Tennessee third-year football coach Josh Heupel was very pleased with his defense Saturday inside Neyland Stadium.
He’s just asking for a little perspective.
The Volunteers, who certainly showed progress on the defensive side of the ball last season compared to Heupel’s debut year in 2021, conducted their first spring scrimmage. The scrimmage was the seventh of the 15 allotted spring workouts, and it was closed to the media.
“I thought defensively that we were relentless and played with energy, and in particular the first defense,” Heupel said afterward in a news conference. “They had a really good day. They had the ability to get off the field. They tackled well. They were disruptive at the line of scrimmage, and they put pressure on the quarterback.”
When asked if the defense is ahead of the offense at spring’s midway mark, the architect of the nation’s highest-scoring attack last season smiled and replied, “I would not say that.”