Tennessee coach Josh Heupel often heads to the mic soon after the game ends to start his postgame press conference. After the Alabama win, he took his time, savoring Neyland Stadium's joyful atmosphere as fans rushed the field.
The Vols moved up to No. 11 in the US LBM Coaches Poll after the 26-10 victory.
Here's everything Heupel had to say after the Oct. 17 Alabama game.
Josh Heupel postgame press conference transcript after win over Alabama
Heupel: Just want to start by saying thanks to our fans. Knew it would be, but an elite atmosphere. A part of the game for four quarters. Phenomenal atmosphere. Great win.
This defense, suffocating. Elite performance.
Really proud of those guys. They handled adversity and sudden change extremely well.
Great performance by them, and as a team we found a way to win against a good
football team. Really proud of our guys. Enjoy this one tonight and then start getting better tomorrow.
Heupel on defensive coordinator Jim Knowles
Question: Jim is such a stoic guy, but after the game he's dancing and cutting a jig. What's he like for players to play for?
Heupel: They love him. He's a Philly guy. Tough, demanding. But they love him and they believe in him. He cuts up and has some fun with them too, man. He's got a great way of connecting with people.
I've seen that really from the very beginning in his own way of doing it. Elite job by him tonight.
Tennessee's run game and time of possession
Question: Tonight you beat the No. 2 scoring offense in the country in time of possession. Can you talk about what that run game has done for your offense and how it's made things easier for your quarterbacks?
Heupel: The run game, situationally, us playing smart and finding the right way to try to go win a football game. Operating out of the huddle offensively, there's a lot of pieces of it.
The run game certainly. You look at the way we were able to finish the football game. I don't know how many plays it was, but a lot of big plays in the run game, a couple of key conversions throwing the football too.
Really proud of the effort of our offense finishing that way.
But we talked about this being a line-of-scrimmage game, boxing-match mentality, and having to win with physicality for four quarters. I thought we did that. Proud of our football team.
Tennessee's game-sealing 15-play touchdown drive
Question: Fifteen plays, a nine-and-a-half-minute drive. For a coach who has earned a reputation for playing offense a certain type of way, how much pride do you take in that being the game-sealing drive?
Heupel: I take a ton of pride in playing winning football at that point in the game and being able to function and operate. George did a really good job being able to drain the clock when we were asking him to do that.
Then run the football the way that you needed to sustain a drive and then go finish that drive.
Bishop was elite. At halftime I just said it's going to be a big second half to him, and he had a big smile on his face, a gleam in his eye, and he certainly did that tonight.
Question: Is that a slight identity shift?
Heupel: Running the football has always been the foundation of who we are. Year to year, the identity of your football team changes.
How do you play smart football and try to put your team in a situation to win? That can be a little bit different week to week.
But we found a way to do that tonight.
Tennessee defensive front dominates Alabama
Question: This defensive front seems capable of having these types of games against these types of teams.
Heupel: I felt like they were better up front than they were a year ago. Through the course of this season, our defensive line has continued to get better every week.
Xavier's been elite, right? But there's a lot of them that have been playing at a really high level.
Our edges were able to get to the quarterback tonight and affect him. He escaped on a couple of plays, but I think the key is our front is playing well off of each other. That's in our twist game, our run stunts.
They're executing and performing together. It takes a level of unselfishness to do that too. That's a big part of that group right now.
George MacIntyre's poise after adversity
Question: What are you most proud of George for with his performance tonight?
Heupel: He played winning football. The ups and downs in a game like this. I thought he was decisive, going to the right spots on the football field.
Had some adversity with the tipped interception. And just super consistent, same demeanor.
Goes out the following play, following drive, and cuts it loose, trusts his eyes.
He extended and made some plays early. Scramble, checkdown. There was a conversion and a big-time play in the fourth quarter on a boot play. I thought he saw it extremely well, was composed and went and played the next play.
Heupel on DeSean Bishop's running style
Question: What makes DeSean Bishop such a special back?
Heupel: I don't pay attention to a lot of things nationally and that type of thing. He's a special back. Smart, tough, physical, finishes runs, runs through trash.
A dirty two- or three-yard gain, he's pushing for five. It changes the game. Situational football. He's got great vision.
When he bounces it, it's typically the right time to bounce it. He has an understanding of run schemes and structurally what he's seeing, and really good vision. So he's special.
Tennessee fans and another field-storming celebration
Question: You've now been able to give Tennessee fans an opportunity to storm the field three times. What does that mean to you?
Heupel: Go back to the first one and all the buildup leading up to it. Now there's an expectation.
That's what you do when you're playing these guys. It's been fun building this.
There have been days where we wanted different outcomes, but this is without a doubt the best fan base in America. They show up in an elite way every Saturday.
Recruits come here. You drive by the Vol Navy and see all those boats. You go to Vol Walk and see 35,000 people and 60 minutes before kickoff it's 65% to 70% full. College sports, college football is as good as it gets. It's special to be here.
Walking off that field in a situation like tonight where you win, those are things that I'll remember forever, too.
Cooper Campbell's field goals and Tennessee taking the points
Question: Did you kind of feel like it was going to be this kind of game where you needed to take the points?
Heupel: Thanks for stating the obvious.
Every game you watch the film and try to understand what you're getting into, right? Style of play and matchups.There are 11 different matchups on the field every play.
You're trying to predict how it's going to play out.
Ultimately, early in the football game, we were just not as efficient and effective as we needed to be.Not converting on some of the passes, third downs, not being able to convert. You just couldn't come up empty-handed in those situations.
I haven't mentioned it yet, but Coop did an unbelievable job. Probably as windy of a day as we've had inside that stadium since I've been here. Put everything right through the uprights. That was a huge part of the game early.
You kick field goals like that, typically it comes back to bite you in the butt, too. We were able to get away with that in some ways because of an elite defensive performance.
What this Alabama win means to Tennessee players
Question: What was most satisfying to you about seeing this group experience field-storming, cigars and a win like this?
Heupel: The celebration in the locker room, our fans, those are things that I already said I'm going to remember forever. They're going to remember forever, too.
Tonight I told Bill to slow down. I wanted to enjoy it a little bit more than I had in my first one, instead of trying to get off the field.
For our players, we talk about the historic rivals, the history of this program, General Neyland, the great former players in every phase of the game. For them to understand the importance of this game to our fan base, but to us as a team too, and buy into that.
Win the preparation and practice extremely well to go play the way that you need to play to find a way to win.
Heupel on Tennessee's fourth-quarter dominance
Question: How much do you think your guys felt that fourth-quarter drive?
Heupel: Our strength and conditioning is a massive part of who we are as a program. Line of scrimmage, fourth quarter, a huge part and a direct result of it.
Jim Knowles' defensive game plan shuts down Alabama
Question: Alabama was 2 of 13 on third down tonight. Is that the impact you hired Jim Knowles for?
Heupel: They did an unbelievable job. They faced a couple of short fields after playing elite defense.Got after the quarterback. Tight windows. Didn't give up anything easy early and made them earn it.
Won at the line of scrimmage in the run game. You look at fourth-down stops, a massive part of the game. It was an elite job by Jim in game planning and our defensive staff. And an elite job by our players going and executing it and playing hard for 60 minutes.
Tennessee's best all-around SEC performance
Question: Was today the best complimentary effort you've had?
Heupel: Probably holistically, in conference play, yes. The best that we've been.
There's so much left out there for us. Constant and continued growth.
If we control our controllables on the offensive side of the ball and special teams, we've got a chance to continue to grow and be a really good football team.
Enjoying the win before preparing for the next challenge
Question: With a win like this, where's the line between using it as motivation and not getting too high?
Heupel: You better enjoy it on the back end. They should tonight. I did for however long I was in the locker room.
As coaches, when I get home here in about 45 minutes, I'll be over it and on to the next one. How do we get better? Our players get a little bit longer.
You come in, get treatment, but Monday morning you deal with the reality of how do we get better. We certainly understand every week in this league is a new season. We understand where we're going and who we're playing.
They've had a bye week, so they've got a week of preparation on us. We've got to make up ground and get ready to go play on the road.
Heupel on Tennessee's dominant defensive performance
Question: When did you realize the defense could have that type of performance?
Heupel: I don't think you ever just think that's what it's going to be. That happens because you prepare the right way, you practice the right way, you've got a great game plan, and then guys go execute and physically play in a way that you can do that and sustain it for 60 minutes.
That's a hard thing to do. But they did it all night long.
Heupel on Dejuan Lane's big night
Question: What was it like watching Dejuan Lane make the plays he was making tonight?
Heupel: He's been a tremendous player. I don't even know all the stats, but a couple picks, right? Maybe a fumble recovery too. Am I right?
He's played elite. And the good news for him is there's still more out there for him. He's still going to continue to get better if he chooses to, and I say that as a real compliment to him. He's been a dominant player.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Josh Heupel compliments players, fans after Alabama win: 'I'll remember forever'
