Josh Heupel knows Pittsburgh well. He’s faced the Panthers four times in the past five seasons as the head coach at Tennessee and Central Florida. However, this year’s Pitt team is a bit different.

Heupel is used to Pitt being a team that likes to rely on a strong passing game. That was a natural last season when Pitt beat the Vols with a future first-round draft pick at the helm. There was no question that former Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett was the focal point last season when the Panthers beat the Vols. Now, things have changed since he’s become a Pittsburgh Steeler.

Play-action Purpose

Pitt would still like to see some of those big plays come via the passing game. However, they’ll likely be set up by the Panthers’ ability to run the football.

“The structure of what they do offensively is a little bit different,” Heupel said during his weekly press conference on Monday.

Pitt has gone from Pickett to play-action. The Panthers will sometimes even play an extra offensive tackle in order to control the line of scrimmage. The goal is simple: run the football in hopes of producing bigger plays down the field. 

Heupel said avoiding those “chunk” plays are key for the Vols this week. Pitt would certainly like to slow down the pace of the game since high tempo favors the Vols. 

“The tempo of the ball game will be a little bit different,” Heupel said. “You have to do a great job of being physical with your front seven in particular.”

Post Pickett

Kedon Slovis has taken over for Pickett. The Southern California transfer completed 16-of-24 passes for 308 yards and a touchdown in a 38-31 win over West Virginia on Thursday. While Tennessee has a game to study with Slovis and Pitt together, there’s still some unknown factors with a quarterback that has little experience.

“They have the ability to be different than what they’ve shown on tape,” Heupel said of Pitt with Slovis. “…I thought he played pretty efficient throughout the course of the evening.

Slovis and Pitt’s passing game won’t be nearly as disconcerting if the Vols can stop the Panthers’ running attack.

“We’ve got to be disciplined,” Heupel said of defending the run. “We’ve got to do a great job in the run game. We’ve got to smash it.”

Not left behind

Heupel seemed pleased with the play of Tennessee’s two left tackles in the season-opening game against Ball State. Jeremiah Crawford and Gerald Mincey continue to battle for playing time even though the season is underway. It seems the battle will continue.

“I thought both of them played well throughout the course of the football game in protection,” said Heupel, who gave no indication that he may play one lineman more than the other in the foreseeable future.

“We’ll find more out about them in pass pro(tection) this week,” Heupel said. “Obviously, the front that we’re going to see from Pittsburgh is one of the better that we’ll see throughout the course of the season.”

Cornering the market

Warren Burrell and Christian Charles certainly helped themselves against Ball State. The two cornerbacks garnered strong praise from Heupel on Monday.

“I thought they did a really nice job with the mix of our coverages,” Heupel said. “The 50/50 balls, those guys played it pretty well down the sideline. I liked what I saw from them. Obviously this week, out on the perimeter, we’ll see some guys that will be a bigger test for us.

Receiver rap

Heupel said he was pleased with Tennessee’s receivers, who were much more accustomed to the Vols’ uptempo pace than they were to begin the season in 2021.

Heupel said the receivers were consistent and specifically named Cedric Tillman and Jalin Hyatt as two that he was pleased with.

“Overall, excited about what they put on video for the first week,” Heupel said. “Guys that played were really consistent.”

The challenge changes this week when Tennessee is expected to face more press coverage than Ball State, who mostly dropped eight defenders into coverage.

“You’ve got to win one-on-ones here,” Heupel said.

D’ed up

Pitt has one of the better defensive lines in the country. That wasn’t he case with Ball State. The Cardinals were woefully outmatched. That won’t be the case this week.

“Their front four are strong, physical (and) athletic,” Heupel said. “Their ability to get to the quarterback on normal downs and then on third downs too, they’ll scheme you up…It will be a big test for us offensively.”

Sampson says

Heupel continued to praise running back Dylan Sampson, as Tennessee’s coaches have throughout the preseason. The freshman had 10 carries for 32 yards and a touchdown as the third tailback behind Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright.

“I thought he matched the things that he had been doing in practice,” Heupel said. “He was able to take that to the football game and translate it. The bright lights, the energy, all of it, the stage wasn’t too big for him in any way.”

Tight end talk

Tennessee’s tight ends didn’t catch a pass against Ball State and appeared to be targeted only once in the game. That won’t be the norm.

“Just the way it unfolded during the course of that ball game,” Heupel said. “You look back at it a year ago. There are times where they end up with a bunch of targets and there’s other games where it just doesn’t unfold that way.”

Hey Joe

Joshua Josephs showed signs of potential against Ball State. The freshman recorded two tackles and played extensively against the Cardinals.

“Fast, long and explosive on the edge.” Heupel said when asked about Josephs. “I thought he did a really nice job in the reps he got.”

There’s likely much more of Josephs to come as the season unfolds.

“He’s a young guy that’s going to continue to grow inside of what we’re doing,” Heupel said. “I expect him to have a big role throughout the course of the year.”

Injury Report

Heupel didn’t have anything decisive to say about linebacker Juwan Mitchell. The senior missed the Ball State game with an undisclosed injury. Heupel said he would know more about Mitchell’s availability towards the end of the week.