Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel made his weekly appearance on the SEC Coaches Teleconference Wednesday morning before the Vols host Texas A&M at Neyland Stadium Saturday.
Heupel discussed the challenge presented by Texas A&M’s pass rush, the Vols’ defensive growth and more. Here’s everything Heupel said Wednesday.
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Opening statement
“Excited for this weekend. Coming off the bye, chance for us to get a little bit healthy and get ready for this one. Really good Texas A&M football team that we’re playing. You look at their line of scrimmage on both sides of the football— extremely athletic. Big, strong, physical. Defensively, you look at them statistically they’re playing as well as anyone in the country. Got really good skill players across the board offensively and defensively. Special teams have a dynamic returner. A guy that can change the way the game is played. Huge test for us this weekend. Really excited to get back inside of Neyland Stadium with our fans. Going to be a great atmosphere and guys are looking forward to playing Saturday afternoon.”
On his recruitment of Oklahoma QB Dillon Gabriel when he was at UCF
“Dillon is a guy that a little bit in the early stages of recruiting was probably under recruited a little bit and (former UCF QB) McKenzie (Milton) just as we were getting ready to head into the season was talking about Dillon. He had been with him. Dillon took over for McKenzie. He was back home throwing with him in the summer and just his continued growth as a player and as the season started getting a chance to watch the video— he was smart, competitive, accurate with the football. He’s a winner. All the things that McKenzie was talking about with Dillon and then obviously you could see that on the tape too. McKenzie has been a huge part of Dillon’s growth as a player and off the field too (with) how you handle everything as a quarterback. That really dates back to when they were in high school together and also the years at UCF.”
On what makes Dillon so good, both from his team coaching him and what he’s seen this year
“I haven’t seen a bunch of him. I got a chance to watch the two-minute (against Texas). I was at my son’s game actually and didn’t get the chance to watch the majority of the football game but first of all, Dillon is a winner. I’m saying that because he’s just relentless in the way he works off the field, on the practice field and competes that way every single Saturday. He’s extremely bright. Understands defensive contour and offensively what you’re doing. Because of that he gets the ball out quick. He’s extremely accurate with the football. Great decision maker and somebody that’s been playing as well as anybody. When we were back at UCF I think he led the country in passing and certainly has had a great start to the season this year. More than anything it’s just his competitive makeup and nature. He’s got an ability to rally the guys around him too because of his infectious energy.”
On the importance of protecting Joe Milton III against Texas A&M’s pass rush
“I think it’s four straight weeks of five-plus sacks. They’ve gotten after the quarterback and they do that through scheme and pressures but a lot of it is just with their front four. And they do it not just on third downs but on normal downs too. Those guys are physically gifted. They’re big, strong, physical but they’re extremely athletic. They bend well, they use their hands well. I tink it’s really important in this one that you protect the quarterback extremely well. Give him a chance to get the ball out. You watch the games and there’s a lot of second-and-longs, third-and-longs and those are situations you don’t want to be in against this front. You’ve got to protect it well but I think you also have to strike some balance and have some effectiveness in the run game too. Which is extremely difficult. These guys defend the run extremely well.”
On the biggest challenge for Tennessee’s defense on Saturday
“I’m going to say the line of scrimmage is extremely important. That’s something I talked about with our football team here today. Both sides of the line of scrimmage effect the way the game is played, so we have to do a great job. They’re big, strong, athletic on the offensive line, too. We have to do a great job of having gap integrity and then you also have to get to the quarterback and effect him off of their play-action pass and drop-back game and get off the field on third down. They’re really good at the skill positions on the offensive side of the football, too. They’ve got dynamic playmakers, so you have to do a great job with those guys out in space and win some of those one-on-one’s as well.”
On what he thinks has led to more sacks to this season
“One, the recruitment of some of our defensive linemen. Adding length, athleticism. The development of those guys and the guys that have been here on this roster the entire time. Understanding of the scheme so that we’re playing and doing the right things at the right time. That can be twist games when you’re trying to apply pressure with your front four. We’ve been better about getting to the quarterback with our four-man rush which changes the coverages that you’re able to play on the back-end, but it all plays off of each other as well. Our secondary doing a better job of playing press-man and win and force the quarterback to hold on to it another count on some of our bracket coverages or zone drops. Being in the right spot where you force the quarterback to hold on to it and you can’t get it out of his hands exactly when he wants to or needs to based on the rush up front. It’s all 11 guys continuing to grow and continuing to play their role in how the unit has to go play in those series of downs. Coach (Rodney) Garner and Coach (Mike) Ekeler, those guys have done a great job of continuing to develop those guys fundamentally as far as their ability to affect the quarterback in the pass rush.”
On the latest with injured linebacker Keenan Pili and if he could return at some point this month
“We’ll see where we’re at it here week by week. He’s not ready to go in this one, but we’ll continue to see where he’s at. Our young guys are continuing to step up at that position, but Keenan is a special leader and still has been even while he’s been on out. One of the first ones in the building. Constantly watching film. I think he’s been a real help to the young guys that are out there on the football field. He’s fighting his butt off to get back out there as soon as possible. Obviously, we feel like he’s a difference-maker.”
On if big wins like the one he had at Oklahoma against Texas A&M still stick with him
“Surely I still remember that and that was a huge road win for our football team that year. They were a good football team. Really tough environment on that day, which it typically is there but it was a football team that continued to believe, continued to compete, believed somebody would make a play. There were a lot of guys that made a bunch of plays during the course of that day. Yes, I absolutely remember it. We talk about with this football team being able to reset and play from play-to-play and really not paying attention to the scoreboard until that thing ticks to zero. That’s a competitive mindset and attitude that you have to have in this game. So those are the things we still talk about.”
One Response
Another day, another game against a strong opponent thankfully we are playing at home with 100,000 screaming,stomping fans backing up our effort. Will it be a challenge you might ask. Well the answer to that is hell yes it will be a challenge that we will be met head on and in the end we will be successful in defending our home turf against a extremely tough opponent.