KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Bowl practice is underway for the Tennessee football program as the Vols commenced preparations for the TransPerfect Music City Bowl on Saturday morning inside the Anderson Training Center. UT will hold 15 bowl practices before its clash with the Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday, December 30 in Nashville.

Head coach Josh Heupel met with members of the media after Saturday’s practice and discussed the excitement around the program’s postseason proceedings. Tennessee’s coaching staff is also focused on rounding out the 2022 recruiting class, with early signing day set for Wednesday, Dec. 15.

“Great time for our program, a lot of things going on,” Heupel said. “Ready to go finish off this recruiting class. Spent a couple of good weeks out on the road, our staff and myself, and excited about finishing it off here this weekend and through the early part of next week. Great opportunity to get some practice in. We’ve had a couple since we finished the season. Great opportunity to go play in a great bowl game here, the Music City Bowl, close for a bunch of our fans. Expect and excited to see them pack that place out and have a great environment there on the 30th.”

Coming off a 7-5 season in Heupel’s debut campaign on Rocky Top, the Vols took time to reset mentally and get healthy before postseason practice began. The UT head coach wants his players to feel rejuvenated before getting into the nitty-gritty of bowl prep.

“I think the biggest thing in bowl preparation is not getting stale,” Heupel said. “Getting some good-on-good work so that they have an understanding of the tempo and they’re accustomed to it, and then your players being as fresh as they possibly can mentally and physically when you get to the bowl site and the bowl game.”

Heupel also spoke to the opportunities presented by these 15 extra practices for younger players that did not take as many reps throughout the season. The early portion of bowl practices will mirror spring ball and postseason camp, with less experienced players receiving more chances to compete and improve their craft.

“Because you are able to rep more guys like you would in a spring ball or training camp, they naturally see the opportunity that they have to go out there and compete,” Heupel said. “Instead of being on the practice squad or scout team – whatever you call it – they’re getting mainstream reps with your units, offense and defense. Guys have been great here through the early part.”

Tickets for the TransPerfect Music City Bowl can be purchased by visiting the bowl website or by clicking HERE. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. ET, and the game will televised on ESPN.

Existing season ticket holders can renew their tickets for the 2022 season now by visiting AllVols.com. Fans wishing to purchase new season tickets for the 2022 season can submit a request by clicking HERE.

A complete transcript of Heupel’s Saturday presser can be viewed below.

Opening statement…
“Good to see everybody. It’s been a while. First of all, just with the weather and the storms that have come through this region here, want everybody to know that our thoughts are with everybody here that’s been affected by the storms, and will continue to be that way.

“Great time for our program, a lot of things going on. Ready to go finish off this recruiting class. Spent a couple of good weeks out on the road, our staff and myself, and excited about finishing it off here this weekend and through the early part of next week. Great opportunity to get some practice in. We’ve had a couple since we finished the season. Great opportunity to go play in a great bowl game here, the Music City Bowl, close for a bunch of our fans. Expect and excited to see them pack that place out and have a great environment there on the 30th. Through those bowl practices as we get going here next week, excited to get some development time with our young guys inside of our roster as well, as we prepare for that football game. So, a lot of things going on. Excited about them, and I’ll open it up for some questions here.”

On prospects taking official visits this weekend and witnessing the environment of bowl practice…
“Huge for us. When we started this recruiting process with COVID, we were talking about the things that were going to be inside the building and how we were going to play. This fall, they’ve gotten a chance to see that. Now, the guys that are here at the end of this recruiting cycle get an opportunity to come and see us practice. They get to see the energy inside of our building firsthand. They get to see their position coach talk, communicate and teach through position drills, through the team. I think it’s an awesome time to get the real feel inside of our building every single day. I think it will be a huge part of how we finish this recruiting cycle.”

On the team’s reaction to playing in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl…
“I think everybody’s excited about what the gameday environment will be with our fanbase just leading up to it, even before the announcement. When the announcement happened, I was on the road and our staff was on the road recruiting, but for our guys here inside this program, they’re extremely excited about it. We were looking forward to and in some ways hoping that was the destination that we were going to be in. For guys that are around this region, easy trip for their families to come up and share in the experience, not just on gameday but the entire week. For our kids that are further away too, their families will be able to come in. A great city, and a huge part of our base inside of this state, our recruiting base. You guys know that for myself and our staff, we’ve tried to place a huge importance on doing in-state recruiting the right way. With us taking over (Nashville), with some COVID limitations as well, think it will be a great opportunity for myself and the staff to get familiar with some VFLs that are in the area, be able to meet with some donors. It’ll be a great week.”

On his opinion of the early signing period…
“It is what it is. At this point, I’m excited about it being where it is right now for us inside of this program to be able to finish off the recruiting cycle this way. As early as recruiting gets started – I’m talking about sophomores and juniors – I think it’s good to put a quicker end to the process than being in February.”

On what he’s learned about Purdue so far…
“I’m going to be honest, haven’t started down that track too far here. There’s been enough other things going on in the first couple weeks here out in the recruiting cycle.”

On his thoughts on Alontae Taylor’s decision to forego the bowl game…
“Well, I think for Alontae – I had an opportunity to sit down with him on the back end of it – he’s very thoughtful, took information, understood potentially where he was slotted and made a good decision for him. At the end of the day, you guys have heard me say this the back half of the year as you guys started asking those questions, you want to be able to give good, concrete information to kids and have them make a really sound decision for themselves and I feel like Alontae did that. We’re going to help and support him in every way as he goes through the draft process, excited about his future. It’s a kid that has been a great leader from the time that he stepped on campus for us. For me, he’s been a great resource in just helping build the foundation of Tennessee football. (He’s) a guy that battled through injury the last three weeks of the season and really those are things that not very many people knew. It’s an opportunity for him to get back and get healthy here before he ends up in that draft process.”

On which players he sees stepping in to fill Taylor’s spot…
“All the guys that you guys have seen throughout the course of the season have an opportunity to step up. We’ll go through bowl practice and the guy that practices the best will get an opportunity to start at that position, but I imagine that we’ll see multiple people play.”

On the challenges of playing a full season, stopping, then getting going again…
“Reset, get some guys healthy, get them feeling as good as they possibly can as you get into the meat and potatoes of your bowl preparation. In doing that, there’s a strength component to it in the weight room. You get a little bit of work on the weekends here the last couple of recruiting weekends. A lot of that is fundamental then just a little bit of good-on-good work where they still simulate and see some of the speed and tempo that you’re going to when you get back to your bowl game. I think the biggest thing is bowl preparation not getting stale, getting some good-on-good work so that they have an understanding of the tempo and they’re accustomed to it and then your players being as fresh as they possibly can mentally and physically when you get to the bowl site and the bowl game.”

On any other players notifying him they are planning to skip the bowl game…
“No. There are still some guys going through the process of making a decision, what’s right for them and their future. We continue to help them through that process. The guys have been awesome. Whoever ends up showing up, we’re ready to go play, but (we) anticipate having a pretty full roster.”

On the structure of bowl practices…
“Preseason and spring ball are similar in some ways. At the end of the day, there’s a big bulk of individual work at the beginning. You get some crossover work, wide receivers-DBs, running backs-linebackers, o-line-d-line. Then you finish with some team preparations as well. Some fundamentals on special teams, not a lot of scheme at this point. That will kind of be consistent to the early part of next week.”

On telling the younger guys how meaningful bowl practice reps are…
“See, I don’t think you have to motivate them. I think, because you are able to rep more guys like you would in a spring ball or training camp, they naturally see the opportunity that they have to go out there and compete. Instead of being on the practice squad, or scout team – whatever you call it – they’re getting mainstream reps with your units, offense and defense. Guys have been great here through the early part.”

On attending Otis Anderson’s funeral and his eulogy…
“I didn’t know I was going to speak until I almost got to the church. To me it was just important to celebrate a young man’s life. You love all your guys and it’s a sudden and tragic loss of life. Family is, obviously, going through it and the emotions that come with that and there are a lot of stages to that. Just wanted to show support to the family, but also to fellow teammates and brothers. Having an opportunity to see some of those guys and share in the grieving process was important for me and my wife. It was a tough day.”

-UT Athletics