Josh Heupel's message to Tennessee players following scrums vs. Vanderbilt: 'Be smart'

Saturday’s regular season-ending contest between heated SEC in-state rivals Vanderbilt and Tennessee has garnered a ton of attention for its first half fireworks. However, it’s not in reference to the offensive explosion from Tennessee resulting in over 300 yards of total offense. No, it has been the explosion of emotional fireworks boiling over into multiple scrums in the first half.

As the Volunteers headed into the locker room at halftime, head coach Josh Heupel shared what the message to his team would be following all the chaos in the second quarter.

“Be smart,” said Heupel. “Don’t do something that embarrasses you [and] takes away from the team. Just be smart.”

Before addressing the multiple scrums, Heupel praised his offense for their performance in the first half. The Volunteers, led by quarterback Joe Milton, are in complete control of the game with a 31-10 lead and 347 yards of total offense to match.

There were multiple dust-ups between Tennessee and Vanderbilt, which drew unsportsmanlike penalties on several plays. The first one was issued to Commodores head coach Clark Lea after he exploded on the sideline following a hit to quarterback AJ Swann. A few plays later, Tennessee picked up two unsportsmanlike penalties of their own following a large scrum near the Vanderbilt sideline. However, that would not benefit Vanderbilt as they would also pick up an off-setting foul of the same variety.

Fortunately, nobody was ejected from the game due to their actions. Still, Heupel wants his Volunteers to exercise restraint and not find themselves kicked out of Saturday’s game and being impacted for Tennessee’s bowl game down the line.

“A lot of efficiency in the past game; run game we got going here the second quarter. Gotta maintain some balance in the second half,” Heupel said.

Heupel shares how he handles remaining eligibility for seniors in program

The end of the regular season is almost here and with it the opening of the NCAA transfer portal. Hundreds of players are likely to be playing for different programs next fall. Tennessee coach Josh Heupel shared his approach toward all of that.

He prefers to be patient.

“I think at the end of the day a guy’s got to be ready to make the decision either way,” Heupel said. “If you try to rush or pressure them into that they end up in situation where they maybe make the wrong one.”

Heupel will meet with his players individually following the season to gauge where they’re at as the transfer portal opens up. He’ll share candid information on where he sees the player’s standing in the program currently and how the outlook may change if they opt to leave.

He encourages players to be all-in with whatever decision they ultimately make.

“At the end of the day you’ve got to be where your feet are, and I’m talking about for the next calendar year,” Heupel said. “So you provide information to them. Some of it takes longer as you’re trying to gather NFL information for those guys.”