Josh Heupel on Tennessee's roster: 'Our young guys don't have time to be young'

Tennessee lost several key players over this offseason. That’s no excuse, though, for their roster not to be ready for kickoff in 2025.

Josh Heupel spoke about this year’s team for the Volunteers while at the desk on ‘SEC Now’ at SEC Media Days in Atlanta on Tuesday. He recognized their inexperience in a lot of spots but said they’re going to have to figure that out, and figure that out quickly, in time for the start of the season, which is something he says has been emphasizing.

“Now, our young guys, and this has been something we’ve talked about a lot inside of our program. Our young guys don’t have time to be young. You can look at the schedule that we play early. You can look at being inside of this league. Our young guys have got to grow early,” said Heupel. “That’s been something that’s been talked about for me, applying pressure to our staff to get them ready. But, in particular, the leadership inside of our position rooms and make sure they understand the standard and getting those guys ready to play at a championship level.”

“That was part of getting our players to buying in, understanding we’re good enough to win now. We’ve had to go through a lot of adversity and roster management issues and, man, like, now you’re able to have more depth as we’re starting to come outside of that,” Heupel said. “It starts with your personnel. What can they do? How do you put them in position to be successful?”

Of their losses from last season, the Vols are seeing changes more so on offense at quarterback with QB Nico Iamaleava, running back with RB Dylan Sampson, and several from their receiving corps (WR Bru McCoy, WR Dont’e Thornton, WR Squirrel White, etc.) and offensive line (IOL Cooper Mays, IOL Javontez Spraggins, OT John Campbell, etc.). They also lost some defensively, namely so on the line with DE James Pearce, DL Omari Thomas, and DL Omarr Norman-Lott. With that many gone, some new names will have to step up in Knoxville, especially their seven additions from the portal and their remaining or arriving underclassmen who were part of a pair of top-fifteen classes in 2024 and 2025 that have come to Knoxville.

Tennessee will need them to too with what they’ll be facing this season. They’ll open the season against Syracuse in the Aflac Kickoff from Atlanta on December 30th before opening conference play two weeks later against none other than Georgia. That’s what they’ll be dealing with early before going on to play at Alabama, versus Oklahoma, and at Florida later on in the league in October and November.

The Volunteers don’t bring back many players who were part of the teams the past two of three seasons who have had a lot of success, including two double-digit win records and a debut appearance last year in the College Football Playoff. Still, Tennessee will now need new players to emerge early in time for the fall.