roster yet but really like the group that we have. As we continue to recruit here during the different cycles, length, athleticism, physicalness, traits that we’re looking for on the field, competitive, make up, all those things. I really like this team and we've got to continue to grow throughout the course of it. But what they’ve done during the course of training camp, they’ve handled it really well. We've got to handle game week preparation extremely well this week, too.

Well for every quarterback, not just young ones, but for everyone, guys around him playing at a really high level. Execution is really important. That can be your offensive line and pass protection. It’s being efficient in the run game, staying out of the third-and-long situations. Your skill guys being where they need to be in the pass concept or protection. All those things tie in into it together. At the same time, quarterback has got to make everybody right, too.

Play smart football. Take care of the football. Manage the game extremely well. Communication. Play within yourself and at times, when they present themselves, make plays. And he’s had the opportunity to start the bowl game. I think that was a great experience. Helps propel, create urgency in the offseason. He’s handled himself extremely well here during the course training camp, too. Young quarterback, he’s going to get better as we go through the season. I say that just meaning that every rep you get at that position on game day helps you, as well.

Veteran quarterback that’s played at a really high level. Smart with the football. They've got playmakers out on the outside. For us, offensively, looking at them, they have explosive playmakers up front and we've got to do a really good job handling the line of scrimmage.

Two-minute warning, obviously, has a chance to change the sequencing of things at the end of both halves. So, we spend a bunch of time on that and hopefully, we’re prepared the right way.

I haven’t talked to him about that. I talked to our team, really every week, enjoy the journey leading up to kick-off. That’s Vol Walk. That's your experience at the hotel hanging out with your teammates. It's seeing your family there if they’re in town and certainly running through the T. So, soak all those things in. I think that helps you enjoy the journey, makes you better for the next week. For him, at the end of the day, it’s 11-on-11 and when you get between the white lines, go play ball.

I challenged our veterans in each position room today, just the preparation, the urgency that you have to have. Not just when the coaches are in there but outside of those times. Making sure that our young guys understand what that process looks like. Each day of the week. Monday is different than Tuesday, to Wednesday as we get closer to kickoff. Our vets got to do a great job of leading our young guys. I think this group, you’ve heard me say it post-spring ball. I thought they were extremely competitive, extremely intentional. They were that way during training camp. The camaraderie that we have, the chemistry as roles get defined and roles change each week, keeping that a part of our team locker room is going to be really important.

Done a good job throughout the course of training camp. I thought we got better on the second half of training camp in particular on those things, which is typical as you go through training camp. A lot of young guys learning how to play. Red zone, we spent a bunch of time on it. We gotta go out and execute in both areas, offensively and defensively.

A couple guys kind of got built throughout the course of training camp. That allows you to play more guys together. You don’t have just five guys playing together but I feel like throughout the course of the lead up to this point in the year, I really like where that group’s at. They push each other. We’ll play more guys and need to but I really like where that group's at right now.

At the end of the day, at this point in the season, it’s about one week. Winning every day and putting yourself in position to go play your best football on Saturday. So, it’s a 1-0 mindset at this point.

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