Josh Heupel was almost all smiles in his press conference following Tennessee’s 48-24 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday night.
But one question got the Vols’ third-year head coach got slightly choked up.
Heupel clearly likes this team. That’s been clear all season. He’s never criticized their work habits or how they’ve practiced and prepared. And while Heupel doesn’t share much with the media he has criticized practice habits and preparation in the past.
The one part of Heupel’s statement that seems questionable is his praise for his team’s game day resiliency.
Tennessee trailed in only six games this regular season. The Vols briefly trailed in the first quarter against South Carolina and trailed by a field goal for a large part of the Texas A&M. The only other games Tennessee has trailed is in the games they’ve lost.
In all four games Tennessee’s lost, the Vols fell behind and not only couldn’t climb out of the hole but cratered. However, other that the in-game resiliency claim, Heupel’s answer is fair.
This year’s Tennessee team has a complicated legacy. The Vols (8-4, 4-4 SEC) failed to live up to the inside and outside preseason goals, lost to their three biggest rivals and were largely non competitive in all four losses.
But they were also a victim of the 2022 team’s success. Tennessee totaled eight regular season wins just twice in the 12 years before Heupel became head coach and never won more than eight regular season games.
That’s why these Vols will have a complicated legacy. The lack of recent program success doesn’t make up for the unachieved goals, but perspective is important. The bottom could have fallen off for Tennessee football this season and it didn’t.
Tennessee’s senior class deserves a lot of credit for that. They’ve been through a lot and showed resilience nearly every step of the way in their careers.
“Senior Day, really proud of this group,” Heupel said. “A lot of them were here when I first got here, chose to stay here through some uncertainty. Bought into our vision of what the program would be about. And it’s a phenomenal, phenomenal group. It’s a group that I think over the last couple of years has won 13 (home games) which, over that span is as good as it’s been since the late ‘90s.
“So we’ve had some disappointment in the results along the way, but this group, this team continues to fight and compete extremely hard to prepare the right way. Really proud of them. That happens because a lot of the leadership from that senior group.”
