As kickoff approaches, excitement for the Volunteers mounts following the ranked road victory last weekend in Pittsburgh. Combine that with the No. 15-ranking in the Associated Press poll and a night game, the contest has the making for an exciting night filled to the brim with Big Orange. Head coach Josh Heupel is making sure his team is focused on the field and the task at hand with the Akron Zips coming to town.
“Look at the college football scores across the country last week, and you can see that the goal needs to be to win first and foremost,” Heupel said in his Thursday media availability. “Want to see our kids play smarter, more efficient and play with relentless energy and passion during the course of the football team.”
Relentless energy and passion has been a pillar of Heupel-coached teams, and the joy the Vols have played with has been on full display through two games. Images of Heupel joyously leaping into the arms of his student-athletes filled the airways. But with last week gone and another day of practice to go, the team is focusing on the details and continuing growth going into game day.
“It’s been a good week up until this point and we want to finish it the right way,” Heupel added.
Director of Athletics Danny White announced on Twitter that only 1,000 tickets remained for the matchup with Akron. Limited seats are still available and can be purchased at AllVols.com.
A full transcript from Heupel’s Thursday media availability can be found below.
On second quarter success so far this season…
“We’ve executed during the course of those quarters. It is something that as a program we talked about in our offseason dating all the way back to January, placing a point of emphasis on that. I know from (the media), our second quarter not being as good as it needed to be last year was a point of emphasis from you guys too. (The success comes from) our kids just executing.”
On how he defines offensive success…
“It’s defined by wins.”
On his assessment of the running game…
“I thought week one, really solid. Last week, at times efficient, (going against) a really good front and structurally what they did. At times last week, there were some ways that…
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