Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel met with the media on Wednesday morning following the Vols’ first scrimmage of fall practice.
Heupel discussed the spring ending injury for running back Cam Seldon, the development of Nico Iamaleava and much more. Here’s everything Heupel said.
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Opening statement
“Huge day here on campus for us. We have 15 former players who will be working out here in just a few minutes for Pro Day. I’m excited to see those guys go through this part of the NFL experience. Guys that have helped us turn this program around and been a huge part of winning a lot of football games. It was also great this morning that we were able to get into Neyland and go scrimmage for the first time here, we’re six days in. It’s great to see the competition and plays made on both sides of the football. As much as anything, I thought we played extremely hard from snap to whistle. There’s a bunch that we’ll learn here as we continue to push after Easter break on the backend of spring ball.”
On what he was looking for in the first scrimmage
“It does start with playing hard. At this point in spring ball, you want your veterans to act like veterans and play sound football, play penalty-free but go out and execute. We have a lot of young guys inside your program that are getting their first taste of what it means to go play live football. So, by any stretch of the imagination, it’s not going to be perfect, but you want to see guys that are going to go make plays. That’s offense, it’s defense, we did a lot of good-on-good in special teams, primarily on punt and punt return. You want to see guys that are putting themselves in the position where you can start gaining trust in who they are as a player. When something doesn’t go right, I think it’s important that we see guys that are going to respond the right way. A lot of good, a lot of things that we’re going to have to learn from today off the video when they come back in tomorrow.”
On what stood out most with the young players today
“I don’t know if there was any one guy. Mike (Matthews) made a big play down the sideline today. I thought he competed hard throughout the course of the day. I thought some of our young DBs showed up just tackling in space. As we go through spring ball, those fundamentals are extremely important. Boo Carter did a great job making plays in space. Some of those guys are consistently showing up day-to-day as they go through this experience and grow.”
On what he’s seen in terms of urgency from the younger players
“Just their competitive spirit when they’ve been out on the practice field. Those young guys don’t take a backseat to anybody. Individual drills, they’re up in the front of the line. They’re constantly pushing to get reps. They’ve been great inside of the meeting room in the early part of spring ball. They expect themselves to do the right things and be mature and be a vet almost as far as their understanding of the game. Those guys continue to compete in a really good way: offense, defense and special teams.”
On the tight end position and Alabama Transfer Miles Kitselman’s development
“Miles wasn’t here for bowl preparation. Those guys inside of our program, the guys that just got here, Miles and Holden (Staes), but Ethan Davis a young player. All those guys made plays out there today, but they’ve been really consistent in the first five practices too. I thought the new guys operated within our offense extremely well for their first time out on the field. There’s a certain way you have to play from snap to the echo of the whistle, but then how we function and operate and communicate offensively from the whistle, getting themselves lined up, getting in position, being efficient with their movement. I thought they did a really good job here for the first time.”
On the status of Cameron Seldon
“With Cam, unfortunate, just the early part of spring ball, had an injury to his shoulder, had surgery on it. We’ll kind of evaluate where we’re at as the rehab process gets started and base our decisions off of that and kind of where we project where he’s going to be.”
On Nico Iamaleava’s operation today and what he liked from him
“He’s been really good in practices leading up to it, being intentional, having conversations and making sure he’s getting on the same page with the skill guys, but also with the offensive line, growing and bringing energy to that group before a drive and during the course of it. I thought today, just the way he functioned and operated, controlled the huddle – we went into a four-minute situation at the end. Understanding the play clock, game clock and all of that, just functioned and operated extremely maturely today.”
On the most exciting part of Pro Day as a coach seeing guys go through the process
“Ultimately at the end of it, it’s them getting to a franchise and putting the helmet and shoulder pads on and getting a chance to go compete for a job. It’s the next part of their journey. Just the maturity that our guys have had and some of the feedback that we’ve gotten from NFL personnel that have been at postseason bowl games and how they’ve handled the combine process – really excited for those guys. Shows some of the maturity and some of the things that our coaches are teaching those guys on a consistent basis while they’re here in our program. I’m excited for today because they get an opportunity, for those that didn’t go to the combine, to put their next foot forward and put themselves in a position to go where they want to go. Today, they are going to have an opportunity to showcase their athletic traits that NFL personnel have already seen on the film, so excited to go see them go compete today.”
On opportunities for other running backs with Cam Seldon being out
“D-Samp (Dylan Sampson) has been awesome with just energy, leadership, maturity and the understanding of our offense. The young guys continue to take steps forward. Khalifa (Keith) has done a really nice job. He’s been extremely physical, was today as well. I thought he finished going forward all the time. DeSean Bishop, a young guy that got nicked up last year, his growth inside of our program, for him to get back on the field and showcase his skillset, handled the rehab process extremely well and I love the competition that he’s brought. (Patrick) Wilk and Hunter (Barnes) have done a really nice job.”
On young defensive backs who stood out to him today
“I already mentioned Boo (Carter). I thought he made plays. John Slaughter did a great job today defending a deep ball down the sidelines, just a ball, me, man relationship and playing the 50/50 ball. He did a nice job on some of the tackles. I’m excited to go watch the scrimmage here. Edrees Farooq is a young guy that’s consistently shown up here in the early part of spring ball too.”
