Tennessee football HC Josh Heupel reacts to win over Chattanooga

first of all just thank all the fans hot day out there they showed up early Vol walk was 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 U played good third down defense um tight coverage for most of it and um so really a lot of positives on that side football offensively did some really good things early um we got to learn how to stay dialed in and and finish um a half a quarter um football game but U all in all good day and obviously uh Specialists did uh really really good job for for most of the day so opening up questions we'll start with Austin on the left Josh you talked all PA Camp about rotating and you guys from the start just had almost felt like in like a different rotation of guys almost every series how good was that to see and just kind of see how those guys responded to the rotation yeah I know something here gave me a a hard time for all the ores that we put on the the dep 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 throughout the course of the season I think we had 35 guys it was our first time playing um inside of of being the same 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 U it was good start and obviously we got a big one next week Adam has 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 anything your perspective might be a little bit different than my perspective but he knows those things too so he's a young player came out played 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 of the time we've Tak on you know offensive scill 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 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 in game 20 minutes and 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 how do you kind of benefit well adverse on the scoreboard no but man there's there's a lot of things that that we'll be able to learn from during the course of of this football game Josh Dy Dylan Simpson 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 from the start got open 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 like but he's able to H 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 to running back to do when I say that just the ability to play out in space and and play like too so love the performance car Rob D know didn't speak individually all those performances yeah um King and peely um you know we had we've had a few guys unfortunately in this game um the contact is real and um you know through their work effort right that's during the rehab process um our weight room you know guys building them back up our Medical Team all those guys are in a great space and uh playing really good football so today was a big day for those guys you know brw Captain today Keenan peely 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 the preseason about operations and and managing the penalties only had six today especially think you played so many please do all in all yeah um we got to continue to grow uh in that way but U relatively efficient you know I mean playing clean 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 give me a break no I know you talked about just a little bit earlier but I guess individually Ju Just for brew the last time he was in the stadium in game you all kind of saw happen 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 cre was excited go play great that you know he got opportunities to get the ball in his hand make plays and played really well coach first time with Nico with the helmet communication how do you think that one overall um like he has in I know scrimmages so thought he handled himself really well effective communication um so well to the back was Paige how would you evaluate the overall defense how they how youate 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 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 awesome Kyrie West that really good Bowl in Orlando kind of picked up where he left off today what what was it that started to click for him what's he doing well and then can you be H with Sean Bishop yeah Tyre has 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 proud of what he did today but just his growth um inside of the the program David you probably been asked about Blue Carter as much as any freshman just curious your reaction to how he played his first game thought he played really well defensively you know did a nice job with the pressure off the uh The Edge kept contained on it um saw him back there return puns um so I'm going to go watch the tap here littleit bit to but U we were pleased with them and really a lot of our our young guys a lot of young guys got an opportunity to play in particular in the second has time for one more good all right thank you thank you