KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 23/20 Tennessee will look to turn the page after a disappointing loss last Saturday in its SEC opener. The Vols (2-1, 0-1 SEC) return to Neyland Stadium to kick off a three-game homestand on Saturday afternoon.
Correcting its mistakes on both sides of the ball, specifically self-inflicted wounds such as pre-snap penalties and communication errors that plagued the team in Gainesville, is at the top of UT’s priority list as they prepare for a talented UTSA team this week.
“You look at, offensively in particular, self-inflicted wounds – that can be penalties, that can be unforced errors, it can be communication – our percentage is way too high,” head coach Josh Heupel said on Monday. “It was on Saturday, and it really was the week before too. That’s why you move the ball at times, but you don’t have very many points. We got to clean that up. You can’t beat yourself.”
The Vols know that they’ll need to learn from Saturday’s performance but also move on quickly with another difficult test coming up this weekend. UTSA (1-2) is led by one of the nation’s most experienced and productive quarterbacks in Frank Harris and is in the midst of one of the most successful stretches in program history.
“The quarterback that is their starting quarterback is a special player. It’s a football team that’s won two back-to-back conference championships,” Heupel said when asked about the Roadrunners. “They’ve won 10-plus games the last two years. They’ve lost a couple of close ones this year, but they’re a really good football team. They play extremely hard and play with really good fundamentals. They make you beat them. This is a really good football team that’s coming into Neyland on Saturday.”
Kickoff for Saturday’s contest is slated for 4 p.m. on the SEC Network.
A full transcript from Heupel’s Monday press conference can be found below.
Head Coach Josh Heupel
Opening statement…
“General Neyland probably said it best; the team that makes the fewest mistakes will win. We obviously did not play to that standard on Saturday. Everybody in the building is disappointed. You can still sense it from the players today with the disappointment and hurt. Lot of lessons for us to learn that we better learn quick. At the same time, those lessons have to carry forward, but we have to wash this one too. We have a really good opponent coming into Neyland this Saturday. It’s a football team that’s won a bunch of games over the last couple of years. They’re experienced, they have playmakers and they’re big, strong and physical on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball too. It will be a really good test.”
On if the disappointment within the team comes from the self-inflicted wounds…
“Yeah. You look at, offensively in particular, self-inflicted wounds – that can be penalties, that can be unforced errors, it can be communication – our percentage is way too high. It was on Saturday, and it really was the week before too. That’s why you move the ball at times, but you don’t have very many points. We got to clean that up. You can’t beat yourself.”
On if there is anything that can be done in practice to help prevent self-inflicted wounds…
“I do think you can’t let one play affect another. That certainly happened during the course of the first half in particular. The communication things, it can’t transpire that way. That’s on us coaches being better, it’s players being better, it’s (being) better up front. At the end of the day, we got to find a solution to it. I told the players this today too, it’s not the big things, and those are big things don’t get me wrong, but it’s the subtle details in everything that we’re doing. Everybody can’t take their turn of being off. We got to become a unit that plays 11 together all of the time. Defensively too and particularly in the first half. We’re fully capable. We need to take a step forward quickly.”
On if Dylan Sampson was available against Florida…
“He was. He’s just been a little bit nicked up, but he was available. Had plans of having him in the rotation. I think on both sides of the football, the flow of the game, in particular in the first half, we didn’t rotate the way we anticipated going into the football game and probably as much as we needed to.”
On how he would access the offensive line…
“At the end of the day, just not as consistent as we needed them to be. That’s really the entire offensive unit. I thought the wide receivers took a step in the right direction from how they’ve performed the previous weeks. Collectively as a group, just not as consistent as you need to be to go on the road, to play a good team and be able to move the football and ultimately score points. The self-inflicted wounds, that goes into how you’re scoring in the red zone too. It’s not a game of unlimited opportunities, you got to maximize them. You can’t put yourself in first-and-20 and try to play ball.”
On if Florida was doing anything offensively on third down to cause Tennessee problems…
“They did early. We had them in some third and long situations too. Our games, he (Graham Mertz) was able to get outside the pocket where we don’t keep contain on it, we don’t match things on the backend, give up two routes on the sideline. When we’re sitting in a hard corner, we should be all over that. A little bit of the run fits. Guys are not completely out of their gap, but their eyes are caught in the wrong spot for a split second, they’re a step, step and a half behind and you give up a vertical seam.”
On how he would assess Joe Milton III’s play…
“There’s some real positives. The efficiency, the communication, handling all that, we have to be better, he’s got to better and the guys up front got to be better too, and some of our skill guys as well.”
On the issues in the past few games…
“The needle has moved on some of it. Some of it from week two to week three, didn’t completely get cleaned up. We got to grow and go. For our football team, everybody sees the big picture stuff. The small details is where this game has got to be won and played. We have to get better at that.”
On how important it is for a quarterback to be able to escape the pocket and create plays…
“Extended plays are a big part of any offense in today’s game because of what you’re facing up front and the pressure packages that you are inevitably going to see. The ability to move and make plays with your feet is a part of the game. That can be tucking it and running it, it can also be extending and making plays outside of the pocket where you are throwing the football down the field.”
On how they try to prepare for the pressure an away game environment brings…
“We’ve done a lot of things. We need to ramp it up, I guess. And when I say I guess, meaning only intensify it. We have to be able to function better than we did. Part of that is the noise. Part of that is being able to reset from one play to the next. That is the hardest part to replicate during practice.”
On evaluation Joe Milton’s game management…
“He did some really good things the other night. The pick, you can’t just throw it up—you like to have that one back and we have to be better in protection too in that situation. The decision making, where he’s going with the football, I said it before the game and I’ll say it after the game too, he’s in the right spots. Accuracy and wide receivers being exact in their routes, all those things have to continue to improve for us to be as efficient as we need to be.”
On the struggles in fourth and short offensive plays…
“Some of those scenarios are different as far as what happens. A lot of it, internally we have to execute what we’re doing. That’s where we’re targeting, how we’re targeting and then the fundamentals of it. We have to execute better in some of those situations. Some of those things, we’ve practiced those exact looks. At the end of the day coaches and players, we need to get where we need to be. You have to execute on third down. Third and short should be a situation where you’re picking it up 90 percent of the time. We have to be better in those situations.”
On what UTSA looks like on film…
“I haven’t studied a ton of them on the offensive side of the football. I have watched them in recent history. The quarterback that is their starting quarterback is a special player. It’s a football team that’s won two back-to-back conference championships. They’ve won 10-plus games the last two years. They’ve lost a couple of close ones this year, but they’re a really good football team. They play extremely hard and play with really good fundamentals. They make you beat them. This is a really good football team that’s coming into Neyland on Saturday.”
On what’s holding Tennessee back from converting on red zone opportunities…
“The efficiency in the red zone, the lack of it, it’s been a huge part of our success since we’ve gotten here, directly correlates to the self-inflicted wounds that I was talking about. You can’t beat yourself. If you’re playing a good opponent, in a boxing match, they’re going to hit you once in a while and you’ve got to hit back. You can’t just give them free reign. When you put yourself in those types of situations, it’s really difficult to overcome. That’s true in the open field, but it’s really difficult when the field starts restricting. We’re capable of being better than we are. We’ve got to get there quicker.”
On Rickey Gibson III’s performance at Florida…
“Rickey went in the ball game. He’s somebody that’s continuing to gain trust from our coaching staff. He’s athletic, he’s done a good job on special teams. He got an opportunity to play some on Saturday night on defense. I said it to him today, we need him to grow quickly.”
On if he’s seen a fire in his team since the loss against Florida…
“We’re just getting going this week. The first thing is it better hurt and better matter. You could see that from our players yesterday and today. I think I said it earlier, at the same time all of those lessons got to move forward, but you’ve also got to wash this one clean. When our players come back later today, we’ve got to move on to the next one. That’ll be really important for us as a staff and as a program.”
On Saturday’s tackling issues…
“Defensively, there were a couple times that we got out of our gap. When I say out of our gap, not that we’re completely missing our gap, we’re just behind. And so, a linebacker being a step behind allows that double-team to be thicker, them to climb up on the second level and you create a vertical seam. When I talk about the game being played in margins, those are the subtle details that I’m talking about that happen on the defensive side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball. It’s not a complete wholesale change, we just have to be more efficient in what we’re doing. The tackling issues, in particular in the first half, some poor fundamentals and a couple of times where the effort wasn’t very good.”
On evaluating the offensive communication from the booth to the field…
“For us, the efficiency and tempo, we don’t ever put a stopwatch to it. It’s just how the bodies are moving and our ability to communicate, get lined up, get our cleats in the ground, identify who we’re targeting. All 11 guys operate in sync. You’ve got to be able to do that. We didn’t do it well enough on Saturday night.”