Tennessee HC Josh Heupel Reacts to Vols' Dominant Season-Opening Win Over Chattanooga

coach uh first of all just thank all the fans hot day out there uh they showed up early volok was uh electric um Stadium um was juicy right from the beginning uh appreciate uh all of them uh coming out it's been a long time since we've been in there so great to see them back again um like a lot of the things that uh that we did all three phases of the game uh defensively thought just line of scrimmage um did a really nice job uh played good third down defense um tight coverage for most of it and and um so really a lot of positives on that side of the football offensively did some really good things early um got to learn how to stay dialed in and and finish um a half a quarter uh the football game but uh all in all uh good day and obviously uh Specialists did uh really really good job for for most of the day so open it up questions we'll start with Austin on the left Josh you talked all fall Camp about rotating and you guys from the start just had almost felt like it seemed like a different rotation of guys almost series how good was that to see and just kind of see how those guys responded to the rotation yeah I know someone here gave me a a hard time for all the ores that we put on the uh the depth chart but um we're going to play more guys than we have our rosters deeper we got an opportunity too we're going to need those guys as we go uh throughout the course of the season I think we had 35 guys that was their first time playing um inside of of Neil and S playing today so um there's a lot of positives there's going to be a lot of little things that that we got to clean up but um it was a good start and obviously we got a big one next week Adam and Ben Josh it looked like Nico did almost nothing wrong did did you see anything that he did wrong and what's what are you going to tell him going into week two um yeah your perspective might be a little bit different than my perspective so but he knows those things too so he's a young player came out played uh really efficiently effectively made plays down the field um but there's some things that um that he can control and and and be better and uh you know he knows that and he wants that too Josh Dante's performance today was that reflective of the offseason that he had and and what did allow him to have success today yeah you know last year um with the reduction of scholarships which in general I haven't made a big deal about you know I mean from the time that we got here but you you end up having to be um you got to make decisions on where where you're going to take those and most time we've taken them on you know offensive scale guys because you can control your personnel groupings Dante started inside because we were real thin last there uh last year he moved outside middle of the Season he was starting to play his best football most comfortable gets injured um you know on the on the Long play um being healthy all off season being at home on the outside he's just continued to be extremely comfortable in uh in what we're doing offensively and has played really consistent to the Middle with David and Patrick Josh this was a 38 to nothing game 20 minutes and we're was does a team like this can it can they stress you in any way did you learn anything about yourself in any adverse situations or or how do you kind of benefit well adverse on the scoreboard no but man there's there's a lot of things that uh that we'll be able to learn from during the course of of this football game Josh D Dylan sson I don't I don't know how much work he got in preseason but it didn't look like he looked like he was ready to go for star got eight touches the opening drive what does that say about him that he's able to maybe maybe not get as much practice time as you guys would have liked but he's able to hit the ground running and be as productive as he was yeah limited for a few days but then got back in the rotation um you know he's been healthy for a while now we expect him to play the way that he did today um decisive you know violent cuts um you know got Pat under pad and obviously has the ability to do anything that you want a running back to do when I say that just the ability to play out in space and and play like a wi out too so love the performance from him today Cari Ben Rob coach Dante Thorton you know had a season ending injury he came back and played really well today brw McCoy the same you know Desa bisher didn't even get to play in a game and he scores a touchdown if you can speak individually on all those guys and you know the performances in game one yeah um Keenan peely um you know we had we've had a few guys unfortunately in in this game um the contact is real and um you know uh through their work their effort right that's during the rehab process um our our weight room you know guys building them back up or our Medical Team all those guys are in a great space and and uh playing really good football so today was a big day for those guys you know Bru the captain today Keenan peely um because they are lead that type of leader in our program uh but also understanding what they're coming back from coach you talked a lot in preseason about operations and and management penalties only had six today especially we played so many guys you pleased with that oh well yeah um we got to continue to grow uh in that way but um relatively um efficient you know I mean playing clean uh during the course of the game there's there's some things that uh that we got to be smarter with too that we'll learn from awesome you guys giving me a break W no I know you talked about him just a little bit earlier but I guess individually Ju Just for brew the last time he was in this stadium in a game we all kind of saw what happened to come back today and do that I mean how big is that for him and for this football team yeah huge for him uh his family I know I saw them in the hotel last night I know they were excited anxious nervous all of it and uh Brew was excited to go play uh great that you know he got opportunities to get the ball in his hand made plays and and uh played really well coach first time with Nico with the helmet communication how do you think that went overall um like it has in I no scrimmages so um thought he handled them himself really well effective communication um so went well to the back with Paige how would you evaluate the overall defensive how they did how you R finally getting home getting that sack how would you evaluate how they performed today thought they played really well I haven't looked at the numbers yet but line of scrimmage they dominated for majority of the football game maybe gave up a couple you know runs um and then uh I thought we played tight coverage on the back end and you know as they started to you know drop back a little bit more um then we were able to apply some pressure and you know get a sack so aome Josh Tyreek West had that really good bowl game in Orlando looked like he kind of picked up where he left off today what what what was it that started to click for him what's he doing whale and then can you speak on also to Shan Bishop yeah tyre's been really consistent in how he approaches practice every single day uh his understanding of our defense has really grown right so instead of thinking while you're playing he's anticipating reacting and playing uh to his full athletic skill set and uh proud of what he did today but just his growth um inside of the the program David You' probably been asked about blo Carter as much as any freshman just curious your reaction to how he played in his first game thought he played really well defensively you know did a nice job with the pressure uh off the uh The Edge kept contain on it um saw him back there uh you know return punts um so I'm going to go watch the tape here in a little bit too but uh we were pleased with him and really a lot of our our young guys a lot of young guys got an opportunity to play in particular in the secondary Co has time for one more good all right thank you thank you thank you