Tennessee football’s regular season finale against Vanderbilt is also the Vols’ Senior Day. A large senior class will make its final trek through the “T” before playing its last game inside Neyland Stadium.
It’s a senior class that has been through a ton during its tenure: a pandemic, a coaching change and an NCAA investigation before being a part of the program’s best season in two decades a year ago and are looking to close in on a solid 8-4 season.
A number of those seniors met with the media on Monday and Tuesday of this week and discussed the upcoming Senior Day and their careers at Tennessee. Here’s what they had to say.
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R-Sr. OG Ollie Lane
On how he balances being in the moment of Senior Day while also facing an SEC opponent
“I think it’s attacking it the same way that I’ve attacked every week since I’ve been in college. I just go at it from a preparation standpoint of no matter what is going on outside, you always have to focus on the game and what is going on. You get those moments pregame and stuff like that around the stadium as you soak it all in and see the fans in the crowd cheering for you. I’m sure I’ll get a nice moment getting to go through the T one last time to be able to soak it in. When it’s game time, it’s game time. You have to get those moments when you can, but you also have to focus on the main objective.”
Sr. WR Ramel Keyton
On playing his final game at Neyland Stadium
“It hasn’t hit me all the way yet. I’m just ready to go out there and play. I’m a competitor; I want to win, so that hasn’t been on my mind. I just want to go out there and win.”
On reflecting on his favorite moments at Tennessee
“There are a lot of favorite moments. Couple plays, couple wins that we had, but I haven’t really thought about that all the way yet.”
Senior DT Omari Thomas
On what impact he hopes he has left on the program
“When you look at this program, I hope I’m just a person that they can look at and say that he always gave his best, always wanted what’s best for Tennessee and not necessarily myself, and always was willing to put the team before me. I’m a big person on building friendships and building relationships, and I’ve been able to do that here. Hopefully that is something that continues whether I’m here or not.”
On what practice has been like this week
“I feel like everyone is going to be ready for the opportunity on Saturday as we know that it’s a big game for us. That’s how we look at it. We can’t do anything about the past, but we can’t let the team who beat us before beat us twice. We can’t think about it anymore. Let it be but learn from it. We’ve got to get better, now we’ve just got to play better.”
On how it feels to be a part of this program now compared to a few years ago
“It means the world just because as a leader and as a competitor too, we are trying to get better. That is the only thing that we are trying to do here is get better. Whether it is to give ourselves a better life financially, with a good career, just trying to become better men, or trying to be a better football player. That kind of falls in the same category, right? We are trying to make this place as good as we can possibly make it before we leave. I think we have done a good job. I think we kind of changed the narrative about how you compete, how you finish games, how you stick together, how you love each other on a team, how you trust coaches and how you listen. There is a lot of things you can throw out there. I think this program is in a much better place than kind of what I found it in.”
On what advice he can give to younger teammates who are deciding whether to stay an extra year or not
“Something that Hendon Hooker, I had this conversation with him when I was going through it, when I was trying to make the decision. He kind of referenced his decision to stay and about how it is obviously a decision that is not easy. At the end of the day, it is not going to be the end of the world whether you make the wrong decision. There is no wrong decision for anybody. I think it is just a matter of being able to stick with one and put your head down and go grind and go figure it out. I made that decision to stay back in early January. One of my mentors just said, ‘look man, you have to take this and run with it. Regardless of whether it was the right decision for you. Just make it the right decision.’ Go out there and do everything you can to make it the best. I am truly happy, in my case, that I stayed. Everybody has their own journey so there are going to be guys that feel like they are done here and that’s awesome. There are going to be guys that feel like they want a little bit more and that’s perfect, too.”
On what memory as a Tennessee Vol really resonates with him
“I think one that really changed the way that I play the game and just on my perspective on the game in general. We were in Jacksonville at the Gator Bowl. The offensive coordinator at the time, Jim Chaney, who I actually saw this season because he works for one of the other teams in the SEC. My game has changed a lot. I have gotten a lot bigger and a lot stronger. He said, ‘don’t let anybody tell you that you are soft ever again.’ Because he would be like, yeah you are soft. You can’t hold the point. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. He said, ‘don’t let anybody tell you that you are soft ever again.’ If you really truly believe that, you will take that as love. You will take that as trying to be coached. There have been soft moments for sure. I think that there have been times where you get beat off the edge or whatever. It looks bad, but I truly remember that. I see that as kind of the change, the turning point in my career and when I really started to change my mentality on the way that I play the game.”
