Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel spoke on the SEC Coaches Teleconference Wednesday before the Vols host Oklahoma in a SEC showdown at Neyland Stadium. The Vols and Sooners each enter the game with one loss as the game serves as a College Football Playoff elimination game.
Heupel discussed Tennessee’s offensive explosion a week ago against Kentucky, the challenges that Oklahoma’s elite defense presents and much more. Here’s everything Heupel said.
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Opening statement
“Have had a really good start here to the week. Anytime you’re playing in a game like this, your preparation and the details of it are going to matter greatly. Great opportunity for us this week with a great opponent coming in. Coach Venables and their entire staff have done a great job. Offensively, dynamic quarterback makes plays with his arm, obviously, but it is a huge problem in his ability to extend, make plays with his feet situationally. During the flow of the game, they do a great job of using him and turning the numbers into the right advantage for them in design quarterback read and run game as well. And defensively, they’re as good as you’re going to see in college football on their fronts— strong, violent and physical and have a relentless ability to create negative plays and get after the quarterback, sack the quarterback. And they’ve done a really good job on the back end. So huge test for us, but it’s also a great opportunity and should be a great environment. Look forward to going and playing and competing with our guys.”
On the significance of the big offensive performance against Kentucky
“Every week’s independent and ultimately what you want to see from your unit and your football team is continued growth. And I thought offensively did a lot of really good things and creating explosive plays and Joey throwing the football and wide receivers making plays. And so it was a positive on the road to go play in that way. Ultimately, this is a new week and game day is kind of the result of your preparation and being prepared to go play the right way. I said it earlier, Oklahoma as a football team, a really good team, but defensively, in particular, with what they’ve done— special unit and huge test for us, but looking forward to it.”
On the multiple looks Oklahoma’s defense presents
“Brent’s always, everywhere he’s been has done a great job with his defenses and he’s multiple. It changes from year to year, but has the ability from week to week to be different too. So I think it’s important that our guys settle into the game and identify bodies and where they’re at and the structure of the defense and ultimately coaches and players together. You got to adjust during the course of the game as well.”
On the progression of Tennessee’s run game
“I like a lot of what we’ve done in the run game. Last week, there were a couple of things early that I didn’t think we identified the right bodies and didn’t maximize a couple of runs. But you look at the end of the game and you’ll finish with a close to eight-minute drive too. At the end of the day, it’s a little bit of what defenses are giving you and you got to be able to attack them in both manners. I think the run game in general has kind of been the key to who we are for a really long time.”
On what stood out to him in the fourth quarter of the Oklahoma-Ole Miss game
“Yeah, there’s a lot of back and forth in that game. And you look at Oklahoma, they’re able to make plays in a variety of ways, offensively and defensively. They’re always flying around to the football and it was a great game between two really good football teams.”
