Josh Heupel: The bar at Tennessee, SEC East is to win national championships

Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel knows what it means to be a head coach in the SEC conference. And in his press conference on Monday, he let everybody know that he was not backing down from the challenge.

When asked about the challenge of competing against him in programs such as Alabama and Georgia, not only in the field of play but in recruiting, Heupel had this to say.

“Yeah that’s why you want to be here. You want a chance to have the ability to compete against the best and then go beat them. Certainly, that’s the bar in this conference. And for us with our schedule, It’s a challenge a get to wake up to and I do every day. We go compete keep pushing forward and we’re in a race to get there as fast as we possibly can, but we will,” said Heupel.

Last week Tennessee took a shot at defeating No. 1 ranked Georgia, but lost 41-17. If they win their final two games, Tennessee would finish the season with a 7-5 record and have gone 4-4 in conference play.

On3’s 2022 Consensus Football Team Recruiting Rankings list the Volunteers at No. 24 in the nation. Tennessee currently has five hard commits that are four-star recruits in the On3 Consensus ratings.

Heupel boast about one of his defensive stars

After losing at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel spoke to the media about the highs and the lows from his team’s play. One of the more positive things the Volunteers coach had to say was about the growth of his linebacker Byron Young. Against the Bulldogs, Young was energetic and all over the field, and his head coach took notice of the play from him.

“I thought Saturday he played with relentlessly energy. Some of those sacks were because of great coverage on the back end, where we were matching things out. And the quarterbacks got nowhere to go. He’s able to counter his initial movement and then go apply pressure to the quarterback. Huge play early in the second half. I think first drive on third down he’s able to make a play. He’s there to make a play; there’s a horse collar obviously. But just great energy from him all night long,” said Heupel.

Young is a junior college transfer from Georgia military college, and this is his first season with the Volunteers. Early in the year, Tennessee had to work out his eligibility to play due to questions that stemmed from his time at Gulf Coast Prep Sports Academy in Alabama. Because of that, Young has only played in five games for the Volunteers this season. But he has done well pressuring opposing quarterbacks over those five games. On the year, he has 33 total tackles, 14 solo tackles, and 4.5 sacks.