Josh Heupel met with the media Monday to open Georgia Tech week, and the Tennessee head coach covered plenty of ground before the Vols head to Atlanta for a Saturday night test at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Heupel broke down the first look at Jim Knowles’ defense, explained the sole-captain nod to Arion Carter, addressed the season-ending injury to Joakim Dodson and previewed a physical Yellow Jackets team. Here’s everything he said.
Opening statement
“Good afternoon, everybody. Great opportunity this week. I don’t think we’ve played at Bobby Dodd Stadium in close to 40 years, but a great opportunity against a really good opponent. A lot of steps forward that we need to take as a program to be ready for Saturday night to play our best football. A ton of respect for Georgia Tech, what they’ve done down there, the program that they’ve built. It’ll be a great environment, physical football game, and we need to get prepared to go play our best.”
Q: How did your defense grade out in the first game with a Jim Knowles defense?
“I thought our ones played extremely well, assignment sound. I thought our front seven played extremely well. So a lot of positives in game one of year one defensively. There’s some things that holistically we’ve got to continue to grow in, but a positive showing.”
Q: You talked during camp about how much the strength and conditioning with Coach Owings and the staff has helped with speed and strength. Seeing it on tape and in person, how did that play out during the game?
“Our guys did a great job. Coach Owings, his staff have done a great job. Saturday, it wasn’t like everybody played a full 60 minutes either. But I think the gains, the strides that we’ve made in that area have parlayed itself into us playing with the type of physicality that we want to.”
Q: When you went back and watched the tape, what went wrong for the run game in the first quarter and what was different after that?
“Yeah, a couple things on the edge, tight ends. They just got to clean up some of their fundamentals. A couple of it was just communication, a different front than what we anticipated and don’t block it right. End of the day, nothing major. It’s doing the little things. When you get ready to go on the road at night, the little things add up really quickly. Those are some of the small things that we’ve got to grow in to be ready to go play the way that we need to Saturday night.”
Q: You rotated a bunch of different combinations up front. Do you like having that flexibility, or do you want to settle in more heading into a road game? Where do you think you are with that group overall?
“New center playing. Some of our issues, some things that we needed to clean up stem from communication, and that’s all five of them. Ultimately, during the course of the season, you’re going to need more than just five. Guys got their grades today. There’s areas of improvement for all of them. And we’ll see how we play it on Saturday night as we go through the week.”
Q: When you were looking at hiring Jim Knowles, what kind of game planner did you think he was week to week? Does he have a skill for being less predictable from one week to the next?
“I think he’s good at being able to be different from week to week in presentations, rotations, pressures. I think he’s good in-game adjuster as well.”
Q: What went into the decision to make Arion Carter a captain, and not just a captain but the sole captain?
“He’s the strongest leader in our locker room. He represents Tennessee the exact way that I and our administration, our staff, would want somebody to represent Tennessee. So it was a no-brainer on Saturday to have him be the guy out there.”
Q: You’ve been vocal in your defense of him. He’s going to donate $427, the amount he was suspended over, for every tackle he makes this season. Your reaction to that?
“I think it’s indicative of who he is, right? He’s passionate about a cause for multiple reasons. Obviously his girlfriend, but his family history as well. A guy that cares about community. So I think it’s just indicative of who he is as a person. The dollar amount certainly keeps the story alive, too.”
Q: When you think about what it means to be a Tennessee Volunteer, how much does Arion Carter encompass that?
“Yeah, young guy that came in was very mature, very focused. He’s grown tremendously as a football player, as a leader. You look at his success off the field, that’s in our community. It’s graduating with honors. How much of an impact he has inside of our program. He represents everything that’s good about college football and certainly represents everything, the right way of being a Vol.”
Q: What do you see in Georgia Tech starting quarterback Alberto Mendoza?
“Yeah, I thought he played extremely smart the other night. You can see him be able to progress through his reads, one through five, get all the way to the backside of the concept and do it extremely quickly. Was accurate with the football, athletic enough to extend, make plays as a passer and has the feet to go gain yards afterwards too. So I thought he played extremely well the other night.”
Q: With Joakim Dodson out for the year, who needs to step up to provide depth for Staley in the slot? I imagine Tyree King will.
“Need to continue to come along there. Yeah, Tyree’s the first guy that needs to continue to grow. He’s done a good job. I mentioned that during the course of training camp and got some action the other day and just needs to continue to grow. So we got great trust in him. But certainly there’s urgency. If there wasn’t before, he certainly recognizes that now.”
Q: (On Joakim Dodson’s season-ending injury)
“Yeah, you just hate it for him. One really good kickoff return, unique just in how he gets tackled, in the leg plants. But from year one finishing the season to January, just how he prepared, practiced, trained, saw great strides in him as a player. Disappointing. You put all that work in and you get one game of football. So that’s always hard for anybody that goes through that.”
Q: What do you want to see out of Faizon this week getting ready to play Saturday? You’ve been in his shoes. What are the challenges for him this week?
“Prepare the right way and empty the tank in your preparation. That’s film study, understanding what we’re doing. It always comes down to little things, that’s at home or on the road, but on the road it’s even amplified. So great in communication, control and command of what we’re doing. He’s gonna have to make plays but he’s got to take care of the football as well.”
Q: Brent Key has typically had a physical style of play with his teams. Do you see parts of his personality in this team?
“They are a physical football team. They’ve had some turnover on their offensive line, but they still have a ton of experience, I think over 90 starts on the offensive line. Their running back room is as deep as anybody in the country. They’re physical. They run downhill, got great pad level. It’ll be a physical football game on Saturday night, and we have to win with physicality.”
Q: How much attention are you putting on Justice Haynes? He had about 20 carries in week one. What makes him such an effective back?
“Yeah, dynamic player. He is extremely physical, runs with great pad level, but he’s got really good vision, and we’ve seen him before as a program. He’s a special talent.”
Q: Faizon didn’t push the ball down the field much in the first half. Were you pleased with his decision-making on where to go with the football? Was that a byproduct of what he was seeing from the defense?
“Yeah, anticipated them being pretty soft early in the football game. That’s why there weren’t a bunch of shots down the football field. But you talk about playing smart football, the little things adding up. We’re behind the chains on drive two and drive three from self-inflicted wounds. So all of that is a part of why the first quarter was the way that it was.”
