Everything Josh Heupel Said on ESPN Following Tennessee Being Ranked No.1 in Initial CFP Rankings

The College Football Playoff committee ranked Tennessee as the number one team in the country earlier this evening. Following the initial ranking, Tennessee

The College Football Playoff committee ranked Tennessee as the number one team in the country earlier this evening. Following the initial ranking, Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel joined the show on ESPN to discuss the ranking and more. Below is everything Heupel had to say on the show. 

On How Quickly He Envisioned Becoming a National Championship Contender

“I don’t know that we placed a timeframe on it. I think that’s one of the things that actually had our players buy in. We never set a ceiling. Our guys’ habits have allowed us to play really consistently here in the early part of the season. There’s a long ways to go, obviously we have a huge test this weekend in Athens against Georgia. I love competing with this team every Saturday.”

On Difficulty Executing and Remaining Efficient in Hostile Environments on the Road

“For any offense that goes on the road, it’s a little bit different with communication. You have to be super efficient, communicate extremely well. Obviously you are going to be on a silent count, that’s something we use here at home as well, but it’ll be important for us to get the chains moving and stay ahead of things and not let the crowd get into it on those third and long situations.”

On How He Will Address The New Ranking With His Team

“We talked about it earlier in the week. Knowing that the rankings were going to come out. We didn’t know where we would be ranked, but we figured it would be somewhere near the top. At the end of the day, one of the things our players have done here is try to enjoy the journey and take moments of pause to reflect and enjoy what our players have built here. They’ve built this. Three years ago, we didn’t look like this. This is a proud tradition and a massive fanbase that loves the Power T and they’re excited about the way our players have been playing. The players are just embracing it and understand the reason we are in this situation is because of the way we prepare and the way we practice, and then we go play for each other on gameday. That’s gonna be the same message this Saturday.”

On the Defense Not Being as Exciting, but What Can He Say That is Great About It

We will be (great), as we continue to build this. Two years ago, we were hit hard by the transfer portal when I was hired. We have continued to build our roster on that side of it and really believe where we are going. Have a great defensive coordinator in Tim Banks. Great staff. The players are really bought in in year two of our system. They have a much better understanding of our schemes. They continue to develop fundamentally. We are continuing to get better throughout the course of this season. We have been hit with the injury bug throughout course of this season on the back end. We really feel like this season we will be as healthy this week as we have been all season long. 

On the Challenge Georgia's Defense Presents

It starts with their personnel. They are long. They are fast and physical on all three levels of their defense. If you get in third and long situations, they make it extremely difficult to pick up a third down. They are relentless in the way they play. They are extremely well coached and have good scheme, too. So there are going to be a lot of one-on-ones we have to win. Not just on the outside but in the middle of the field and at the line of scrimmage, too. You have to be extremely physical during the course of this game.