ETSU made the trip east to Knoxville, but fell far short of shocking the world and upsetting Tennessee football. The Vols ran away with a 72-17 win over the Buccaneers behind a quick offensive start and suffocating defense.
Afterward, ETSU head coach Will Healy met with the media to give his perspective on what happened in the loss. Here is what he said.
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Opening statement
“We got our rear end kicked by a really, really good football team and a well-coached football team. Give them a lot of credit. I have a lot of respect for Coach Heupel. Their staff is really good. I think their players are really good. I thought they suffocated us early and we were never able to really come up and catch our breath. Got behind the chains a couple times on the offensive side of the ball and turned it back over quickly. Put our defense in bad field positions constantly. We would lack at communication at one spot and give up a big play. Forced them into a couple third downs, but they had some really big completions, a couple touchdowns in those third-and-long situations. It was a rear end whooping.
“I told the team in the locker room, that’s never acceptable. Don’t try to make yourself feel better and protect yourself in these situations. Come back in on Monday and let’s have some hard conversations and let’s look ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘What could we have done to have more success?’ But again, I go back to the fact of that’s an incredible football team. Unbelievable venue. Ton of respect for this place. Pulling for these guys the rest of the year. They did everything they should’ve done on a game like this to be able to have the success that they wanted. They took control of the game early and never let us breath.”
On penalties killing any first half momentum
“That was the frustrating part about it for me at halftime. It’s difficult enough to move the ball against these guys without shooting yourself in the foot. Holding and procedural penalties. I can get over the holding calls, but the procedural penalties, the false starts, the not being aligned properly. The one where we had the big play on (former Tennessee tight end) Charlie (Browder’s) play, that’s one me. He was turned to the sideline. His shoulders have to be parallel. It was a big play that’s called back and that’s a bad job on my part. He did everything we asked him to do, that was not a discipline-type penalty. We just put ourselves behind the chains way too much. It’s really difficult climbing back up hill against those guys.”
On telling his team to calm down
“When they get going, their tempo is fast. They obviously have great athletes going fast. I just felt like that the environment was kind of getting the best of us at that point and time, as well as their athletes. Just take a deep breath and be in the right spot. If you get beat by a guy who’s more talented and he runs over you or he runs by you, I can live with that. What I can’t live with is we’re not in the right spot and we’re not communicating well enough. It was just calm down and do your job. Don’t think you got to be He-Man on every play. Let’s just go compete. Which again, they did for 60 minutes. It’s a hard position to be in. You’re in this environment, you understand the score is going to be going across the bottom line on your way home and you get beat that bad? That’s humbling. A lot of teams and a lot of players would have run from that. I was very proud of the way we competed toward the end. Again, just competing is not good enough, but that’s why I know we got a shot, is the way they finished the game.”
On Tennessee’s offensive tempo
“They do a really good job. I think that they’ve gotten more into using those two tight ends, probably more than what he’s been (using) in the past. Those tight ends are weapons and they do a really good job in the run game and pass game. Their tempo makes them difficult to defend. They obviously have great athletes on the perimeter. I thought their quarterback (Joey Aguilar) made great decisions, was really accurate. He’s a really impressive leader and I think that’s kind of what this place was craving was a guy that they could relate to and they respected and that was going to work really hard for them. And it seems to be what they got with him. Obviously, he’s talented. I thought their backs ran extremely hard. Their wide outs made some really difficult, contested catches and those tight ends are really good players. Overall, I think on both sides of the ball and special-teams-wise, I think they’re a College Football Playoff talent and College Football Playoff team.”
On the value of playing this game
“That’s a great question. It really is. I think our players really enjoyed having an opportunity to compete against these guys. I think our staff really enjoyed the opportunity to compete against some of the best coaches in the country. Obviously, it does a lot for your athletic department, but I don’t think we as a program ever get on a bus to go lose a game. We get on the bus to go win. For us to have a chance to go compete against one of the best teams in the country is an incredible measuring stick for us. Our deficiencies show in a hurry. Whether it be in the coverage units on punts or whether it be tackling or gap sound or protections, whatever it is. Guys like this, you get the chance to play them, you get to go watch on Monday what you really need to work on. Incredible opportunity for us. We’re not running from these types of opportunities and competition. Obviously, we weren’t much competition for them today and that’s disappointing.”
On how he turns this game into a positive
“I’ve been in a bunch of these games. What concerns you, especially early, is if you go into a game like this and you feel like the guys turned it off and shut it down. I’ve also been in these games where you may have gotten your rear end kicked and there is a bunch of stuff that you need to fix, but you feel like as a whole your guys competed really hard. Those have been the special teams that I have been able to be a part of. Like I said nobody wants to be out there in the fourth quarter with four minutes to go down 72-17. That’s not fun for anybody. That’s not what these guys came here and signed up for. To see how they respond when things don’t go their way is really impressive from their character and competitiveness perspective. That’s to me why I’m leaving saying there’s a bunch of stuff we got to fix, but we got the chance to fix it because they want to be great.”
On Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar
“He was difficult to defend, no doubt about it. I’m sure there will be plenty that we can work on. Our goal was that we made him throw the ball short and we kind of rally to go tackle it and to try to shorten the game on defense, as well. Try to give them a couple different looks. They hit us with a couple double moves. Were able to hit some hole shots. He had his way. He had a great day. I think credit to them for their scheme and how they handled it. We showed them something we hadn’t shown before and they handled it really well.”
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