KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Returning to Anderson Training Center following an epic, buzzer-beating victory over Alabama, the third-ranked Tennessee Volunteers turned the page to a new week of preparation for UT Martin on Monday morning.
With all the excitement and energy on campus, it created an atmosphere unlike any other in college sports. It has been one of the most impressive parts about the University of Tennessee since coach Josh Heupel assumed the reigns of the program prior to last season. Between ESPN’s College GameDay, SEC Nation, a jam-packed Vol Walk and nationally televised showdown in the premier timeslot in front of a sold-out Neyland Stadium, last weekend on Rocky Top epitomizes what makes collegiate athletics so special.
“From (Saturday) morning until the celebration on the backend, truly a really unique experience. I appreciate our fans. They were awesome all night long,” Heupel said in his Monday press conference. He noted that though the win was special, they were quick to snap to a new task at hand.
“This morning, for our players we pushed forward. For our staff, we did it yesterday when we got back in the building. Had a really good morning with the guys. Obviously, from the outside looking in everybody is excited about the win. From the inside looking forward, we have a lot of things that we have an opportunity to get a whole lot better at and the challenge for us is to become our best. We are in the early stages of that. The urgency and preparation and focus has to remain consistent and that was the message to the players.”
A big part of the Vols offense was the strong play from the offensive line. No one can attest more to the work that group has put in every practice this week than defensive lineman Omari Thomas.
“We see it all the time in our group work,” Thomas said at the podium Monday. “They are just always encouraging each other. They are always pushing each other to do better, and they always just keep coaching each other up. I feel like that’s something that they’re doing good at, they are just playing for each other, honestly.”
That is something he sees the whole team doing week-in and week-out.
“That’s what we’re trying to do as a team, just continue to play for each other.”
For many of the guys, the Alabama game will be a cherished memory shared with friends and family. For veteran tight end Princeton Fant, that was the highlight of the game. Having his mom and other people close to him in the stands and seeing him score, that is something he will never forget.
“It’s a blessing. Just my mom, that’s definitely my number one supporter and somebody I really do this for, play football for,” Fant said. “Just being able to have her there and see me score a touchdown. She’s definitely proud, and that’s the number one thing I want to do is make her proud.”
The Vols return to the practice field Tuesday morning, continuing their game prep in welcoming the UT Martin Skyhawks to Neyland Stadium for Homecoming on Oct. 22, tickets are still available in limited quantities on AllVols.com.
A full transcript from coach Heupel along with Princeton Fant and Omari Thomas can be found below.
Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel
Opening Statement…
“Hope everybody is doing great. Great weekend here on Rocky Top. Obviously, a unique celebration the way the game unfolded and the passion and pageantry that was Saturday here in Neyland. From the morning until the celebration on the backend, truly a really unique experience. I appreciate our fans. They were awesome all night long. This morning, for our players we pushed forward. For our staff, we did it yesterday when we got back in the building. Had a really good morning with the guys. Obviously, from the outside looking in everybody is excited about the win. From the inside looking forward, we have a lot of things that we have an opportunity to get a whole lot better at and the challenge for us is to become our best. We are in the early stages of that. The urgency and preparation and focus has to remain consistent and that was the message to the players. Looking forward to getting it going this week. This weekend will be a unique one as well. It’s Homecoming. We’ll have a lot of former students, former players that will be back for this one. Look forward to celebrating Homecoming with them. It’s unique too that this is a celebration of Title IX and obviously Pat Summitt and her legacy in sports and her legacy here at UT is really special and we’ll have a chance to celebrate that, too. Looking forward to that this weekend.”
On if the players came into practice Monday with a good mindset…
“Yeah, they got a good dose of reality from their position coaches and from me too. The look in their eye too said that they wanted to improve. You know, the short time we spent on the grass was really good and I’m looking forward to this week unfolding the right way. The reason that we have been able to play and find a way to win each week is their preparation has been good, not perfect, but been really good. That urgency, that focus, as we get our game plan and get on the practice field here in the early part of the week is going to be critical. I say it every week, it’s about us, it’s about our preparation but the challenge is about us becoming our best, too. They all understand there is a lot of things we have got to get better at.”
On the postgame feeling and recruiting after the game…
“There was a lot of recruiting. Long celebration in the locker room as there should be after a win like that. Just the way it unfolded, that game anyways, that’s a celebration we want to have more of. Opportunity on the back end of that to do a bunch of recruiting. There was a great amount of guys that were here. That’s important for the future of our program. I got postgame things that I have to do too and so once I got out of here and got home, probably close to midnight, I got a chance to spend a bunch of time with my family. Had a bunch of my friends in for the game too, and you know eventually get to bed at some point in the early morning.”
On the final series with 15 seconds to go…
“You practice those things in training camp. How you want to function and operate in a lot of different scenarios. It’s impossible to give those guys those scenarios every single week. Love the fact that our kids understood what we were trying to accomplish. From wideouts, to quarterback, to protection up front, able to go execute in those situations. The fact that we still had timeouts left was critical. Our guys understanding the concepts that we’re running but being able to handle the pressure of that situation, go out and execute speaks to it. We try to replicate some of those scenarios throughout the course of the week, but you are really kind of cycling through those things, and it was a big-time performance by those guys at the end of the football game.”
On Alabama missing the field goal and what his response was…
“Well, you immediately transition right? They make the field goal and you’re flipping to a different scenario and you got to go play that out and execute it. They miss it, (so you think) where are we at, time allotted, timeouts left, how do we go get two chunks and get ourselves into field goal range? So absolutely, you flip the script, and your players have to do that as well.”
On his even keeled nature and whether it is natural or something that he’s learned over the years…
“My dad was a lot more emotional than I am on the sideline, so that might be because he’s a defensive guy by nature too. I think having played the position and I’m saying playing quarterback, having been in a lot of different positions and understanding. I think from being a kid to being a player that your players are going to feel off of you way more than they listen to you. They feed off of your body language and your energy that you give off. So, you know, I try to be consistent and calm in those situations, hopefully keeping them calm in the storm too.
On Tennessee winning the line of scrimmage against Alabama…
“In comparison to them, I didn’t really look at it that way. I knew the physicality was something that we were going to have to win, the line of scrimmage was going to be important, on both sides of the line of scrimmage for us. Defensively, our front seven, safeties and their fits, defeat blocks, get off and make plays. It was going to be critical to not let their run game get started. When their backs get out in space, it’s an issue. Then for us on the offensive line, we knew that the run game – you guys heard me say earlier in the week – that there’s a huge difference in twos against those guys because of how third down gets played out versus four, five, sixes. The tempo, the mentality, the attitude – we showed it to the team today – just the way we finished our runs, the pile moving forward was a huge difference in that game. Proud of the effort and strain that everybody had on both sides of the line of scrimmage.”
On Jaylen McCollough being out against Alabama and who’s decision that was…
“Yeah, he’s not suspended. He’s been around, just wasn’t available for Saturday. The process is still going with him, and we’ll see how that continues to play out here. We look forward to having him available soon.”
On Darnell Wright and his performance…
“Yeah, Darnell did a great job. Starting just in pass protection, our offensive line as a whole did a really good job. He was solid all night long, won his one on ones. I thought in the run game he did a really nice job. That is when he was in man, blocking one on one, some of the double teams on the right side of the line of scrimmage were changing the way the game was played. I thought he played really solid football all night long.”
On Hendon Hooker and how is composer bleeds into the rest of the offense…
“Yeah, great players and great quarterbacks have to be able to reset from one play to the next. There is no way you’re going to go out a play a perfect game. You have the ball in your hands all the time and eventually it probably doesn’t go your way. (We’ve) been really fortunate that it has gone his way, our way most of the first half of the season. The other night, his maturity, his understanding of the game allows him when something isn’t perfect and it doesn’t go right, to understand the why behind it which gives you confidence and calmness to be able to go reset and play the next play. There’s no doubt that his maturity and his confidence and his ability to reset also allows the 10 other guys around him and our entire offense unit to do that as well. You can’t take that for granted.”
On challenges facing UT Martin…
“For us defensively and them offensively, they’ve put up a bunch of points, a bunch of yards here in the first half of the season. The line of scrimmage is going to be important. We got to apply pressure to the quarterback and got to be able to match guys out on the outside on the perimeter. It will be important to win the line of scrimmage on the defensive side of the football in this one. For us offensively, the line of scrimmage is where it starts. We’ve got to be able to run the football. Defensively, in their structure, we got to be able to understand what they’re playing, adjust to it, and then go win some one on ones out on the perimeter.”
On Brandon Turnage’s play against Alabama and trying to get some younger players more playing time to help develop more depth…
“Brandon was really solid. Did some good things on special teams. Helped us get the first punt return started that we had. He did a really good job when he was in there defensively, matching things out and man-to-man. He’s a really smart, intelligent player and we have a lot of trust in him. As far as young guys playing, the other night is a perfect example, you don’t know when your opportunity is going to come up. William Wright is out there at the end of the football game playing his butt off. For all of our guys, continuing to prepare and being ready for your opportunity whenever that comes. This weekend, we’re going to have to play a bunch of guys. Look forward to seeing all of our guys go out and compete.”
On Alabama’s offense just making plays versus stuff that needs to be cleaned up defensively…
“There’s things that we can absolutely clean up. That’s from coverage, to matching things out, to understanding scramble drill. Your end zone coverage, you better match things out. It’s containing the quarterback, it’s making plays on the quarterback. At the same time, they got a special player back there too that was able to extend plays and create some things, too. I do love the way we continued to reset and go play the next play and continued to play hard.”
On William Wright playing at the end of the game…
“I talked about it this morning with our football team. He did some really really good things throughout the course of spring ball. His ability to trust us and to continue to grow from the time that we’ve shown up is a part of why he’s grown as a player. Unfortunate, gets nicked up on the back half of training camp. We had planned on him playing a lot of football for us, starting first and foremost on special teams. He’s been banged up. It’s easy to check out when you’re nicked up and not be engaged in meetings and continue to grow mentally as you are rehabbing. That wasn’t him man. He was fully engaged in everything, and it’s a great lesson for all of our players that you don’t know when your opportunity is coming and all of the sudden, he’s playing on special teams, but all of the sudden you’re thrust out there in one of the most critical moments defensively too and does a really nice job. It’s a great lesson for everybody, especially our young players in the program.”
Redshirt-Senior Tight End Princeton Fant
On his two-yard rushing score…
“We had been practicing it all week. Just playing an emergency running back. It’s definitely something that we’ve been talking about, me and coach. Just with that, it’s just a blessing to be able to go back there at fullback and just do whatever I can for my team, get in the end zone and help our team.”
On working offensively from under center and the development of that…
“We’ve been talking about it, just talking to the coaches. They’ve seen my running back skills, they see I can run the ball. With that, it’s just, honestly, out there having fun with it. Coach was just like ‘Man, you can run the ball?’ and I was like ‘Yeah, coach.’ We just went from there and are having fun with it.”
On sharing the moment and victory with his family and friends…
“It’s a blessing. Just my mom, that’s definitely my number one supporter and somebody I really do this for, play football for. Just being able to have her there and see me score a touchdown. She’s definitely proud, and that’s the number one thing I want to do is make her proud.”
Junior Defensive Lineman Omari Thomas
On the celebration after the game…
“Loss for words honestly. Seeing all the videos and things like that, it’s just like wow, I really was a part of that. I was a part of history like that. It was amazing. Just in that moment, just sitting there, I’m on field goal (block). Just sitting there, I and so much confidence in Chase McGrath. I don’t know if you watched the video, but you just see me soon as the kick, I didn’t even look at the ball I just ran straight to the student section. That’s how much confidence I had in Chase. It was just amazing. Loss for words in that moment.”
On making sure this isn’t peak of the season…
“I’d say a small thing that a lot of us have been talking about now is just being in the training room. We know that it’s a long season, we’re just halfway through it. You have players that are banged up and things like that, but you just have to continue to be in the training. Room. That’s something that Coach Rodney Garner has preached to us too, as well. Just as a d-line group, you want to live in the training room. That’s how you protect your body, that’s how you continue to play these long seasons like that.”
On Tennessee’s offensive line…
“They have been gelling. We see it all the time in our group work. They are just always encouraging each other. They are always pushing each other to do better and they always just keep coaching each other up. I feel like that’s something that they’re doing good at, they are just playing for each other, honestly. That’s what we’re trying to do as a team, just continue to play for each other.”
-UT Athletics
