KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee’s defense set the tone Saturday at Neyland Stadium, holding Alabama to 2-of-13 on third down and getting after quarterback Keelon Russell all day, while the offense leaned on DeSean Bishop and a 15-play fourth-quarter touchdown drive that ate up nine and a half minutes to put the game away.
It’s the Vols’ third win over the Crimson Tide under Josh Heupel and the third time at home. Heupel praised Jim Knowles’ defense, the run game and the crowd afterward before turning his attention to a road trip to South Carolina. Here’s everything he said.
Opening statement
“Just want to start by saying thanks to our fans. Knew it would be, but elite atmosphere. Part of the game for four quarters. Phenomenal atmosphere.
“Great win. Defense. Suffocating, elite performance. Really proud of those guys. They handled adversity, sudden change extremely well. Great performance by them. As a team, found a way to win against a good football team. Really proud of our guys. Enjoy this one tonight and start getting better tomorrow.”
What makes Jim Knowles connect with players, given how stoic he is and the postgame dance on the field
“They love him. He’s a Philly guy. Tough, demanding, but they love him and they believe in him. He cuts up and has some fun with them, too. He’s got a great way of connecting with people. Have seen that really from the very beginning in his own way of doing it. Elite job by him tonight.”
How the run game helped Tennessee control nearly 36 minutes of possession
“Run game, situationally, us playing smart and finding the right way to try to go win a football game. Operating out of the huddle offensively, there’s a lot of pieces of it. The run game certainly, if you look at the way we were able to finish the football game with I don’t know how many plays it was, but a lot of big plays in the run game. A couple of key conversions throwing the football, too, but really proud of the effort, we’re talking about offense right now, so the offense finishing that way.
“We talked about this being a line-of-scrimmage game, boxing-match mentality and have to win them with physicality for four quarters, and I thought we did that. Proud of our football team.”
The pride he takes in a 15-play, nine-and-a-half-minute fourth-quarter touchdown drive to seal it
“Take a ton of pride in playing winning football at that point in the game and being able to function and operate. George [MacIntyre] did a really good job being able to drain the clock when we were asking him to do that, and then run the football the way that you need to sustain a drive and then go finish that drive.
“[DeSean] Bishop was elite. At halftime, we just said, ‘It’s going to be a big second half,’ to him, and he had a big smile on his face, gleam in his eye, and he certainly did that from there.”
Whether playing offense that way signals a slight identity shift
“Running the football has always been the foundation of who we are. Year-to-year identity of your football team, how do you play smart football and try to put your team in the situation to win. That can be a little bit different week-to-week, but found a way to do that tonight.”
Whether he knew the defensive line was capable of this kind of pressure on Keelon Russell against an opponent like Alabama
“I felt like they were better up front than they were a year ago. Through the course of this season, our defensive line has continued to get better every week. Xavier’s [Gilliam] been elite, right, but there’s a lot of them that have been playing at a really high level. Our edges were able to get to the quarterback tonight to affect him. He escaped on a couple of plays, but I think the key is our front is playing well off of each other. That’s in our twist game, our run stunts. They’re executing and performing together, and it takes a level of unselfishness to do that, too. It’s a big part of that group right now.”
What stood out most about George MacIntyre’s performance
“Played winning football. The ups and downs in a game like this, I thought he was decisive, going to the right spots on the football field. Had some adversity. Tip, pick. Man, just super consistent. Same demeanor. Goes out the following play, the following drive and cuts it, trusts his eyes.
“He extended and made some plays. Early scramble, checkdown that was a conversion and a big-time play in the fourth quarter on a boot play. Just I thought he saw it extremely well and was composed and went and played the next play.”
What makes DeSean Bishop special and whether he’s still underrated nationally
“I don’t pay attention to a lot of things nationally and that type of thing. He’s a special back. Smart, tough, physical. Finishes runs, runs through trash. A dirty two, three-yard gain, he’s pushing for five. It changes the game. Situational football.
“He’s got great vision. When he bounces it, it’s typically the right time to bounce it. He has an understanding of run schemes and structurally what he’s seeing and really good vision, so he’s special.”
What three wins over Alabama and three field-storming moments mean for Tennessee fans
“Go back to the first one and all the build-up, lead-up to it. Now there’s an expectation that that’s what you do when you’re playing these guys. It’s been fun building this. There’s been days where we want different outcomes, but this is without a doubt the best fan base in America.
“They show up in an elite way every Saturday. Recruits come here, you drive by Vol Navy and see all those boats. You go to Vol Walk and you see 35,000 people, and 60 minutes before kickoff, it’s 65, 70% full. It’s college sports, college football is as good as it gets. It’s special to be here.
“Walking off that field in a situation like tonight where you win, those are things that I’ll remember forever, too.”
Settling for four first-half field goals and whether he knew it would be a take-the-points kind of game
“Every game, you watch the film, right, and you try to understand what you’re getting into, right, in the style of play and matchups. There’s 11 different matchups on the field every play, and you’re trying to predict how it’s going to play out. Ultimately early in the football game, just not as efficient, effective as we needed to be and that’s not converting on the passes, third downs, not being able to convert.
“You just couldn’t come up empty-handed in those situations, and I haven’t mentioned it yet, but Coop [Cooper Ranvier] did an unbelievable job. In probably as windy of a day as we’ve had inside of that stadium since I’ve been here, put everything right through the uprights. That was a huge part of the game early.
“You kick field goals like that, typically it comes back to bite you in the butt, though, too. We were able to, in some ways, get away with that because of an elite defensive performance.”
What’s most satisfying about watching this group experience the field storming and the cigars
“The celebration in the locker room, our fans, those are things that I already said I’m going to remember forever. They’re going to remember forever, too. Tonight, I told Bill [Martin] to slow down. I wanted to enjoy it a little bit more than I had in my first one, just trying to get off the field.
“For our players, we talk about the historic rivals, the history of this program, General Neyland, great former players in every phase of the game. For them to understand the importance of this game to our fan base, but to us as a team, too, and buy-in to that and win the preparation and practice extremely well to go play the way you need to to find a way to win.”
How much the Derek Owings Effect showed up in the fourth quarter and on the long touchdown drive
“D.O.’s a massive part of who we are as a program. Line of scrimmage, fourth quarter, a huge part, direct result of it.”
Whether he’d back Dixieland Delight as the new fourth-quarter song at home games
“We played that song during the week in the lead-up and it raised the hairs on everybody’s necks, and we understand what we’re getting into when we get to game day.”
Whether holding Alabama to 2-of-13 on third down is what he envisioned when he hired Jim Knowles
“Not just third downs. The entire night. They did an unbelievable job. They faced a couple of short fields after playing elite defense. Got after the quarterback, tight windows, didn’t give up anything easy early and made him earn it. Won at the line of scrimmage in the run game. The fourth down stops, massive part of the game.
“It was an elite job by Jim in game-planning and our defensive staff and an elite job by our players going and executing it and playing hard for 60 minutes.”
Whether this was the team’s best complementary performance and what he hopes a win like this does for them
“Probably holistically in conference play, yes, the best that we’ve been. There’s so much left out there for us. Constant, continued growth. If we control our controllables on the offensive side of the ball, special teams, we’ve got a chance to continue to grow and be a really good football team.”
Where the line is between using this win as motivation and letting players get too high
“This game, you better enjoy it on the back end. They should tonight. I did for, I don’t know, however long I was in the locker room. Coaches, when I get home here in about 45 minutes, I’ll be over it and on to the next one and how do we get better. Our players, they get a little bit longer. They come in and get treatment, but Monday morning, you deal with the reality of how do we get better.
“We certainly understand, you guys are certainly tired of me saying it, every week in this league, new season, and we understand where we’re going, who we’re playing. They’ve had a bye week, so they’ve got a week of preparation on us. We’ve got to make up ground and get ready to go play on the road.”
When he realized the defense could play at that level
“I don’t think you ever just think that’s what it’s going to be. That happens because you prepare the right way, you practice the right way, you’ve got a great game plan and then guys go execute and physically play in a way that you can do that, sustain it for 60 minutes. That’s four hours. That’s a hard thing to do, but they did it all night long.”
What it was like watching Dejuan Lane’s night
“Been a tremendous player. I mean, I don’t even know all of his stats, but a couple of picks, right, maybe a fumble recovery, too. Am I right? He’s played elite, and the good news for him is there’s still more out there for him. He’s still going to continue to get better if he chooses to, and I say that as a real compliment to him. He’s been a dominant player.”
