Everything Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel said Monday before SEC Media Days

What Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel said on Zoom with the local media Monday prior to SEC Media Days ON OFFENSIVE EXPERIENCE AND THE QUARTERBACK POSITION “I don’t know that it’s just one thing. Certainly, it’s easier when you have a guy that has already been out there for a season under his belt and you have a returner for a lot of different reasons. Over the last nine years, I think we’ve had seven different starting quarterbacks during that timeframe. “We’ve also had seven offenses that were top 10 in the country in scoring. I think it’s important that you do a great job of developing those young players. That’s fundamental technique, mastering what you’re doing offensively, teaching progression of what they’re seeing defensively. They got to be able to control and command protections to run checks, whatever it might be in the scope of your offense. I think it’s really important that you adapt to the strengths of that quarterback and put him in a position to do things that he’s really good at and that’s he’s comfortable with. At the end of the day, he’s the artist and has to go paint that picture. “For us this year, we do have a lot of experience coming back. I think that’s a positive. You look at four returning starters on the offensive line, a couple wide receivers, your tight ends, played a bunch of football, running back position. “I think it’s important that the 10 other guys play extremely well around them. I think special teams, defensively, is important — that you’re playing at a high level with a young guy to keep him out of adverse situations. That quarterback’s got to play on the right side of the competitive fence and be a playmaker, but don’t put the ball in harm either.” ON IF THE OFFSEASON LOOKS ANY DIFFERENT KNOWING YOU WILL PLAY A YOUNG QUARTERBACK AND HAVE TO PREPARE HIM “I think that’s important that your quarterback gets exposed to those things. I’ve been other places as a coordinator where you weren’t as multiple in your structures and rotations, pressure packages, and throughout the course of spring, summer, training camp, they didn’t get exposed to a lot of things, and that applies a ton of pressure to a quarterback on a given game week. The more he’s exposed during the offseason, that helps expedite and speed up that growth of a young quarterback. I think that’s important that our defensive structures have allowed them to be forced to grow in that way.” ON THE BACK END OF THE DEFENSE AND HOW ANTHONY POINDEXTER BRINGS TO THE TABLE “I like the skill set of the athletic traits that we have back there, a lot of new players. I feel really good and confident about who we have on the back end. Guys that have played football, have football understanding, man skill sets, but understand zone principles, have had to go make tackles, played the game at a high level. “Coach Poindexter, I think first of all, his playing experience is a part of who he is in the meeting room. Guy that’s a college football Hall of Famer, won a Super Bowl. His ability to communicate at a high level, demand and confront any of the issues with those guys, but speak clearly and understand what it feels like to be in those positions. It has created a lot of buy-in and trust from our players that are in his meeting room, but also a lot of growth from those guys from when we first started in January.” ON IF HE AGREES THE DEFENSIVE BACK GROUP IS MORE ATHLETIC “I think overall athletic traits, this has a chance to be one of, if not the best, secondaries that we’ve had.” ON DEREK OWINGS AND THE OFFSEASON THE PLAYERS HAD WITH HIM COMPARED TO PAST ONES “I don’t think it’s overhyped. D.O. and his staff from the moment that they arrived, the day after the national championship game, have done a great job building trust and relationships with our players. Our guys are fully bought into the process of what it takes. I think his consistency and accountability — how they have to approach it and winning a single rep, a single set, that consistency will pay dividends for us during the course of the regular season. But as much as anything, him spearheading nutrition, training room, everybody being in sync, the growth that our players have seen from mass, explosive power, speed and acceleration, the tangible differences that they’ve seen. Our players have fully bought into it but have seen great changes and are excited about what work that they’ve put in and the benefit of that.” ON THE HEALTH OF THE TEAM, INCLUDING DAEVIN HOBBS AND ARION CARTER “I feel like we’re in a great spot as we are a week and a half, two weeks away from starting training camp.” ON CHAZ COLEMAN’S EXIT “At the end of the day, we’re here to help our guys inside of the building. Chaz, being one of those guys. These young men deal with so many different things in today’s landscape of college football. Pressures that they feel, see, hear, whatever it might be. We’re here to help them. There was a good portion of while he was with us on our roster where he wasn’t necessarily integrated into the locker room because of some of the things that he was dealing with. “You always want to do right by kids and we certainly have done that. As a program, I probably feel like it was a bigger story outside of the building than it necessarily was even inside of the building. We’re ready to move forward.” ON POSITION BATTLES RESETTING IN THE FALL “I think in particular with all of your young players, but really everyone on your roster: You’ve got four weeks of offseason. On the back end of spring ball, you’ve got an entire summer. These guys have a chance. If they do it the right way, if they have the right mindset and work ethic and are detailed in everything that it takes to become their best, they show up in training camp and can be a dramatically different player. That’s why you have competition in training camp. Guys get reps and you judge where they’re at currently and where you feel like they’re going to continue to progress to. Ultimately, it’s a player’s responsibility to learn it, earn it, and go take a job, prove he’s going to play at a championship level. Once they do that, then it’s our job to put them in a position to be successful.” ON THE LEO POSITION AND THE MAKEUP OF HIS TEAM WITH THAT SPOT “At the end of the day, you’ve got guys that may be tagged as a LEO. You’ve got guys that are tagged as a defensive end. We have the ability to play with different skill sets, different body types and different packages and be able to use their skill sets to our advantage defensively. I think that’s one of the great things about coach (Jim) Knowles is his ability to scan, look at our personnel who’s playing at a really high level and be able to fit our scheme with that personnel to give us a chance to be our best. You can see that at the different stops that he’s been at. He’s creative. He’s mindful of the guys that we have. How can we put our guys in a position to go be their best?” ON WORKING WITH JIM KNOWLES SO FAR “Well, I think as much as anything, the continued growth inside of the different types of schemes that you’re going to need throughout the course of the year — not as much head-to-head in what we’re trying to attack, but both sides of the football continue to implement tools that they’re going to need schematically throughout the course of the season. That can be based off of your personnel formations and how you’re defending those formations to the scheme that you’re playing on both sides of the ball.” ON THE LINEBACKER GROUP “Great room just in who they are, how they compete, how they push each other. Great leadership inside of that room. You have some players that have played a lot of football at a really high level. You have some young guys that are extremely talented that have continued to grow throughout the course of the offseason. It gives us some flexibility to do some different things with them. But as much as anything, you have great competition inside of that room to go earn snaps.” ON GETTING ARION CARTER BACK “End of the season, you always want what’s best. You try to gather information for players. I was a young guy that dreamed of playing at that level, too. I hate the experience that A.C. went through. Excited for us on the back end of it to be able to have him be a part of this program again for another year. A guy that absolutely does it right on the field, off the field. Dynamic leader. He’s been that for a long time. Super attentive to the details as a player. But somebody in the middle of the football field, control and command. Guys in front of him and behind him. A relentless competitor that’s extremely physical and that’s a dynamic playmaker.” ON QUA MOSS AND KAYIN LEE AND THE DEFENSIVE BACKS “They’ve had experience playing it and played it at a really high level. They’re hungry to be their best every single day. They’re great competitors. You’ve seen the strides that they’ve made in the offseason: strength, conditioning, speed, acceleration. Their understanding of football, man principles, zone principles, ability to be physical at the point of attack gives us great flexibility and gives me a lot of confidence in who they are as players.” ON DAVID GABRIEL GEORGES ANNOUNCEMENT AND IF HE FOLLOWS THE ANNOUNCEMENT LIVE STREAMS “Sometimes watch them. Certainly, always have my phone near me to make sure I answer anything that might be coming my way.” ON WHAT HE IS MOST INTERESTED IN SEEING IN THE FALL “I think as we start just what’s the growth truly been on the physical, fundamental techniques side of it as we get back into pads and where we finish and where they’re at currently. Look forward to seeing the competition really at every level of the defense and offensively as well. I want to see in particular our young guys, see the strides that they’ve made and see where they’re at here as we get started and their understanding of what we’re doing schematically.” ON THE COMPETITION LEVEL OF THIS TEAM COMPARED TO PRIOR ONES “This is an extremely competitive group. They’ve been that way in the meeting room, on the practice field, over there during spring ball. You look at the strides that they’ve made physically, their mass, their speed and acceleration, their power outputs in the weight room. Those guys have done a tremendous job. Looking forward, you’re going to continue to form your identity as a football team as we work through training camp. You have to continue to win every rep every single day.” ON IF THIS IS AS DEEP AS THE VOLS HAVE BEEN FROM A TALENT STANDPOINT “I think it’s hard for me to just say that globally here as I try to reflect back over the previous four or five years. Certainly, the linebacker positions, probably the deepest that we’ve been at any one position since we’ve been here. The experience that we have coming back on the offensive side of the ball probably is on par with any year that we’ve been here as far as the amount of guys returning. Some of that’s because we were the youngest team inside of the league. You just look at freshman snaps inside the conference last year and one of the youngest football teams in America, too. Our defensive line, we’re extremely talented. We have some experience, but we’ve got some youth, too. I’m looking forward to seeing where we’re at as we get started in training camp with those guys.”