Tennessee football is a couple days away from returning to action following its bye week. To preview the matchup with New Mexico State on Saturday, Vols head coach Josh Heupel spoke with Voice of the Vols Mike Keith on ‘The Mike Keith Show‘ to give his thoughts.
He was asked about his wide receivers, Joey Aguilar, Smokey Grey jerseys and more.
Here’s what he said.
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On coming off a bye week
“I think anytime you have a bye week, your players in particular have a chance to just pause for a second, catch their breath. For us, everybody remembers what you do at the end of the year. They remember November. We need to go finish and I’m excited to get back on the field and go play with these guys and go compete on Saturday afternoon.”
On how well the wide receivers have played this year
“Huge question mark from our fanbase coming into the season and believed in the guys that we had in the room as we went into the offseason. The physical traits are one thing, but also what their growth would look like as a person, as a competitor. Coach Pope and our staff have done a great job of helping these guys continue to grow. They’ve been really consistent the majority of the season in how they’ve prepared and how they’ve played. Certainly, going to need big performances from them and that consistency as we finish the year out.”
On the receivers trending up throughout the year
“Every rep that you get matters. Then, there’s the game portion of those reps, too. The comfort of going out and playing and competing against like-competition for a lot of them, if they haven’t played at this level, it’s the first time they’re seeing someone across them that runs the way that they do, they have the length that they do. All the moving parts that you see from different coverages, that all continues to build a bank inside of a player of things they can recall and come back to that help them go perform the way that they need to on game day.”
On the ’40+ year tradition of Wide Receiver U’
“There’s a lot of great ones that have been through here. A lot of names that I remember watching. That’s one of the fun things about our VFLs coming back is for me to get an opportunity to meet a lot of these guys. And for our players to have conversations with them and take nuggets from guys that played at an elite level in college, but in the NFL, some of the greatest names inside college football.”
On the punt game limiting returns
“It again is all 11 operating well to have the stats that you talked about. Being good up front in our protection, our shield being really solid, Jackson (Ross) understanding when he’s got opportunities to hold onto the football. Placing his kicks in the right spot, having good hang time. Then, our guys running and covering down on the outside. Will Wright is a guy that all four teams, he’s done an elite job all year long. (Montrell) Bandy has been out on the perimeter. Jalen McMurray. And some of our young guys, Justin Baker, Jaedon Harmon, those guys have played extremely well on that unit. We don’t want to see our punt team on the field very often, but when we do, they need to go execute.”
On gaining trust on special teams
“Everything that you do. In practice, the opportunities that you get on game day, a lot of times for most young guys, it happens on special teams. Football IQ. Field awareness. Body position relationships. You learn so much and we call them transferable skills. The things that you do on special teams correlate to what you’re doing on offense and on defense. Mastering those techniques and gaining confidence as a football player.”
On preparing for New Mexico State
“Every Saturday is its own game day. The game forms an identity as you go through it. Being consistent in how you prepare. The opponent is nameless and faceless. I think that’s really important for your team to play consistently. We haven’t played perfect, but our preparation has continued to get better throughout the course of the year. Ultimately, in this football game, want to play all 11 together on each phase of the football. Play with physicality, destruct the line of scrimmage defensively, own it on the offensive side of the ball. Recognize and cover things out on the back end defensively.”
On what he wants to see from QB Joey Aguilar
“For us, you’ve been playing the season, as we introduce new things specific for a game plan as a staff, we have a ton of familiarity with it, but you got to also recognize this is his first opportunity maybe in this scheme. He’s continued to grow throughout the course of the season. Made some great plays. You play the quarterback position, you got to play on the right side of it. Taking care of the football is an area that we can continue to grow in. That’s all 11, too. That’s the protection piece, Five guys up front, sometimes your running back, your tight end, wide receivers being on the same page. The details in everything that we’re doing are going to continue to matter.”
On the growth of the offensive line
“There’s been things we’ve done at a really high level. There’s been a couple Saturdays where maybe I didn’t feel like we ran the ball as well as we could’ve up front. But overall, love that group, and want to see them continue to grow and compete the way that they have been.”
On the Smokey Grey jerseys
“I’m gonna take all the credit if our fans like it. I had nothing to do with it if they don’t.”
On if he cares about what uniforms they wear
“I don’t care what we wear. It matters to our players, that’s why they pick the uniforms each Saturday.”
On basketball player Bishop Boswell being a good football player in high school
“Man, I like that. I love that. We might need to bring him out for spring ball.”
