Josh Heupel after OT win against Pitt: What a victory for this program

The “Johnny Majors Classic” between Tennessee and Pitt in Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon was just that: A classic. And Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel couldn’t help but be ecstatic with his team navigating their way to a win.

Tennessee got down early but 17 unanswered points gave them a half time lead. They knocked Pitt starting quarterback Kedon Slovis out of the game and banged up his backup, Nick Patti. And after Cedric Tillman won his one-on-one matchup with a Pitt corner to catch the lone touchdown of overtime after the Vols offense was stifled in the second half — and Tennessee’s defense came up with another stop — Heupel could rave about the results to ESPN’s Molly McGrath.

“We didn’t win many in the third quarter,” Heupel said. “We won one in overtime. Those guys just continuing to compete and battle and fight. From where we took over and how we’ve grown as a football program, learning how to compete. It ain’t ever going to be perfect. There’s a lot of things we’re going to learn from. Man, what a victory for this program.”

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Heupel also took the opportunity to heap praise on the defense, which made life miserable for Pitts various quarterbacks.

“How about that effort from our defense, man. Third quarter, offensively, we didn’t do anything man. Dominant performance from them for most of the second half. We said we had to come in here and compete for 60 minutes. It’s a good football team. And man, our kids did it to the very end,” Heupel said.

McGrath asked Heupel about his emotions following the win to take his team to 2-0, and he demurred.

“The growth of our program,” Heupel said. “Our guys. There’s a lot of things that we’ve got to corrected coming out of this one. But man, the fight, the strain, the ability to compete for 60 minutes. Offense, defense, special teams. What the defense did in the special half, especially, that’s a big-time effort.”