Heupel notched his second win in the rivalry.
The Tennessee Volunteers got it done again, beating Alabama for the second straight time at Neyland Stadium. It was a game that looked much like Arkansas and Florida, with the Volunteers just finding ways to hang around. The defense once again bailed out Tennessee, and the offense joined the party in the second half.
Dramatic catches from Chris Brazzell and another Jalen Milroe turnover sealed the deal.
Here’s everything Josh Heupel had to say after the game.
Opening statement:
“Third Saturday in October – college football as good as it gets. Man, the Neyland Effect, our fans – elite. Elite performance from them all night. Appreciate them hanging in with us on the offensive side of the ball when we were struggling. What a performance. Defensively, just absolutely elite performance. Line of scrimmage, controlling the quarterback – everything that you had to do going into it. Did an unbelievable job on third down.
“Offensively, man, not good early, not far off. Man, everything’s got to tie together. We’ve got to be able to run the football. Got to continue to improve, but love a lot of what I saw in the second half. Special teams, solid performance at the end. Some things early that we’ve got to be better at, but said it was another prize fight. You’ve got to answer the bell. These guys answered the bell every single round and I’ll go battle with these guys any day. Man, just another great night on Rocky Top. Open it up for questions.”
On the struggles in the first half on offense in the past three games and what it’s like to win games when it happens:
“Listen, wins are wins in this league. Every Saturday in this league, margins are tight. You’ve got to be on the right side of the scoreboard. You’ve got to be the best team on the field. That’s our goal. Our goal is also to become the best that we can. Offensively, Nico’s got to settle in a little bit earlier, Some things down the football field that we’ve got to execute. Run game, we’ve got to execute the blocking part of it and pass protection, too.
“I mean, the first drive, again, just like last week, we’re moving down the field. We’re in the plus territory. We end up fumbling on the 20-yard line. Like it wasn’t pretty early, right? A 102 thousand saw it, everybody on TV. We did, too. It’s not that far off either. That’s why you need to appreciate it when it’s going really well, and you’ve got to be on the right side of it as a competitor, and we’ve got to find a way to start faster and be better.”
What he learned about quarterback Nico Iamaleava in how he played after his injury and mistakes in the first half:
“Young quarterback that’s going to continue to get better. Guys around him have got to help him, too, and that means just doing their job at a really high level, but to me, like quarterbacks … it’s toughness. It’s mental toughness. When it matters the most, how do you perform and how do you control the game? And there’s a lot of things, just physical, mental toughness that I really liked tonight. Obviously there’s some things we’ve got to get better at and him, too, and we’ll keep pushing for that.”
On the resiliency from his team in this game and what he saw from them at halftime:
“At halftime, nobody blinks an eye. They’ve got competitive composure. Understand that we’ve got to make some adjustments, we’ve got to go execute, we’ve got to go do our job, but inside the locker room, man, you talk about guys that have belief, confidence and trust in one another and continue to play for one another on their side of the ball, on the other side of the ball. It’s awesome and that’s the culture that you want to have inside your locker room. It’s really special.”
How fitting it was that Alabama native Will Brooks got the game-sealing interception:
“You talk about a journey, a journeyman and coming out on the other side of it, a guy that continues to just invest every single day and he reaped the rewards. That’ll be a moment in his life, and I’m sure he’ll tell that story to all of his grandkids and great grandkids and anybody that would be able to listen to it, you know what I mean, as he continues to grow older, but a special, special player, but really just a special young guy.”
What he saw on the play Brooks made:
“I was on the iPad getting ready for the next offensive possession if needed, so I didn’t even see it. Boy I sure liked taking a knee at the end of the game, though.”
On the play of the Tennessee offensive line:
“Early, I felt like they were playing on edges and pushing it a little bit. Misidentified one of their protections and Nico was scrambling around on the back end of it. Just the guys that are going to be open on the back end and then the secondary. Run game, not good early but second half, resiliency, physical – I’ll take that part of it for sure.”
On winning a game like this two years after a 52-49 shootout and holding Alabama to 75 rushing yards while running for 214:
“This group believes that it’s really good and if they play 11 guys together and play physical, that they’ve got a chance to be really special, and they played really well tonight. This team’s got a lot of confidence. They also know that we’ve got to improve, but on a Saturday night, at the end of it, no matter how we got there, they’re able to appreciate a win, which I think is really important in the landscape of college football.
“You know, as a program and when we got here, I never talked about it, because at the end of the day nobody cares. They care what the scoreboard looks like each week. There were obstacles that as a program we had had to navigate and overcome, and as a coaching staff, the administration, our players did it in a pretty special way. Not perfect, but a pretty special way. As a program we’ve got to improve this year, but I do really just feel like we’re just getting started as a program.”
On the job coordinator Tim Banks and the defensive coaches have done and if he thought they would be this good on defense:
“Thought we would have a chance to be a really cohesive unit – 11 guys tied in, be able to play all three levels of the defense together. The depth up front would give us a chance to be good at the line of scrimmage. How some of our young guys on the back end would grow and develop would be critical. Tim and our staff have done a great job. I just talked about some of the obstacles when we first got here. They’ve done a great job of personnel, scheme, just continuing to grow the young men over there. Special, special performance tonight, man. That’s an elite defensive performance.”
On how special it is to win games like this with the cigars and fans and his feelings toward the players who have beaten Alabama twice and those who did it for the first time in this game:
“First of all, all of our former players – Darnell Wright, Alontae Taylor – I mean, so many guys that were back tonight to be a part of this … AK! (Alvin Kamara poked his head in to the press conference.) I almost forgot. (Kamara: ‘I’m just listening. I’m just here. I’m just a fly on the wall.’) … that have helped build this thing and still cherish and love it and give back to it. Unbelievable to have them all be back tonight. You see what it means, that you’re a Vol For Life. That’s not just words.
“For it to be the second time, like this program, when we walk on the field, we feel like we’re good enough to go win every Saturday. Does this one matter (more)? Yeah, absolutely. You know the historical nature of this game, what it means to the fan base, what it means inside of our walls, and the new landscape of the league, what it means, too. The expectation was to go out and play great football tonight. Did that defensively for 60 minutes. Offensively, on the right side of it enough, special teams enough, and a great win. We’ve won in two unique ways the last two times here in Neyland that I don’t think our fans, but our players – I’ll remember for a long time. There’s nothing better than walking off the field with the crowd surrounding you and a cigar in your mouth.”
On the joy of beating Florida and Alabama in back-to-back games:
“(There’s) joy in being on the right side of the scoreboard each Saturday. They’re two big games historically, our fan base, what it means to them, you know what I mean, and to our players. It’s big games because it’s league games, man, and understand what it means in the things that you’re trying to go accomplish and what you’ve been working for since January. The last two weeks on that field, it’s really special because of what it took to find a way to be on the right side of the scoreboard with all the ups and downs and just continuing to compete. Proud of the guys for that.”
On the Jermod McCoy interception early in the game:
“Huge play in the game. Changes the way the game’s played from there on out just because of the score. Man offensively, got to go do something with that, but again, just the third-down defense, red-zone defense – special, special performance. Offensively we can’t hurt ourselves when we’re in the red zone. If you don’t get seven, man, you’ve got to get three. You can’t do that all the time either. That would get you beat, but we found a way not to do any of those things for the early part of the game.”
How important is it to have a cornerback playing like McCoy for the defense:
“Jermod, Rickey (Gibson), Jalen (McMurray) when he’s in – it changes what you’re able to structurally do defensively. It changes the game for the coordinator, gives you the ability to open up your playbook.”
How much he talks to his team about the expanded College Football Playoff and what a win like this does in that regard:
“Our guys are aware of it, you know what I mean. I wish I could put blinders on them. That’s not real. Whatever the TV’s going to have on the bottom of the ticker, you know what I mean, but for us to have a chance to be the team that we want to be, man, it’s about being in the present. It’s about competing as hard as you can every single day to grow and play the way that they’re capable and then the unit is capable of. There’s still things on defense – man, there’s a lot more things on offense – that we’ve got to clean up, but good teams get better and this team’s got to continue to get better. If it does that, it’ll have a chance to be a good team.”
On the play of Dylan Sampson and how the running game got going:
“Epitomizes him as a competitor. (Coughing break.) It’s this cigar, alright. He’s special. Just feel, the ability to run, get out in space, get behind his pads. We blocked a little bit cleaner in the second half, gave him an opportunity to get started and created some plays. So resiliency from him, too, you know what I mean. He gets banged up a little bit and fumbles early, but just comes back and keeps competing. Huge part of the game tonight.”
On success of the run game being a product of adjustments, wearing defenses down or execution:
“Some halftime adjustments. Some just straight execution. Then as you get going, the ability to physically move people, you know what I mean, as the game goes on. So a combination of everything. Capable of being a lot better early.”