Josh Heupel gives unprompted shout out to every aspect of the University of Tennessee

Josh Heupel was grinning like a kid on Christmas as he began his press conference following the Tennessee Volunteers‘ spring scrimmage over the weekend.

He was obviously pleased with what he saw and the energy from his squad as the Vols’ look to build on a unexpectedly solid 2021 campaign with plenty of talent in place to make noise in the SEC in 2022.

“What a great day today, the sun finally came out, and there’s a great energy on campus,” Heupel pivoted after briefly answering the first question of the press conference about the playmaking ability of Jimmy Calloway.

After quickly talking about Calloway in specific, the Tennessee frontman transitioned into talking about all the young players and their potential, which led into the unprompted monologue about various aspects he loves about the University and everything happening in Knoxville this spring.

“Everything going on tonight with baseball, so many positive things happening here inside of our athletic department,” Heupel continued.

“Today we get the unique experiencing of bringing our recruits’ parents on campus and obviously we are not inside of Neyland Stadium,” Heupel added. “Man, we miss our fans. We would love the opportunity to bring all of this in front of them inside of that stadium, but excited about the renovations going on, the future of Tennessee football right now and momentum when it comes to recruiting.”

Josh Heupel can’t hide excitement for recruiting, promising future

It’s not hard to understand why Josh Heupel is so ecstatic and mentions recruiting as a major part of the energy surrounding the future of the program. Tennessee currently boasts the 13th ranked class in the nation and is third in the SEC in current recruiting standings.

While the quarterback is clearly in place with Heisman hopeful Hendon Hooker leading the high-powered Volunteers’ offense in 2021, Heupel’s impressive recruiting class is highlighted by Hooker’s potential replacement. Less than a month ago, Tennessee picked up a firm commitment from 5-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava. The California native bought into Heupel’s vision and future and chose Tennessee over nearly every major program in the country including Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, USC, Notre Dame and Miami to name a few. The 6-foot-5 quarterback was ranked as the No.3 QB in the country for 2023 and fourth overall prospect at any position in that class according to the On3 consensus rankings.

As Heupel clearly appears thrilled about the future of his program, the university and Tennessee athletics as a whole, he was more than pleased with his team’s energy and effort to match the momentum of everything happening in Knoxville.

“But today, it was just a great energy on the practice field,” Heupel exclaimed. ‘We got the checkerboard on the field, we got the “T” and it felt like a game day for those guys.”