The Tennessee Volunteers will not be on the football field this weekend, but they were on the practice field this week. And the Vols’ incredible video team was with them.
After the first back-to-back losses of Heupel’s inaugural season, Tennessee will look to regroup and get healthy before a crucial road matchup in Lexington Week 10. Ranked second in the SEC East, Kentucky has had a steady season so far. The Wildcats are currently ranked twelfth in the nation after suffering their first loss two weeks ago against No. 1 Georgia.
With the open week ahead, the week has been fairly quiet for the Vols. Tennessee had a lifting workout on Monday before another preparation day on Tuesday. However, on Tuesday afternoon during the player’s meetings, Tennessee then hosted its Family Halloween Night, allowing the children and family of the staff to “trick-or-treat” and collect candy from the Tennessee players.
Then on Wednesday, the Vols were on the field for the first time in the week. Although, due to the weather, Tennessee’s practice was on the indoor field.
After Wednesday’s practice, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with the media to discuss the bye week. During his press conference, Heupel spoke about several topics, ranging from the health of his players to how Tennessee will prepare for Kentucky. Additionally, Heupel also spoke about the coaching staff’s plans this weekend.
“In particular, inside of the state [of Tennessee], the way that our coaching staff has put an emphasis on it,” Heupel said on Wednesday about recruiting during the open week. “Communicated with the coaches in the area as soon as we got an opportunity to get out. With COVID, obviously, no spring recruiting, [so] as soon as we were able to get out the way, we’ve hit this state. And we will continue to. This week is a big part of that. Just developing relationships and a line of communication with the coaches here have been instrumental in continuing to push forward on the recruiting side.”
“Great feedback from players,” Heupel went on to say. “They see the brand of football that we are playing. It’s an exciting brand of football in all three phases of the game. They know we are going to be aggressive, they know we’re going to play fast. Not just in tempo, but in the way our kids are able to cut it loose. We’re going to call it aggressive in all three phases of the football game, something that is really attractive to players.”
Then, on Thursday afternoon, Tennessee dropped a new hype video from the team. Below is a video, released to Twitter by Tennessee Football, focusing on the Vols’ indoor practice during the open week. In addition, you can see full highlights from the Tennessee practice here.
open week workin' pic.twitter.com/db9agkWPny
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) October 28, 2021
