What Tennessee's Josh Heupel said Thursday on The Mike Keith Show

What Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said Thursday afternoon during his weekly appearance on The Mike Keith Show, looking back at the 44-41 overtime loss to Georgia and previewing the UAB game (Saturday, 12:45 p.m. Eastern Time, SEC Network):

What stands out about UAB

“Well, offensively, their ability to spread the field, throw it around. Multiple in their personnel groupings. A lot of shift-trade motions. We got to do a great job early on in the communication and got to match things out in zone and play with great discipline in our man coverage with all the motions. Communication is going to be critical. And offensively, you’ve got to win at the line of scrimmage and force them to load the box, and then when they do, got to go create some big plays out on the outside.”

Tennessee getting back to creating big plays on offense

“I think Joey is throwing the deep ball extremely well. That’s one of the things that we saw on tape was that he was an accurate down-the-field passer and had the arm strength to do it. He’s been really good in his decision-making. The other thing was that our wide receivers have done a really good job of going and attacking the football. Winning some contested one-on-ones, too. You look at Chris Brazzell’s catch last week early in the football game. I think it’s a combination of all those things, and then a big part of that, too, is the protection up front giving us time to throw it down the football field.”

It being a point of emphasis to create more big plays

“Well, we certainly tried last year, too. Historically, being able to throw the football vertically down the field has been one of our strong points and creating explosive plays in the pass game. I think it all plays together, from protection, to wide receiver playing with discipline, winning at the line of scrimmage, going and making plays down the field and the quarterback certainly being accurate with the ball down the field, too.”

Why Tennessee tight end Miles Kitselman is a special part of the team

“Great human being in general. He’s extremely tough. Competitive. Driven every single day. He’s one of our strongest leaders on the football team. His competitive makeup is elite. You’re going to get the same thing from him every single day. Mentally engaged. During our walk-through or in a meeting, he’s got great ownership. He’s willing to demand it from the guys around him, too. Somebody that has become a huge part of the fabric of who we are as a program.”

Tennessee defending the perimeter poorly vs. Georgia

“In today’s game, everybody has that. Some of the things that happened on the perimeter were us not fitting it right. It’s subtle details and understanding the leverage that you have to have. It could be we have a designed pressure and who’s supposed to be out of it is not out of it. There’s so many details that go into how the game gets played. That’s why I say we have to do a great job with our communication. All three levels of the defense playing together, being in sync.”

Getting more Tennessee players involved in the secondary this week

“I think any time you have injuries, new guys gotta step up. They’re gonna have a heavier load than you probably anticipated. The flow of the game will dictate a little bit of that and how much we’re able to rotate and the tempo they’re playing with.”

Backups that will fill in for injured freshman WR Radarious Jackson vs. UAB

“Guy that had continued to grow and earn snaps for us. You’re going to see Travis Smith in there, Joakim Dodson, Trey Weary, those guys will continue to take more and more snaps.”

Tennessee’s three starting wide receivers

“Exactly what we expected and hoped from them during January break. I think the mindset each of those guys came back with, their attention to detail, personally how they grew and changed and became somebody that were hyperfocused on the details and trying to drain everything out of everything that we do every single day. That’s the weight room. That’s our meetings. That’s our on-field experiences. That’s spring ball. I think it all led itself to us believing that they were going to play at a really high level. They’ve also been a big part of the young guys really growing quickly. They’ve done a really good job of imparting some knowledge, some things that maybe they didn’t do early in their career, that they understand the why behind those things being important now. I think that’s been a big part of their progression.”

Tennessee freshman LEO Christian Gass

“Smart, tough, physical football player. He came in for playoff prep last year. In our young guy practices, elite athletic traits. We were really excited with him. He had to deal with a little bit of a setback. Coming in, had sustained an injury and ultimately had to have surgery on it. He’s been going through a long process of getting physically ready to go play. Been able to progress in here over the last few weeks. He’ll get an opportunity to play in this one. We’re really excited about the player, but excited for him, too. When you go through that journey, and it happens to everybody in this game, but when it happens right away, it’s a tough, tough process. He’s handled it in a great way and been a great teammate and really excited to get him on the field.”

The athletic traits of Tennessee freshman DL Christian Gass

“A guy that played in the second level in high school. Is a first level player for us. Has all the traits, is a smart guy that’s worked really hard at understanding it while he’s been limited. He’s got length, he’s got speed, he’s got short-area quickness, has the ability to help us on special teams. Really excited to get him going.”