On Saturday, Tennessee Football shot down Kentucky 28-18.

After the game, Vols head coach Josh Heupel met with the media.

Here’s everything he said.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

A great atmosphere again this evening. Crowding, large part of the night. Excited about the win. Don’t take any of this for granted. There’s still a lot left out for us. I’ll just start quickly and offensively. Special teams get it through the uprights. All combined with turnovers and penalty sacks on the plus side of the territory. We’re close on some shots. I mean, it just felt like we trained really well. We continue the game. Put all the puzzle pieces together to play our best football. It will never be perfect, but I’m happy about the win again. But there are many things we can improve.

You could kind of see it, I thought he played with great confidence and great poise. Made plays when they presented themselves. Was close to some deep balls on the football field. We’re close, man. He saw things really well. So all in all, really, really good leadership and presence from him over the course of the night.

Some of it is just what they give you. Situational football can also dictate this. At the end of the evening he gave us the opportunity to move the football.

I don’t know who these teams are. Every week is its own season. You have to be good enough to win this Saturday and play all three phases together. But you have to play smart football. We have some of the penalties under control, but there will be some on the field. But that’s the nature of the game when you play hard. We need to be better at the things we control. You have to put it all together with special teams. We did some things well tonight. We need to be much better at some things. On the offensive, when you lose the ball, you just can’t have that. They are never good in the red zone. Well, they’re never good on the minus side of the territory either. So you just can’t do it. We need to be better at some of these things. Practice well for the last few weeks. We win, you just have to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

Players make a game. Also understand all the traffic that takes place behind it. So this is a great achievement from him.

I have trust in him. He has to find a way to start quicker as the football game progresses. He’s been doing extremely well up until the last few weeks. He also scored a big goal late against Bama. Worked well in practice. The routine, the warm-up after arriving in the locker room, wherever it may be, just has to get him into the flow. And you know, based on some of our offensive performances, it’s not like he had chip shots to begin with either. But he is good enough and confident enough to make it through the posts. So I have to move on.

I don’t have an update on Bishop. D-Samp, you know, just an elite evening. Obviously I want the fumble back. Hard yards, hitting the hole, playing with pad level. Solid night from him. Peyton ran really well. He really did. Young guy who keeps showing up. As I said at the beginning of this thing, you can’t just be one guy at every position except running back. You will need them throughout the course. And I need to get Cam back, fully operational and healthy. Hopefully DeSean will be ready and continue to push these guys.

I think that’s a testament to how hard they play and finish the game. D-Samp, that’s an old record, I think, and a very special one. But I also said in the locker room that we recognize some of the guys with big plays and turnovers on defense and things like that. Running backs can’t do that unless they have 10 other guys doing their job too. It’s a credit to everyone, starting with five players up front, tight ends and perimeter blocking and also quarterback. D-Samp is also the first to say that. So at the end of the day it’s a special moment for him and some of the guys, but there’s a lot for us out there too.

I don’t feel like the playbook wasn’t open. I’m not sure that’s the right way to put it. In the end, situational football, like if you understand the scheme, all 11 matches. It depends on how you play the game. We have a lot of confidence in Nico and quarterback is not a perfect position. That’s just not it. He is a young player who is getting better with every game. You heard me say that before the season. His competitive nature and his ability to make plays and be a good decision maker there. He had a great night and played a lot of really good football. Good news for him and for us is that his best football talent is ahead of him.

Large part of the result of the football game. Brooks had a great performance in the second half and played really good football overall defensively. You can take advantage of this offensively and finish the drives. So it’s a matter of finishing the game right and keeping ourselves on the right side of the results list.

I found there were some really positive things. There are some things they would like to do. You know what I mean? Some plays on the edge and illegal formation. There are little things that we have control over and can do better. But overall, at their core, they played hard and tried hard, made some plays in the passing game. It was a good night.