Josh Heupel praises ‘violent’ defensive front for performance against South Carolina
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Josh Heupel had plenty to say about the effort from the defensive front against South Carolina.
Heupel mentioned the impact that the defensive line had in the game at the Knoxville Quarterback Club Monday.
Many people focused on the performance of James Pearce, but Heupel credited the entire group. Tennessee’s defensive line made things hard on Spencer Rattler.
“Our front four are violent, disruptive. They’ve changed the way the game’s played. They’ve done that run game. We’re top five in the country, I think, in tackles for loss. They’ve done that with sacks. James Pearce will be named (SEC) Defensive Lineman of the Week and he’s top five in the country in sacks right now. It’s not just him. It’s everybody up front. You look at how they played on Saturday night, they made it extremely uncomfortable for the quarterback to be in the pocket. He’s not able to step into his throws. There’s pressure coming from everywhere. We did a really good job of matching the wide receivers when he broke contain on Saturday night. That’s something that the previous year we didn’t do against them. So excited about what we’re doing up there.”
Rattler got rattled by Tennessee as the Vols had seven sacks. Heupel also gave a shout out to the secondary as they matched up well with the wideouts when Rattler ran outside the pocket.
After a bye week, Tennessee faces Texas A&M next on Oct. 14.
Grant Bricker was a former freelancer for The News TN in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. He now freelances for Saturday Football. Follow on Twitter @GrantBricker.
