Josh Heupel raves about leadership of Tennessee secondary

Heading into 2024, Tennessee’s secondary features plenty of leadership and experience, which is a terrific combo for the back end of the Volunteer defense.

At a recent press conference, Josh Heupel was asked about his unique DB room, which features some wiley old guys but also several new transfers and even some freshmen who are looking good early on. He named a few guys in specific who are really separating themselves as the leaders back there:

“Yeah, we have good leadership inside of that room. Andre Turrentine does a dynamic job in the leadership role. Will Brooks has been around for a long time, he does a nice job. Jourdan Thomas, those are all guys that are on our leadership council as well.”

But Heupel says the transfers and rookies are coming along nicely as well: “The young guys that are in that room, or the new guys, are really mature in who they are and how they compete every day. So, it’s a group that feeds off of each other.”

Going back to the leadership aspect, Heupel highlighted those guys in the secondary who have been around Knoxville much longer than even Heupel himself.

“A lot of our veteran guys, you know, there’s a little over a handful of guys that are sixth-year guys, they’ve seen this program change a bunch. They’ve been a huge part of the change here inside of this building and who we are and how we operate.”

Plus, they’ve helped usher in the new era of younger guys.

“They’re a big part of the recruiting process,” Heupel added. “At the end of the day, when recruits come on campus, your players are the biggest sales point for what it’s like to be a Vol, and they’ve been a huge part of that as well.”

The Tennessee head coach wanted to hammer that point home, that those older guys on the defense have really been the core to help raise the bar at UT.

“Just the journey that this program has been on, how we’ve navigated the success that we’ve had,” Heupel reflected. “There’s more out there, we understand that, we’re working towards that every day, but those guys have been a huge part of changing the trajectory of Tennessee Football.”

Those extreme veterans will be around for at least another season to set the safety blanket in the back end of the Volunteer defense. However, even once they leave, Tennessee has been able to recruit and develop capable replacements underneath them.