Josh Heupel gives bold warning ahead of Tennessee-Ole Miss

Josh Heupel this Saturday has his biggest home game since his hiring in Knoxville, as the Tennessee Volunteers face off against former Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin, now coaching the No. 13 Ole Miss Rebels.

Many have tabbed this game as a potential shootout, much like Ole Miss’ last game against Arkansas, which the Rebels won 52-51. Ole Miss’ defense has allowed an abysmal 430 yards per game, 100th-best in the nation, and it has given up 22 touchdowns through five games. Tennessee’s defense is much better, comparatively speaking, but it has still allowed 344 yards per game and 16 touchdowns, placing the Volunteers defense as low as 47th in the nation.

Couple the struggling Tennessee and Ole Miss defensive units with two reliable, talented quarterbacks in Hendon Hooker for the Volunteers and Matt Corral for the Rebels, and this game could very well be a shootout. But Heupel would beg to differ, giving a bold warning that this game may not end up in the high-scoring battle it’s projected to be.

“I don’t think you want go into this one just assuming that it’s going to be a race for points,” Heupel said Monday of Tennessee’s matchup with Ole Miss. “Every game is going to unfold differently. You’ve got to play situational football. You want to make sure that you’re getting first downs, moving the football. But the game will unfold as it kind of unfolds. Each game has its own identity.”

Heading into Week 7, Corral, Ole Miss’ quarterback, is the second favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, priced at +210 and sitting just behind Alabama quarterback Bryce Young. And frankly, given Corral’s performance through Ole Miss’ first five games, it’s easy to see why: Corral holds a completion percentage just around 70, while throwing for 1,497 passing yards, 12 passing touchdowns and 12 touchdowns. Corral will do his best to pick apart Heupel’s Tennessee defense, but Hooker, who’s been on quite the hot streak of his own, will look to do the same with Ole Miss.

Hooker’s performance of late for Tennessee has solidified him a spot atop the NCAA leaderboards, despite not starting the first couple games. Ever since taking over for Joe Milton, Hooker has thrived: he currently ranks fifth in the NCAA in passer efficiency, scoring 185.89, and leads the entire SEC in that category. This week, Hooker and Heupel’s Tennessee Volunteers will play host to an explosive Ole Miss offense led by Corral, whose 182.43 passer efficiency rating slots him sixth in the country, one position below Hooker.

In order for Tennessee’s defense to shut down Corral and Ole Miss, Heupel said it will start with the little things. There were a lot of positive takeaways in the film of Tennessee’s last victory, a 45-20 home win over South Carolina, but Heupel said the Volunteers need to improve on fundamentals.

“Not taking anything away from [South Carolina], but a lot of ownership on our side of things we didn’t do that need to be better for us to perform at a higher level,” Heupel said. “Simple things, like really simple things that we did in the first half that we didn’t do in the second half.”