Omari Thomas shares key to Tennessee contending in the SEC East

Tennessee has made no buts about wanting to take the next step by contending for the SEC East. For all that they did a season ago, they came short of that goal which, in turn, limited what they could accomplish nationally as well.

That’s why DL Omari Thomas wants to see the Volunteers do everything they can to ensure that they’re in that race again and win it this year. For him, that starts with a commitment within their locker room when it comes to improvement as well as avoiding complacency in order to stay out of their own way.

“We’ve just got to come every day ready to get better,” said Thomas while at SEC Media Days. We can’t get happy, we can’t get complacent with how the season is going. I feel like we found ourselves doing that at times last year. We fought through adversity and got through it. But we don’t need to put ourselves in situations ourselves.”

“Other teams are going to create adversity for us already. So we just need to be able to know that we’re all one and we don’t need to put it on ourselves,” Thomas said.

With an 11-2 record, Tennessee had a lot to be happy about over the course of last season. With an 8-0 start, with five coming against ranked competition, Rocky Top was on top of the college football world.

However, a loss in Athens to Georgia to start November removed them from the driver’s seat in the SEC East. South Carolina then solidified a berth in the SEC Championship for the Bulldogs by giving the Volunteers a second loss two weeks later in Columbia.

Again, Tennessee’s last season was historic for their program, especially with what they did offensively. They earned their highest College Football Playoff ranking ever while also earning their highest AP Poll ranking since 2001.

Still, considering they didn’t play for any titles in the end last year, it’s hard not to feel as though they left some meat on the bone, which is exactly what Thomas wants to correct in this upcoming campaign.

Warren: Winning SEC East is Tennessee’s ‘focus’

Tennessee had multiple representatives make the quick drive to Nashville for SEC Media Days and all of them had the same message. The goal this season is to win the SEC East, plain and simple. Jacob Warren knows if the Vols are going to have success on a national level, everything begins within the division.

“The goal will always be the same,” Warren said at SEC Media Days. “The goal will be to win the SEC East. If you do that, that sets you up to go do everything you want. Opportunity to play in the SEC championship, get the opportunity if you win that to go play in the national championship.”

“If we win those games, you set yourself up for everything you want,” Warren said. “That’s what he means when he says we didn’t get the job done. We had a great season.

in the end, the players were wanting more — mainly an SEC East championship with an opportunity to play in the College Football Playoff.

“A lot of people outside the program wouldn’t have expected us to have won 11 games last year. To go to a New Year’s Six bowl, win the Orange Bowl,” Warren said. “Maybe not nobody but a lot of people weren’t expecting that, right?

“A lot of people from the outside would say, ‘That’s a good job, you probably reached all your goals, did everything you were looking out to do.’ It’s not the case.”

Thankfully, Tennessee is able to move on to 2023 and will take another shot within the division.

“Of course, that’s last year,” Warren said. “We’ve done a good job of resetting. But now the focus is on winning the SEC East. And doing everything we can to get ourselves in that position.”