FootballOctober 28, 2024

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 7/7 Tennessee will begin a stretch of five games in five weeks to close out the regular season starting with a border battle against the Kentucky Wildcats this Saturday night at Neyland Stadium.

Saturday’s contest will be televised on the SEC Network at 7:45 p.m. and will be the sixth night game for the Volunteers this season. It will also mark the return of the “Dark Mode” uniforms, which will be worn for the fifth time since their introduction in 2021. UT is 3-1 when wearing its “Dark Mode” uniforms.

Tennessee is also in the middle of a four-game home stretch at Neyland Stadium, a place it has had tons of success under head coach Josh Heupel, having won five in a row and 17 of its last 18 contests.

“Another rivalry game this weekend. Night game in Neyland. Dark Mode. Looking forward to going and playing in this one,” Heupel said during his Monday press conference. “Need our crowd to be a huge part of the football game, and you know, this week we have to continue our preparation as a football team (and) get ready to go play our best football.”

One point of emphasis this week will be getting off to a good start offensively after struggling over the past three games in the first half. The Vols will look to build off a strong second-half performance in their Third Saturday in October rivalry win over Alabama in which they scored 24 points and had four of their seven drives end in points, due in large part to a gritty effort from redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

“I think that we’re going to continue to carry that on through the rest of the season,” senior tight end Miles Kitselman said. “Just continuing to pour into our guys about how big confidence is. It truly is everything. Nico is a young player, and this is a tough league. That second half versus Bama, I think we really saw what he could do, and the coaches are great at pouring into him and pouring into everybody. Just that our ceiling is so high, and we haven’t even touched it yet.

“So, going into this week, just trying to keep the second half momentum that we had versus Alabama, just keep it rolling.”

Videos and quotes from Monday’s availability with Heupel and select players can be seen below.

Head Coach Josh Heupel

Opening statement…
“Good to see everybody back. Another rivalry game this weekend. Night game in Neyland. Dark Mode. Looking forward to going and playing in this one. Need our crowd to be a huge part of the football game, and you know, this week we have to continue our preparation as a football team (and) get ready to go play our best football. You look at Kentucky, it’s a group that defensively is playing extremely well. You just look at them statistically. Defensively, we have to do a good job following the formations, motions, and control the line of scrimmage. Quarterback run game being a part of that as well. As far as special teams, they have a dynamic returner that can change the game. We have to do a great job against him.”

On preparing for two quarterbacks and leaning on prior prep against Florida…
“I think defensively, you always have to know who the number two is and have a plan for him. It can be through injury or them playing multiple guys. Your defensive players need to understand what type of player that is. Certainly for them, quarterback running game is always a part of it. Second half of last week, played the younger kid. For us, we have to do a great job of controlling the quarterback run game. That is a huge part of it. Understanding that in this game, there are limited opportunities, and I’m just talking about possessions during the course of the game. All three phases have to play that well together. For us, within the scope of what we are doing schematically, play assignment sound, have to rally, have to go make tackles in space. And certainly, when its quarterback run game, your eyes, your keys, have to take you to making those plays.”

On slow first halves in SEC games…
“There’s not just one thing. You look at a week ago against Alabama, turnovers on a couple possessions and missed field goals, execution, taking sacks in the red zone. It’s a combination of all of us being a little bit better, coaches and players together.”

On teams showing different defensive structures than prior…
“There are always subtle changes in every football game. For a couple of weeks there, it was a little more dramatic than usual. Young quarterback (Nico Iamaleava), having an opportunity to see things. You hear me say it, he’s going to get better with every rep that he takes. Our players having a better understanding of some of that puts us in a better position to be successful.”

On making a case for College Football Playoff rankings…
“You make your case by going and controlling what you control, which is your performance on Saturdays. Your preparation takes you there. We’re halfway through the conference schedule. There’s a ton of football. If you are worried about the end result, you’re going to make the mistakes you can’t afford on the way to the end. For us, being present, being in the now, preparing in a great way, continuing to grow as a football team. You guys hear me say it, players hear me say it, good teams continue to get better. Our best football is still out in front of us, and we have to go chase that.”

On playing three linebackers in favor of the nickel package in recent weeks…
“There’s a lot of different reasons that you can get into your base personnel. That’s what you’re facing on the other side of the line of scrimmage, their skillset, how you want them to defend the run game, and what you want to play out on the perimeter. We’ve worked that all through the course of spring ball and training camp, having the flexibility and opportunity to play different personnel groupings to those personnels that we’re seeing from the other side of the football. They train that way and have executed really well in it.”

On how high of a level Jermod McCoy is playing at right now…
“It is never perfect. You’re chasing it every day. But he’s playing really good football, playing with great discipline at the line of scrimmage in his press technique. He has the athletic traits to recover when it’s not perfect at the line of scrimmage. He’s doing a great job of playing the 50-50 ball, back shoulder fades or vertically all the way down the football field. That comes from his maturity, his fundamentals and technique, and competitive composure at the end of the play.”

On what has allowed Jermod McCoy to make such an impact early in his transition…
“I think it just starts with his maturity as a person. Coming out of high school, what he did before he got on the field in three months at the previous stop in changing his body. A guy that was recruited to play some wide receiver, flips over to the other side of the football. He’s a sponge as far as soaking up information inside the meeting room, extremely bright. It’s not like you’re restarting every single day. He’s able to grow upon what happened the previous day on the field or in the meeting room and incorporate those things into his game. He’s got all the athletic traits you want, but again, his maturity is a huge factor in why he’s playing the way that he is.”

On young players’ ability to make significant improvements during an open week this late in the season…
“I made the point to our football team the Monday after the last football game that how you prepare, it’s not just during bye week. How you practice, the immediate gratification result doesn’t come after one practice. You just keep stacking days, and good things inevitably happen. There are great examples of that on our football team during the course of the season. Every player, not just young players, continuing to invest and improve is really critical. If you start showcasing those things, being consistent on the practice field, it will translate over to gameday. That’s the challenge for all of us.”

On Mike Matthews building into a larger role down the home stretch…
“Yeah, Mike has gotten some opportunities. I feel like there is a greater opportunity for execution at times when he is out there. Some of that is the guys around him, some of that is him too. We need him to continue to come on and be a big part of what we are doing here on the back half of this conference season.”

On competition along the offensive line and young players vying for playing time…
“I want to see those guys continue to improve. That is in our team setting, some of it is in pass rush against the defensive line. Those guys are in a race to be ready to play.”

On getting buy-in to play defensive line on a unit that rotates heavily…
“I think it comes from them being connected in the meeting room. Understanding those guys are playing at a high level. How playing multiple guys makes us better later in the football game and throughout the course of the season. When teammates recognize that guys are ready to play, they understand that they have earned the right to go out there and play. At the end of the day, it has made our defensive line and our defensive unit stronger.”

On facing talented SEC defenders, specifically Kentucky defensive tackle Deone Walker…
“Your original statement is true. The difference in this league and everywhere else around the country. You are going to see elite players with great physical traits and athleticism. He is a guy that is a dominant player. As they move him around in his front, he is able to play within their scheme extremely well. He uses his hands. He is physical. He is active, disruptive. He is a really good football player. But, their D-line in general has great size and plays extremely well with pad level.”

On Kentucky’s second and third levels’ impact on the pass game…
“They have length, athleticism. They’ll play multiple fronts — three-down, four-down, drop-eight at times. They play with great discipline, pattern reading and causing issues with windows. We have to do a great job of recognizing their rotations, feeling the underneath coverage and getting to the right spot at the right time with the ball.”

Senior TE Miles Kitselman

On what stands out about Kentucky’s front seven…
“They have depth, they play really hard, linebackers have good eyes, so this is going to be a challenge for us for sure, just attacking this week’s preparation and just honing in on details and not taking anything for granted.”

On how beneficial this second bye week was for him…
“I would definitely say physically more than anything, you get to a point in the season where nagging pains are starting to become more and more. So being able to take this weekend off and really just get my body back to where it needs to be and coming back into this week feeling really good. That was a much needed bye week.”

On what he saw from the offense and specifically QB Nico Iamaleava during the second half against Alabama…
“I would definitely say in the second half of the Bama game you kind of see who he truly is and how he’s built and how he’s made and how he came back in the second half and put up 24 points against a really good defense. I think that we’re going to continue to carry that on through the rest of the season. Just continuing to pour into our guys about how big confidence is. It truly is everything. Nico is a young player, and this is a tough league. That second half versus Bama, I think we really saw what he could do, and the coaches are great at pouring into him and pouring into everybody. Just that our ceiling is so high, and we haven’t even touched it yet. So, going into this week, just trying to keep the second half momentum that we had versus Alabama, just keep it rolling.”

Junior LB Kalib Perry

On playing in a three-linebacker set…
“I think my favorite thing about it is obviously emphasizing, like coach (William Inge) said, having dual backers. Just showing that all of us can play in three different spots and giving a different look for offenses. It makes it tricky because they don’t know what we are going to come out in, our different packages. It has been fun because all of us just play free. We all communicate. We are with each other all the time. So, just being able to have three backers in the game, we get to rock and roll and go play.”

On playing for defensive coordinator Tim Banks…
“Coach Banks is one of those guys you have to get to know on a personal level. He means business at the end of the day, but he is someone who truly cares a lot about his players. He is always going to make sure he puts his players first in everything. He is someone that makes sure he builds on people and does not put them down. So yeah, he is going to teach you what you did wrong, but he is going to make sure you learn from it. Not just yell without a purpose, but make sure there is a purpose behind it. It is awesome to play for him. He opens up the playbook, sees things that we like, asks us constantly what we want to do this week. He is open about making sure that players communicate with coaches, and it is not just coaches talking to players. It is awesome to be around him, and he is a great coordinator.”

On how holding teams to under 20 points plays into the defense’s mindset…
“It is huge obviously. When we give up points, we are not satisfied. It just makes us more hungry. We know it is just little things that go a long way in a game. So, we cannot give the opponents a step. It had been a big milestone for us. We are going to continue to harp on not letting up any points and continue to see what we did wrong to even get in that place. Like I said, it is fun to be around. It is awesome. It is great energy. But, at the end of the day too, we know what we need to do and how we are going to go about doing it. Just making sure that we continue to grow from it and not get satisfied with just holding people under 20 points, but trying to get them to zero.”

RS-Freshman RB DeSean Bishop

On his growth over the past couple of games…
“I’d like to say that I’ve come a long way, especially from not playing at all last year. From having a lot of opportunities to get playing time this year is truly a blessing. It all starts on the practice field. I’m very intentional in what I do, whether it’s reading a play or having to take on a defender in pass pro. It all goes back into what I do to prepare for games coming on Saturday. It’s just my preparation is leading to my success on Saturdays.”

On what he was focusing on during the bye week…
“I’d say just not falling asleep or not treating this week like an off week because it definitely wasn’t. Just being intentional in my craft, studying and taking some extra time to study Kentucky and not take them lightly. It was mainly just focusing on my craft.”

On the emphasis the team has put on starting out stronger on offense…
“It’s been a big emphasis. I don’t feel like it is nothing that the other teams are doing, but rather us shooting ourselves in the foot. It goes back to being crucial in the small stuff and being more intentional.”