KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Game week has arrived on Rocky Top as the Tennessee football team kicks off the 2022 campaign Thursday night in Neyland Stadium. After a month of fall camp and preseason training, the squad has begun implementing game preparations for the long-awaited season opener against Ball State.
In his weekly Monday press conference, Josh Heupel updated the media on practice, position battles and the trajectory of the program over the last 19 months. Above all, the second-year head coach is looking forward to hitting the game field and seeing Vol Nation out in full force on Thursday in primetime.
“Awesome that it’s game week man, let’s go play ball,” Heupel said. “Excited to get into Neyland Stadium. Obviously, a long training camp here with our players. We’re at the point where it is time to go play and find out where we’re at … There are things we still have to clean up here before we get to kickoff, but excited to go compete with these guys on Thursday night. Really excited to see Vol Nation out. Our student body, there has been a huge amount of ticket requests by them. Excited to feel their energy inside of Neyland Stadium (and) the Vol Walk.”
With three days till kickoff, junior defensive lineman Omari Thomas hopes to see his unit take an intense, detail-oriented approach to gameday. The Memphis native also anticipates Big Orange Country making a powerful impact every time the Vols play inside Neyland Stadium.
“I expect us to come out and play with our hair on fire. Play hard, play fast, and like I said, just focus on the small details: the alignment, the personnel, down and distance, things like that. Just play together as a unit.
“The crowd is crazy in Neyland, everyone knows. I can’t wait to get in Neyland and just be able to experience it with the crowd. (Vol Nation) plays a big factor in the game as well. Just as much as us knowing what we need to do, them being out there, that plays a big factor. I’m just excited to get back in Neyland. I can’t wait.”
McCOY RULED IMMEDIATELY ELIGIBLE BY NCAA
Newcomer wideout Bru McCoy received clearance from the NCAA over the weekend, as his eligibility waiver was approved. The redshirt junior transfer from Southern Cal is immediately eligible and able to make his Tennessee debut on Thursday night against Ball State.
“More than anything, just excitement when I got the news,” Heupel said on Monday. “Man, it sent chills down my spine. I’m so excited for him. A young man that has done it the right way since he has been here, and he has gone through a long, winding journey to get to this point. Now he has the opportunity to move forward with his future and go compete with his teammates, his brothers. Having the chance to tell him and hear him tell his dad was one of the great moments in my career. You can just tell the sense of excitement and some relief from them that they are just able to move on and go compete. Really special for him and his family.”
Redshirt-senior receiver Cedric Tillman echoed Heupel’s excitement when asked about the news on Monday.
“I saw it pop up on my (Twitter) feed and texted him immediately: Congratulations bro. Let’s eat this year,” Tillman said. “Once again, positive words of encouragement. Obviously, I’m happy I get to have one of my brothers out there playing with me. I was excited.”
HEUPEL JOINS “VOL CALLS” MONDAY NIGHT
In addition to his Monday afternoon availability, Heupel will make his in-person “Vol Calls” season debut later that evening. Defensive coordinator Tim Banks will also be a guest in the second half of the show. The official statewide radio show of the Tennessee Volunteers airs from 8-9 p.m. ET on location from Calhoun’s On the River in downtown Knoxville.
“Vol Calls” can be heard on 50-plus radio stations across the state of Tennessee on the Vol Radio Network and all over the world through UTsports.com, the Tennessee Athletics App and SiriusXM.
Tennessee opens its 126th season of football and the second year of the Heupel era at 7 p.m. Thursday in Neyland Stadium. The contest will be televised by SEC Network.
It marks the second straight year and the fourth time in its history that UT will open a season on a Thursday night. The Vols are 3-0 in those previous contests with victories in 2021 (Bowling Green), 2016 (Appalachian State) and Louisville (1991). UT and Ball State are meeting for the first time.
Tickets remain on sale at AllVols.com or by calling (865) 946-7000. For complete gameday information, visit UTsports.com/gameday.
Tennessee Football Press Conference | Aug. 29, 2022
Head Coach Josh Heupel
Opening Statement…
“Feels different in here today than it ever has. Some might think it’s game week, but we are all graced by a Hall of Famer, Jimmy (Hyams), congratulations. Congratulations on everything you’ve done in this area covering UT for a long time but the area as well, so congratulations for everything that you’ve done.
“Awesome that it’s game week man, let’s go play ball. Excited to get into Neyland Stadium. Obviously, a long training camp here with our players. We’re at the point where it is time to go play and find out where we’re at. We are in the middle of our preparation right now. Today was a Wednesday (practice week wise). Energy, focus (were) good. Things we still got to clean up here before we get to kickoff, but excited to go compete with these guys on Thursday night. Really excited to see Vol Nation out. Our student body, there has been a huge amount of ticket requests by them. Excited to feel their energy inside of Neyland Stadium (and) the Vol Walk. I know our guys are extremely excited about that, too. You look back at the process all the way since Jan. 24 – I think that is when we got here – and a ton of work has gone into it. Excited to go play and compete with these guys and our fans that are in the stands, as well. Thursday night ballgame, one benefit for us as a staff is we have the opportunity to go recruit on the backend of it. At lot of our staff will be out on Friday and have the chance to go watch some high school kids play football in the state and across our region, (so) excited about that as well.”
On WR Bru McCoy’s eligibility being granted…
“Certainly, a small sense of relief. More than anything just excitement when I got the news. Man, it sent chills down my spine. I’m so excited for him. A young man that has done it the right way since he has been here, and he has gone through a long, windy journey to get to this point. Now he has the opportunity to move forward with his future and go compete with his teammates, his brothers. Having the chance to tell him and hear him tell his dad was one of the great moments in my career. You can just tell the sense of excitement and some relief from them that they are just able to move on and go compete. Really special for him and his family.”
On feeling ready for the season opener…
“I think as a coach you’re always, ‘man we’ve got to go play’. At the same time, you always want more time to continue the preparation. You’ve got a checklist: offense, defense, special teams, special situations/circumstances that you try to put your kids in. We’ve run the gamut on that. We’ve gotten into our normal down, situational preparation for this football game. There’s still a lot of things here in the next 72 hours that we get a chance to clean up. At the end of the day, you get to this point through the course of training camp, it it’s time to go play ball.”
On Bru McCoy’s progress…
“The beginning portion of practice we were kind of methodical in ramping him up as he came off of not being quite 100 percent at the beginning of summer. So, we have built him up. He has got a good understanding of what we’re doing. He’s operated fairly efficiently in what we are doing offensively. For all of our guys that are out there playing on the offensive side of the ball with our tempo the first time – you think back to a year ago, it’ll be their first time experiencing it – so, there will be some things that we are going to have to grow through and clean up. He has got a really good understanding of what we’re doing. He has continued to get stronger physically, been more fundamentally and technically sound in what we’re asking him to do. There’s a lot of positive things as we have gone through this training camp with him.”
On offensive line growth this year…
“In some ways, just like our program, much further ahead. They understand how we play, the ability to communicate. You guys saw that growth with them a year ago. We’re healthy at this point in the season, which is exciting. We need to stay that way. A lot of guys have played a lot of football there for us.”
On dividing quarterback reps during game weeks…
“In what we do, Hendon (Hooker) is going to get the majority or all the one work. Joe (Milton III), at times, will get a majority of the two reps. We have a plan for all of our twos. Offensive line, skill guys, tight ends to get a good amount of reps. That’s when we’re going against practice squads, that’s also when we’re going against some good-on-good looks.”
On his thoughts on Ball State…
“Week one, just in general, you’re never sure exactly what you’re going to get. Some of that can be personnel based. They have guys that graduate, new guys come in, where are they going to place them? Schematically, things tend to change in week one. Everyone went through a self-scout process from the previous year, they made changes to what they’re doing. Things really big in week one that your players have an understanding in what you anticipate to see, but they have the tools in their tool bag to adjust to what they’re actually seeing. Staff and everybody being able to adjust and subtlety tweak and change things as the game unfolds.”
On what the wide receivers can do to get into the starting lineup and get reps…
“A big part of that last year was being in year one. New in what we’re doing offensively. Velus (Jones Jr.) being nicked up during the course of training camp kind of changed the way the season started for us. Some guys coming on strong. That’s the inventible beginning of a season. Some of those things will happen as this season unfolds too, but in particular in year one. We’d like to play more guys at the wide receiver position, guys that are ready to compete and perform in the way that we need him to. Be in the right spaces in the right time and have a trust with the quarterback. I do feel like we’ll play more guys than we did a year ago at this juncture of the season.”
On injuries and how he’ll manage reps at left tackle in the opener…
“I think at this point we’re pretty healthy heading into week one. You guys know there’s still a long time before we actually kick off. Unless it’s a major injury where guys won’t be available, I tend to not make a decision on Wednesday afternoon and wait just a little bit longer.
“The left tackle position, both of those guys are going to play. Somebody will run out with the ones. I haven’t watched Wednesday’s practice yet, Coach (Glen) Elarbee hasn’t. As we go back and evaluate it, we’ll have a plan for those guys to rotate during the course of the ball game. What percentage each of them play and who runs out there first, I don’t have an answer to yet.”
On his comfort level for himself compared to last year…
“You can see it as we transition from how we practice during training camp to the season. Just the comfort with our players and what we’re doing. That’s true for our coaches, too. We’re in sync. The ability to communicate. Our players have a clear vision of what’s going to happen here up until kickoff. The standards that we have. Year two should be a lot different than year one. It has been. I don’t think you’re ever where you want to be as a coach because you’re always trying to find ways to be better. At the same time, have a pretty good idea of the guys that are running out of that tunnel. Who they are, what they’re about, how they’re going to play and compete, how they’re going to handle positive plays, negative plays. Now it’s about us continuing our preparation and be ready to go kick off.”
On growth in preparing for a football game…
“A year ago, early in the season – the last 48 hours in particular – in the early parts of the week I didn’t think we kept what should be important, important all the time. Got sidetracked by things that have nothing to do with us as individuals and collectively as a football team going out and playing our best. I do believe we’re a more mature football team. I’m saying that because of how they’ve handled everything since we’ve gotten back in January. The issues from day-to-day are so different than they were a year ago because our players are different. True to the characteristics of accountability, trust and respect and competing extremely hard. I do anticipate us handling the last 48 hours the right way as we head into Thursday night. Inevitably, you always have new players inside of your program. Year two for me, I’ve been able to be clear in my message to them about my expectation on the front end of it. They have older guys that they can see and are role models for them as well. I believe that we’ll handle it in a lot better way.”
On what his emotions will be like going into the Vol Walk and running through the T on Thursday…
“A year ago, I had no idea. I talked about the experience of it. To be honest, I had heard so much about it, I had thought it would be really hard for it to live up to that. Vol Walk, in particular. It superseded my expectations. I’m excited to get off the bus with these guys and go down the Vol Walk, enter gate 21 and then get ready to go compete. It will be a great atmosphere, electric. Since our students have come back you can feel the energy and the buzz around here, in particular too. Our guys, you think all the way back to January. That’s a long process. I’m excited to run out with these guys and go play.”
On evaluating game performances when looking at position battles…
“Certainly, the game is going to matter right? It’s the realest thing and the most important thing that we do is perform in those moments. I think as you go through a season, you got to understand that players are going to grow and change and evolve. They’re going to get better. In particular, the young players inside your program. You got to have a really good feel for who he is, how does he prepare and his ability to handle the moments in the biggest moments. We’re going to need a lot of guys. A year ago, we were the thinnest football team in America. We need to be deeper than we were a year ago. To do that, some of your young guys, you got to let them grow and evolve throughout the course of the season. There’s a plan at each position to play certain guys. The game is going to unfold differently too, and so just because you have a certain plan going in as a coach doesn’t mean that it’s clear and cut and that’s how it always unfolds. Being able to evolve and understand the ebbs and flows of a football game and put guys in the right moment is critical for me, but it’s critical for our coordinators and our position coaches as well.”
On assessing the secondary…
“I like the maturity and competition that we’ve had at the STAR position. T-Mac (Tamarion McDonald) and Wesley (Walker), feel really confident in both of those guys. T-Mac has been as consistent as anybody we’ve had since we hit the grass day one of training camp. What he did a year ago on special teams in particular, I think has really allowed him to grow and gain a bunch of confidence, and then his work ethic since the offseason started. The cornerback position, I believe we will see multiple guys that will play there. I like a lot of what they’ve done up until this point. Obviously, want to see them go out and preform at a really high level on Thursday.”
On the status of LB William Mohan…
“I don’t have an update. We put out as soon as we received information that he was suspended indefinitely from the program, and we will let that process unfold here.”
On the secondary being motivated from the game last year against Purdue…
“I think it should spur and motivate you to get kicked off in the offseason the right way, and it certainly did. The guys that we have inside the building, they have prepared in a really good way since we started our offseason. Each quarter of our offseason, from strength and conditioning to spring ball to what we’ve done in the summer. Now it’s being able to handle everything that comes with gameday: formation recognition, coverage adjustments, the ability to communicate, have your eyes in the right place, you know trigger when you’re supposed to and go make plays, handle the 50/50 ball, be patient and calm and glove it. So, all those situations got to unfold, and I believe in the guys we have back there. I believe they’ll play really well for us.”
On the importance of growing depth and the growth and development through special teams…
“The fundamentals that you have to have to play special teams show up in everything that you are doing on offense and defense. The ability to move your feet, have your eyes in the right place, play with fundamentals and technique, hat, hands and feet, be able to block people, be able to destruct a block, all of those things correlate over. We talk about that and show that in our special teams meeting all of the time. Coach (Mike) Ekeler does a great job with that, and our players have bought into that. A lot of, almost all the great ones that I have been around – I say almost because there have been a few guys that are outside of that – they end up starting in special teams and they gain confidence. That was certainly the case for T-Mac (Tamarion McDonald). The need for us to be deeper is true. We have to play more people than we did a year ago, however, you can’t force that like you’re saying. Guys have to show that you can trust them on the football field. That’s playing their assignment and then being able to make plays. That’s what training camp has been all about, ‘who are the guys that can do that in this point in the season?’ We’ve gone through that process. We will play a bunch of guys on Thursday night. We’re going to come back, we’re going to evaluate the film and see who handled it the right way and who can continue to grow. That will push us towards the following week.”
On how much Cedric Tillman has changed…
“Last year at this point, nobody knew who he was and certainly did not know what he was about on the football field. For him, he’s been so consistent. You guys see the confidence, who he is, and what he’s about. He’s got a great understanding of how to prepare. His on-field performance has continued to get better. I expect him to have a big night and have a big year.”
Junior Defensive Lineman Omari Thomas
On what he wants to see Thursday night…
“I wouldn’t say I’m curious about anything. I just say, what I expect from the defense, I expect us to come out and play with our hair on fire. Play hard, play fast and just, like I said, focus on the small details. The alignment, the personnel, down and distance, different things like that and just play together as a unit.”
On how many snaps he wants to play…
“I want to play as many as Coach (Rodney) Gardner wants me to play. I want to play as many to help the team. No matter how many snaps that is, if it’s for the team then I’m trying to do it.”
On how much deeper the team is this year…
“I feel like we have numbers, I feel like everyone is going to be able to go out there and help us as well. Everyone shows different flashes throughout camp, everyone is going to be able to help us and we’re going to need everybody to help us. We have good depth and that’s what we need, especially playing in a league like this. You’re going to have to have people to come in and help you because you can’t do it all by yourself.”
R-Senior Tight End Jacob Warren
On how excited he is to see the offense, specifically the tight ends, Thursday night…
“Obviously, I’m super excited because there’s a lot of preseason talk, there are a lot of watch lists, rankings, predictions, and everything like that. That’s exciting, but what we’re here to do is we’re here to play ball, so that’s kind of what we get to do this weekend. We don’t have to play our own teammates; we can really go hit somebody else. We’re excited to just get out there and see what the preparation leads to.”
On his individual goals for the season…
“I mean you set goals and you’re trying to meet those goals. For me, personally, I want to double my stats. Whatever I had last year, I’m trying to double it. I don’t have to necessarily get into the numbers, but just having a lot more production in the pass game. It’s tough because, like I said earlier, we are trying to roll guys so if [Princeton Fant] gets five touches a game and I get one, that’s fine with me too, you know what I’m saying. For me personally, I think just playing my role as the guy that can be an all-three-downs guy and do it to the best of my ability. That’s really my goal. At the end of the season we’re looking to be in Atlanta, we’re looking to win championships and win rings. Those team goals are also personal goals for me.”
On aspects of his game that he’s improved upon…
“I think I’m a lot better at defensive recognition, so understanding coverages, understanding why safeties are rolling and understanding that if a guy is in the box, that I’m matched now or I’m getting played man. Versus if I see this corner sitting in the flat, I know I’m unmatched and I have to do this on my route. I think having an overall understanding of what the other guys are doing is where I’ve taken a big step during the offseason.”
R-Senior Wide Receiver Cedric Tillman
On his confidence level going into this compared to last year…
“Right now, obviously, it’s high. I have kind of mentioned before, really to me, I have always had confidence in myself and have known what I can do. This year there have been a few things I have changed preparation wise, but I am excited about the season and have all the confidence in the world. Whatever I can do to help my team win is what I plan to do.”
On what he has changed preparation wise…
“Just releases, knowing more, and having to read defenses better because I know we probably will get more safety help over the top now, compared to last year. That is why route running has become a better thing for me because I know there will be more attention. I just have to be more crispe and execute better. “
On some examples of him as a leader impacting his teammates…
“Naturally I am a laid-back person. I am not the type to yell or be a major enforcer, but I do try to encourage the guys every day. Especially the young guys in the receiver room. I know what it was like to be a young guy and I appreciated the older guys mentoring me and giving me positive encouragement. So, that is what I try to do, even if they mess up or miss something. Instead of yelling at them I say ‘Hey you are young, you our only 18-19 years old, things will come.’ So, that’s what I do.”
-UT Athletics
