KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee football held its second scrimmage of preseason camp on Thursday morning inside Neyland Stadium, and head coach Josh Heupel addressed media members following the workout.
Quotes from Heupel are below:
Opening statement…
“Good afternoon. (It was) great to get back inside of Neyland (and) scrimmage again. All in all, I thought the scrimmage went really well. Offense, defense, got a lot of good-on-good work on special teams, too. Trying to continue to find the right guys on those units. Got a chance to work some situational football, work some crowd noise, as well, like it was road game. I thought the day went really well.”
On what he liked the most and what he liked the least from the scrimmage…
“I thought just from an operation side of it – I’m just talking sideline communication – we tried to take TV timeouts, be intentional working iPad usage, finish it with a mock halftime for the coaches and players. Organizationally, I thought it was really clean. We played clean football. Had a crew out at the scrimmage and did not have really many penalties at all over the course of it, so I really liked that. Both sides of the football, guys made some plays.”
On balancing the need to scrimmage while also trying to keep everyone healthy for the upcoming season…
“At the end of the day, as a coaching staff, I think you’re always trying to balance that in your rep count, your loads that your players are under from day-to-day. You need the physical work, and I’m talking about the physicality portion of it. At the same time, we understand what’s coming down the pipe here and getting ready to play. You’re always trying to balance that in what you’re doing.”
On getting some key players back out there like WR Dont’e Thornton Jr. …
“Dont’e has done a really nice job here during the training camp, taking more of a load here over the last few days. Really like what we’ve seen from him (and) his comfort inside of what we’re doing offensively. You mentioned a couple of the offensive linemen, thought they did a really nice job today. Obviously, want to go back and watch the film, but again as you’re building towards kickoff, all the guys that are going to be playing you want to continue to sharpen those guys up and those guys have continued to get better.”
On what the quarterbacks can learn in a scrimmage setting compared to a normal practice setting…
“For all of your quarterbacks, the green dot communication is different. Situational football, being able to reset and play the play. We try to simulate a lot of those situations during the course of practice but there’s nothing like a scrimmage to get you as close as you can be to what game day is going to be like. In general, I thought the quarterbacks handled themselves really well here. Again, situational football, being backed up coming off the goal line, your thought processes, all of those things.”
On where they are in some of the decisions for special teams roles…
“I have great competition at those positions and that’s the kickoff guy, punter, your point scorer, your snappers. We’ve been charting everything. They’re still in a real competition here. As we get to the end of training camp, some of those decisions will be made.”
On how the secondary is continuing to evolve…
“I’ve said it from the beginning of the offseason to our coaches and our players, it can’t just be one guy at one position. You’re going to have to play multiple guys. That’s just the nature of being in this league and the game that we play. I really do like the length (and) athleticism. I feel like this last block since our last scrimmage they’ve continued to be better just in their fundamentals, technique, assignment, discipline within the structure of the defense. We have to continue to get better, good teams do, that’s during the course of the season, it’s here as we’re finishing up training camp, but really like what we’re seeing from that group.”
On what he’s seen from RB DeSean Bishop from scrimmage No. 1 to now…
“I don’t know that there’s anything glaring that was different about DeSean from scrimmage one to two. I think he’s got great command (and) comfort in what we’re doing. He continues to get better in playing without the ball, his pass protection. We’re really confident in him in that. He’s just continuing to take steps every day to continue to get better.”
On offensive skill position players that he liked today…
“DeSean Bishop (and) Peyton Lewis did a really nice job at the running back spot. Wide receivers – Dont’e Thornton Jr. played extremely well, Squirrel White played well. I thought our tight end group as a whole, all three of them played extremely well today.”
On if the experience on the defensive line is setting the tone at practice and if he has to grade his offensive line on a curve due to that…
“There’s no grading on a curve in this game. I wish that were true. On Saturday’s, you better be able to line up and defeat the guy in front of you. That may not happen every snap, but it has to happen more times than not. Our d-line is deep, they’re athletic, they play extremely hard (and) they’re playing really good fundamentally. Just pad level, using their hands – that’s in pass rush, but it’s also in the run game, snagging off and making plays. For our offensive line, we have to continue to come together. That’s always the case this time of year, but I’m really confident and really like what we have on the offensive line.”
On how DB Boo Carter has progressed throughout camp…
“Playmaker that’s extremely physical. Plays extremely hard. I think the biggest area of growth for Boo has just been continued growth of playing within the scope and scheme of the defense – alignment, assignment and his physical traits will take over from there.”
On if the tight end room will be by committee or if there is one guy emerging as a true No. 1 option…
“I think we’re going to have to play multiple guys at that position. All three of those guys are going to play a lot of snaps for us. As we began our tenure here, we’ve had to navigate some things, and that room has probably been thinner at times than you would want it to be. I really like the three guys that we have in there, and all of those guys are capable of playing at a championship level.”
On depth pushing guys and creating more urgency within position groups…
“I think the depth and competition is the coach’s greatest friend inside of a position room. You have to physically get prepared. You’re conditioning level, the physicality of the game, you have to hit those benchmarks and be ready to go play for 60 minutes when we open up here in a couple of weeks. At the same time, you’re trying to make sure that you get your guys to the starting gate, too.”
On QB Nico Iamaleava’s command of the offense…
“Nico’s got a really good command of what we’re doing offensively. We’ve seen that, you know, throughout this off season, but really in his development from last fall too. He’s got great comfort. There’s a lot that goes into our quarterback play from protection, could be changing the protection. In our run game, there’s a lot of things that go into it. That’s the RPO tags, it’s loaded box, it’s all those things, so he’s got great command of what we’re doing. At the same time, everybody inside of our program has got to continue to grow to get better. I’m not just talking about Nico, I’m talking about everybody. It’s a journey, good teams get better throughout the year. We got to continue (to get better). We got three practices left in what I would call our true training camp. We got to continue to get better.”
On the adjustments the staff has had to make to in-game rule changes…
“It’s a part of what you got to do. I think logistically, there’s more changes that affected everything outside of the white lines this year. You know, communication with your players, which is obviously on the field of play, too. But the coordination of that, the iPads, there’s been a lot of logistical changes that everybody inside your program has got to be ready to handle the right way.”
On evaluating the readiness of younger players…
“You see it on the practice field, you see it during scrimmages. It’s the ability to operate, reset from play-to-play, play within the scope of what you’re doing (on) offense, defense (and) special teams. Every rep matters.”
