Josh Heupel opens up about Hendon Hooker and Cedric Tillman's connection in camp

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel is the architect of one of the most exciting offenses in college football. It’s a high-speed, spread attack that relies on taking advantage of numbers and keeping defenses on their heels. At the same time, it’s an offense where everyone needs to be on the same page.

Two of the most important players in Tennessee’s offense, quarterback Hendon Hooker and wide receiver Cedric Tillman, know they need great chemistry and timing. So, it’s something they’ve worked on, which Josh Heupel addressed with the media.

“Yeah, I don’t think surprise would be the right word,” Josh Heupel responded to a reporter, “Just because of how they’ve worked all offseason.”

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“Their growth and what we’re doing is so different than we were a year ago at this point. Just their understanding of what gameday is going to look like, how to function inside the system, and, obviously, they both grew.”

According to Josh Heupel, a lot of that improvement has come recently in Fall camp.

“I do think, you know, through the course of training camp, we’ve gotten here on the back half. We’ve been able to push the ball down the field and win more of those one-on-one situations. The consistency of throw and catch between those two has continued to get better. I feel like, you know, they’re both playing at a really high level, right now,” Josh Heupel concluded.

Josh Heupel explained his offensive philosophy

Josh Heupel has such a unique and explosive offense that it can seem complicated or intimidating. However, it’s a relatively simple thing that has developed over the years.

“Some of the wide splits we started messing with when I was at Oklahoma,” Josh Heupel said. “We played with a ton of tempo early in my tenure at Oklahoma. We had actually, dating back to that, we played West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. They were no huddle at that time with Rich Rod and we incorporated that the following season and had great experience with it. Got away from it on the back end just because, philosophically, that’s the what the head coach wanted to do.”

“You know, since Missouri and UCF, we’ve continued to build upon our tempo. Schematically you always change. You know this. It fluctuates from year-to-year. You start everything with your personnel — you’ve got two tight ends you want to play with, you’ve got three. You’ve got four wideouts you want to play. And then you put those kids in a position and you make sure that you’re putting your offensive line in position to be successful in the run game and in pass pro, too. And certainly it comes down to what your quarterback can highly function with and control the game with. So you subtly change, but the tempo’s a huge part of how we apply pressure to defenses.”