Tennessee defeated Bowling Green, 38-6, to open its 2021 season Thursday at Neyland Stadium.
The win was No. 850 in Tennessee’s program all-time and the first under head coach Josh Heupel.
Following the contest, Heupel met with media and discussed the Vols’ performance.
“I’m excited about the win,” Heupel said. “We have a ton of ways that we can, and will, need to improve out of this football game. Defensively, I thought we played with passion, played with effort and played with energy. We tackled relatively well in space. We did a really good job for most of the night. Offensively, there were times when we were clicking, handling things and played efficiently. At other times, there were simple things that we can control where we didn’t operate as efficiently as we can. We will need to clean those things up as we continue to move deeper into the season.
“For us, there are seven months of work that goes into getting to this point, building something from scratch. I’m talking about relationships, who we are, what’s the standard and what does it mean to be a Tennessee Volunteer football player. I’m really proud of getting to this point, playing with passion and energy, being able to celebrate a win. Obviously, when we get back on Saturday, we will have the opportunity to watch video and get a whole lot better from there.”
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