Arkansas HC Sam Pittman makes strong statement about Tennessee Vols HC Josh Heupel

The Tennessee Vols will head to Fayetteville this weekend to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks. 

Tennessee is looking to improve to 5-0 ahead of a stretch of games that includes matchups against Florida and Alabama. 

On Monday, Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman met with reporters and he was asked about Vols head coach Josh Heupel. 

"Really good dude," said Pittman when asked about Heupel. "I really like him. The guy won the Heisman (Heupel actually finished as the runner up in 2000 to Chris Weinke). I don't know what I was expecting. I don't know, but he's a very humble, very good guy. I like him. I like what he does on his team. They're well coached. They're disciplined. They play extremely hard. But I really like the man. 

"I don't know him much more than the SEC head coaches meetings, but I have high respect -- I mean this, I have high respect for the guy. Because he's really done a great job there. A lot of guys had went in there and didn't [do a good job] before he got there. I think he's done a wonderful job. The kids (at Tennessee) know how to play the game. They know how to play it the right way." 

The respect for Heupel from former players, former coaches, and current coaches has been very noticeable over the last couple of years. Everyone usually speaks positively about their opponent in college football (unless there's some prior beef), but it seems genuine when folks are talking about Heupel. 

And that's not really a surprise. Heupel is extremely competitive and he wants to win every time he's on the field. But he runs his program the right way. And that's not something you always find to be true in college football.