Josh Heupel discusses importance of mental health throughout season

Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel knows the importance of mental health throughout a college football season. As college football players go through the typical grind of a football season, these student athletes have lives and issues outside of football as well. For Heupel and Tennessee, mental health is something that is emphasized within the football program.

“I think mental health is at the forefront of what we do here,” Heupel said. “It’s why we approach coaching and teaching the way that we do, that we’re instructors. And for young people, I think it’s finding balance in what they do as a student athlete. From the pressures of playing college football at the highest level to academics to the social life that inevitably 18 to 22 year olds are going to have too. And finding out who they are and how they’re growing the issues that come up in daily life.”

Heupel’s comments come after a Tennessee player opened up on his mental health

Heupel’s comments are important for people to remember. College athletes are more than just athletes, and their personal issues don’t just go away because they play college football.

“For our players, they still have real lives,” Heupel said. “That’s issues back home, family members that may have serious issues, deaths and family, there’s all those things that these young people are trying to balance and juggle all these balls and grow into the men that they’re ultimately going to be. Coaches are a resource, but we also have professionals that are here that help our student athletes as well.”

Earlier in the week, Tennessee senior defensive back Alontae Taylor opened up about his mental health.

“The biggest accomplishment I had was getting away from sports for a little bit,” Taylor said via the Chattanooga Times’ Mark Wiedmer. “I’ve kind of been down a little bit mentally. So I worked on my mental health a little bit.

“It’s not something that’s easy to talk about. We kind of talk about it with each other, but we don’t always reach out to the resources we have. I’ve taken the step to reach out to the resources we have at the university and it’s been very helpful.”

Taylor wants people to understand that college athletes are more than just players on a field.

“As more and more athletes continue to talk about it and show that side of them, maybe (the public) will start treating us more as actual humans and not just a player on the field who has everything put together and can just play football and do school as if it was so simple,” Taylor said.