Josh Heupel admits Senior Day will be emotional for Tennessee

When Josh Heupel was hired, there was a lot of concern about the future of the Tennessee program. However, in just two seasons, Heupel has turned the Volunteers into a College Football Playoff contender. In no small part, that was because of the seniors on the roster.

While speaking to the media, Josh Heupel spoke about the emotions of Senior Day and how the coaches are going to handle those emotions.

“You try to prepare them,” Josh Heupel said. “You know, it’s unique in that you pause for five minutes before you go back in the tunnel, and it is, you get a chance to see your family, take it in one last time.”

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“Obviously, our appreciation as a program and our fans too, to recognize those guys–what they’ve meant, what they’ve done inside of our program,” Josh Heupel continued.

“When you run back in, then you’ve got to reset and it’s got to be just about football for 60 minutes. A year ago, our guys handled that pretty well. It’ll be important that our guys do that here too. A lot of those guys are gonna play a lot of football for us.”

This weekend, Tennessee will host Missouri for Senior Day. Those seniors who are celebrated will still have two regular season road games to play with the Volunteers. However, this will be their last game at Neyland Stadium.

Josh Heupel on Tennessee’s approach to the playoff

This has already been a special season for the Tennessee Volunteers. However, after losing to Georgia, there are questions about whether or not the College Football Playoff is on the table for Tennessee. Now, Josh Heupel explained how the Volunteers are approaching the Playoff.

“There’s a whole month of football (left). There’s a lot of football left to be played by everybody in the country. Up until this point, we’ve done a lot of things right…There’s nothing that we can control other than who we are, how we approach it, (and) how we go play and compete,” Josh Heupel said.

“At the end of the day, it’s about trying to find a way to be the best team on the field during the 60 minutes. That’s all we’re concerned about.”