Tennessee faces an early-season test against NC State in a top 25 clash in Charlotte Saturday night.
The No. 14 Vols (1-0), who rolled to a 69-3 victory in their season opener last week, will share a primetime stage play with No. 24 Wolfpack (1-0) in the Duke's Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Ahead of the match up, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel spoke on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday in his last media availability before kickoff.
Here's everything he said.
Opening statement
"Excited about the way the team played last week and the way that they turned the page. Our preparation early in the week up until now has been really good. Understand the challenge that we all have in front of us, facing NC State over in Charlotte. Really good football team. You look at their offense, they have dynamic playmakers. Quarterback (Grayson McCall) has a ton of experience. He's a winner. (He's) played the position for a really long time at a high level. Does a great job of making plays with his feet, extending plays outside the pocket. Accurate thrower down the football field. Does a great job of taking care of it, too. Defensively, they're a veteran group that have been with them for awhile now and sprinkled in some transfers. They're big, they're physical. They play extremely hard. They tackle well out in space. It'll be a great test for us. Really got to play all three phases of the football game together here. We've got to continue our preparation as we finish up the week."
MORE FROM VOLREPORT: NC State head coach Dave Doeren gives perspective on match up with Tennessee
On live call-in coaches radio shows
"We do ours on Wednesday night. It's an opportunity for our fans to have a conversation with me and have some things that are on their mind. We do it at a venue where there's a lot of fans for us down on the river. Also get an opportunity to meet a lot of people as well, see young kids who are fans of the Vols, as well. So, in the middle of the week, it's hectic but it's a good experience."
On use of helmet communication and tablets in first game
"The helmet communication was beneficial, just situationally. Remind (quarterback Nico Iamaleava) of certain things. That's true on offense and defense. The tablets is something that I think is beneficial to the coaches, but also the players, too to get a different perspective of what's happening. I think structurally, on a specific play as well, is different than having a coach sit there and draw it up on the board or talk them through it. I think that's beneficial. With all those things, we'll continue to find out more here as we go through the season with the helmet communication, you know, when you're on the road in loud environments, how that functions. And then obviously, the Ipads, there are some things that we have to get right with that, in general. But it's beneficial."
On if the first game showed him something different than what he saw in fall camp
"For the most part, it confirmed things that we were excited about in the football game. Our front, on both sides of the football, has got to get better on the defensive line, obviously. We rotated a lot of people into the football game. I said we were going to have the opportunity to play more guys going into it. We liked a lot of what we saw from the guys on Saturday. As we continue to go, we'll still rotate quite a bit. Obviously, for us, this week, the quality of the opponent that we're playing, it's going to be different than what we face personnel wise than what we faced a week ago. So, I'm excited to go play with these guys. We're going to find out a lot about our team this Saturday night, too and looking forward to the challenge in Charlotte."
MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Where Tennessee football is ranked in latest AP Top 25
On NC State skill players that have stood out on film
"Their kick returner and guy that they move around on offense, (Kevin Concepcion), is dynamic and really special. They've got some good, young wideouts out on the perimeter, too that pose a problem in one-on-one situations. They've got great speed. They've got some good length there on the outside, so we'll have to do a great job on fades and back-shoulder throws, as well."
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