Josh Heupel excited by incoming youth for Tennessee

There’s a youth movement coming to Tennessee this year, led by a highly touted recruiting class. It’s safe to say Josh Heupel is excited about it, too.

The Volunteers bring 34 new faces to the roster, including 25 commits from their No. 11-ranked recruiting class, according to the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Ranking. Of course, the crown jewel of the group is five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who’s expected to compete with Joe Milton for the starting job.

Now, as Heupel told On3’s J.D. PicKell, it’s all about getting them all acquainted with the program during spring practice.

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“For us, we got close to 30 new guys that are inside of our program,” Heupel said on The Hard Count. “So 18 of those guys being new enrollees, we got a lot of opportunity for them to grow in fundamentals and technique. But that’s everybody inside of our program. The little things add up to the big things that everybody sees. We’re certainly growing in our schemes, understanding situational football.”

Iamaleava is the highest-profile newcomer, checking in as the No. 6 recruit in the country from the 2023 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. But Tennessee also landed a big fish in the transfer portal in wide receiver Dont’e Thornton — the No. 15-ranked transfer to hit the portal during the first window, according to the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings.

There’s plenty of talent coming in. Heupel and the staff now have to make all the pieces fit together, and that starts with scrimmages to see everyone in a game-like situation. Plus, competitions are likely to come down the pipeline and that will help with lineup projections.

“We haven’t had our first scrimmage yet,” Heupel said. “Looking forward to that, getting out and seeing what game day looks like as our coaches get away and off on the sidelines, how we handle the situations out on the field. But with that, there’s great competition at every single spot as well. We are a much deeper football team. Obviously, there are a lot of guys left our program before I was hired here.

“We’ve been thin, in particular, on the defensive side of the football. [I] feel like we’re, for the first time, really at full strength as far as our roster numbers. Like that length, athleticism and toughness of the guys that we have in the program. That’s all lended itself to great competition in each position room.”