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Football Josh Heupel's final thoughts before Alabama game

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel met with the media Thursday to offer his final thoughts ahead of Tennessee's showdown with Alabama on Saturday at Neyland Stadium.

Here are some notes from Heupel's press conference:

– Heupel: "Good Thursday for us. Obviously looking forward to Friday pushing forward and be ready to go play our best football. Be a great environment – looking forward to it."

– Heupel on the Jaylen McCollough situation: "We're getting multiple guys ready to play. With the situation, there's a process that goes on, and we're still going through that. We'll see where we get to late tomorrow."

– Heupel said that both Alabama quarterbacks – Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe – are mobile, and that'll be the case for whoever plays for the Tide on Saturday. "You have to prepare and have a plan for both of them, anyways."

– Heupel said Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs has really good vision and the ability to "make you miss in open space and get the distance." He said "he's a really good back."

– Heupel on Cedric Tillman and Gerald Mincey's status: "We'll see where we get to after tomorrow."

– Heupel said that his team prepares the same way for each and every game. He said the bigger games bring on more media attention and noise, "but your approach, your preparation and your practice habits have to be really consistent."
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QB improvement under Heupel (year 1 to year 2) (LONG)

1.) Landry Jones - from 2009 to 2010
Yards: +47%
Completion %: +13%
TDs: +46%
Y/A: +7%
Rating: + 12%
Heupel as QB Coach
Honorable mention all-American (Cam Newton and Andrew luck were competition)

2.) Drew Lock - 2016 to 2017
Yards: + 17%
Completion %: +6%
TDs: +91%
Y/A: +29%
Rating: +24%
Heupel as OC
1st all-SEC QB and SEC record TD passes in a season (at the time)

3.) Dillon Gabriel - 2019 to 2020
***calculated by yards per game to get more accurate picture, as only 10 games were played in 2020
Yards: +27%
Completion %: +1%
TDs: +43%
Y/A: -7%
Rating: -0.4%
Heupel as HC
1st team all-conference (unanimous)

Avg improvement of the 3 from year one to year two:
Yards - +30%
Completion % - +7%
TDs - +60%
Y/A - +10%
Rating - +12%

Hooker’s passing stats last year (actual/prorated to full season):
Yards: 2945/3387
Completion %: 68%/NA
TDs: 31/36
Y/A: 9.7/NA
Rating: 181.4/NA

Hooker’s projected year two numbers if they improve by the average year two improvement % of Jones, Lock, and Gabriel (using 13 game proration):
Yards: 4403 yards
Completion %: 73%
TDs: 58* (skewed by lock’s 91% increase)
TDs without lock factored: 52
Y/A: 10.7
Rating: 203.2

Obviously some of those numbers are unattainable due to how successful Hooker was year one, but it’s interesting to look at the improvements past QBs have made from year one to year two under heupel, and it’s easy to see why many people, including myself, see him as a potential Heisman contender.

Heupel has yet to have a quarterback not improve from year one to year two, and I don’t think that changes this year.

Side note: I think Heupel will have two of “his guys” in New York at the end of the season. Look for Dillon Gabriel to have a huge year at Oklahoma after transferring this off-season. Would be a nice thing to point to in recruiting as, by December, we will be heavily recruiting the ‘24 class by then, and we need to stack multiple top flight QBs; can’t get Nico and then go multiple years without the next guy in line behind him.

Thought this would be something interested to bring to the board, thanks for reading of you made it this far.
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