Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel subtly said something extremely encouraging this weekend that many fans may have missed.

Heupel met with reporters on Sunday after Tennessee's second fall scrimmage. During his opening statement, Heupel made some comments that made me feel even better about the Vols' chances of winning 10 games this season.

The second-year Tennessee head coach mentioned the progress that was made between the first and second scrimmages this fall. It's a comment that most folks likely glossed over, but I feel it's an extremely important sign of the Vols' continued development under Heupel and his staff.

"I thought there were a bunch of positives today in the scrimmage," said Heupel. "We played cleaner on both sides of the football. Executed. I thought alignment, assignment, eyes on keys, being lined up and ready to go on the defensive side of the football, tackling in space. I thought we did a much better job in those areas than we did in the first scrimmage. Offensively, at times we were efficient and played with great pace, and handled the communication side of it at a really high level, too."

"So, a bunch of positives," added Heupel. "I know there will be a bunch of things we're going to need to clean up, too, when we go back and watch the tape this afternoon."

There usually isn't much to glean from a press conference with an SEC head coach — those guys know how to say a lot without saying anything at all. It's part of the job.

But Heupel's decision to comment on the progress between scrimmages is quite telling.

It shows that Tennessee is identifying problems and subsequently correcting those problems.

That should give fans some hope that the Volunteers will fix their two biggest issues from last season — stopping opponents on third down and converting in third-and-short situations.

We know Heupel is working to correct areas where Tennessee struggled. And we know from his comments on Sunday that he's been successful in making some of those corrections.

That's one of the biggest signs of good coaching — not making the same problems over and over.

Not correcting mistakes is something we saw under the previous coaches at Tennessee. The hope for Heupel, obviously, is that he doesn't follow that same path. Mistakes happen — even at Alabama. But the key is not letting those mistakes happen twice.

It feels like Heupel has a good grip on how to prevent Tennessee from going down that road again. And that's something that should greatly excite Vols fans.

Featured image via Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK