Tennessee HC Josh Heupel makes honest admission about one of the Vols' biggest plays against Chattanooga

One of the Tennessee Vols' most exciting plays in their 69-3 win against the Chattanooga Mocs on Saturday came with less than two minutes remaining in the game.

Late in the fourth quarter, Tennessee blocked a Chattanooga punt, which was returned for a touchdown by Vols true freshman defensive lineman Jordan Ross.

While speaking on The Josh Heupel Show with Bob Kesling, Vols head coach Josh Heupel admitted that Tennessee wasn't actually trying to block the Chattanooga punt.

"We weren't trying to go after the punt," said Heupel. "But the opportunity just presented itself based off the structure of what they were doing. Jordan's a great young player, man. Really physical, really athletic, got a great future in front of him. Did a great job off the edge and scoops it up and scores."

You gotta love hearing that if you're a Tennessee fan. It would've been easy for the Vols to put it on cruise control late in the fourth quarter and leave the field with an impressive 62-3 win. But Tennessee's players, specifically Ross, kept playing hard. That's a tough mentality to maintain on a blazing hot August afternoon when the game is already out of hand.

The fact that Ross was playing that hard on special teams late in the fourth quarter shows that this Tennessee team plays the game the right way. They're competing as if the scoreboard says 0-0 until the final whistle.

I'm not saying Tennessee is going to win a national championship this season. But what we saw from the Vols late in Saturday's win against Chattanooga is certainly a characteristic of a championship team.

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