Tennessee coach Josh Heupel joined the Mike Keith Show on Thursday to preview Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. SEC matchup with Auburn at Neyland Stadium. Here is what Heupel had to say.
What has Faizon Brandon been working on to get ready for his second SEC game?
“A guy that’s going to continue to grow and learn from every experience that he has. Some things he did well a week ago, some things that he’s going to learn from. It starts with small details, fundamentals, understanding some protection things and progressions and reads, and you just continue to progress every single week. He’s a true competitor and ready to go in this one.”
Brandon showed his competitive mettle against Texas.
“Tough, resilient, willing to go play the next play. It wasn’t perfect. There’s a lot of things we’ve got to do better. It’s important that the 10 other guys around him do their jobs at a high level to help that young quarterback.”
What do you need from the other 10 guys on offense against Auburn?
“It starts up front. We’ve got to run the ball better. That’s the five guys. It’s the tight ends. It’s the backs. It’s everybody. There’s details in what we’re doing in the pass game. It could be depth of routes, understanding man/zone principles, being in the right spot, and quarterback going through his progression, trusting the protection at times too and working through his progression in a better way. It’s truly all 11 guys doing their job at a high level.”
What makes the Auburn defense a challenge?
“Really good up front. We’ve gone against the coordinator multiple times. He’s multiple on his fronts, his pressures and what he’s playing on the back end. So getting into the flow of the game early, winning up front and then doing a good job on third down. That will be critical in this one.”
What does Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown bring that your defense has to handle?
“A guy that’s played in this system for a long time, year one at Auburn, but has been playing in it. He’s got really good understanding of what they’re doing. The plus one in the run game, his physicality is a huge part of their identity. We’ve got to do a great job winning, having gap integrity, destructing blocks and tackling him.”
Which positions matter most against a big quarterback his size who runs the ball?
“It’s not just one position, but certainly your front, your second level backers and then in particular your safeties. That can change depending on the formations where other guys are going to be in the fit. But all of those guys got to do a great job of destructing the line of scrimmage, tearing off the blocks and tackling.”
Auburn competes and expects to win. Is that obvious to your team as well?
“Absolutely. Defensively, same coordinator that they had the previous year, so there’s a lot of holdover there in their personnel and in the schemes that they’re playing. They play physical. They play fast. Offensively, quarterback has a ton of experience. They have an identity in what they’re doing offensively. They’re continuing to grow offensively. Special teams, very aggressive. We’ve got to do a great job understanding our calls, what we’re seeing on the other side, the structure and playing with discipline but playing hard.”
Happy hour with half price concessions and early gates is continuing. How did you get that done?
“Always thinking about our fans. Experience as good as it can be, and hopefully they get there early and have a great Saturday afternoon.”
The feel of a packed house during Texas warm ups.
“Sixty minutes before kickoff, it’s usually half full. It was 75% full. And, it was a great atmosphere.”
The players understand the history behind the Neyland Legacy uniforms. How do you teach them that?
“Preseason, during training camp, we do a history of General Neyland, our maxims, great players. Understanding the history of Tennessee football, and beginning of this week we talked about the history of this program again and why we’re wearing the uniforms. Let’s go represent the Tennessee Vol history the right way. Let’s go represent this team and this program the right way this Saturday afternoon.”
It’s fulfilling for Vol fans to hear the players talk about that history.
“It’s a deep and rich history and something that we’ve got to continue to grow and live up to.”
