Josh Heupel praises Tennessee defense for dominant performance up front vs. South Carolina
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said pregame that his team needed to get pressure on South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler, and they delivered. The Vols made life difficult all evening for Rattler as their pass rush proved a major difference in a 41-20 victory at Neyland Stadium.
Tennessee finished the game with six sacks on Rattler and three quarterback hurries as it notched its first conference win to improve to 4-1 overall (1-1 SEC). Speaking with SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic postgame, Heupel praised the defense for the way it answered the call.
“There’s not a better environment than Neyland Stadium in all of college football,” he said. “Love the way our fans showed up and showed out tonight. We’re gonna need ’em the rest of the way, too. Really proud of our team. I thought they prepared really well defensively. Our D-line really dominated control of the football game. We did a good job of matching ’em.”
Rattler finished the game 24-of-35 passing for a season-low 169 yards and an interception with no touchdowns. At one point in the second half, he narrowly avoided a safety as the Vols forced him to throw the ball away from the back of the end zone.
Edge rusher James Pearce led the team with two sacks while three other players came away with one. Tennessee also held South Carolina to just 2-of-14 on its third down conversion attempts as nothing seemed to be working for the Gamecocks offense.
“James Pearce, Tyler Baron and the rest of the crew coming off the edge were really good up front,” Heupel said. “The inside, too. Our pressure package worked tonight. Really proud of their effort defensively for most of the night besides the way we started the third quarter. They were dialed in and competed really hard.”
It wasn’t just the defense that led the Vols to victory. They also got a big performance from their rushing attack to overcome a pair of interceptions from Joe Milton.
Tennessee finished with game with 238 yards rushing and three touchdowns on the ground while averaging 6.0 yards per carry behind a big performance form the offensive line. Jaylen Wright led the way with 123 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries.
“That’s the key to everything that we’ve done for as long as this staff’s been together,” Heupel said. “The five guys up front. Getting Cooper Mays back was huge tonight. Ollie (Lane) did a good job sliding over to left guard. We gotta get healthy during the bye week and continue to improve as a football team.”
Coming out of the bye next week, Tennessee will next face Texas A&M on Oct. 14 in Neyland Stadium