Head Coach Josh Heupel Calls Taylen Green Dynamic Ahead Of Their Matchup On Saturday

“Defensively, huge task in front of us with their quarterback. He's playing extremely efficiently and creating big plays in the pass game."

Sep 27, 2025; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback Taylen Green (10) passes during the third quarter against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Notre Dame won 56-13. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

On Monday, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel talked about the areas of focus for the Vols on defense to slow down Arkansas QB Taylen Green, who is one of the best dual threat quarterbacks in the country. On the season, Green has thrown for 1,398 yards and 12 touchdowns. He is fourth in the nation in QBR (quarterback rating) with an 88.1. Coach Heupel talked about the huge task ahead of the Vols.

“Defensively, huge task in front of us with their quarterback. He's playing extremely efficiently and creating big plays in the pass game, but obviously has a chance to be a huge part of the run game as well,” said Heupel. “We've got to do a great job of bottling him up during the course of the afternoon and, you know, defensively with the changes they've made.”

Coach Heupel talked about preparing to slow him down and how the Vols need to play defensively to come out with a win.

“Yeah, you've got to play gap sound. You've got to get off the blocks. He's dynamic (Taylen Green). He's got great long speed. He's got great long speed, and you got to be able to tackle him. So in the different structures that we're playing, our gap integrity is going to be important,” said Heupel. “You know, when they're dropping back and throwing, you can't just let them sit back there and pat the ball either, you've got to apply pressure, but you've got to have great landing integrity as you're doing that. So those will all be points that will be really important for us defensively.”

It certainly won’t be an easy feat for the Vols to slow down the Arkansas QB, but they get back Jaxson Moi, and Daevin Hobbs is also getting healthier, which should help boost the defensive line in trying to slow down Green. Despite Arkansas firing its former head coach, Sam Pittman, it brought in a great offensive mind in Bobby Petrino to help the offense. Green will likely be the biggest beneficiary of the addition of Petrino as a playmaker for the Razorbacks.

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