Josh Heupel explains his excitement about Tennessee's 2024 defense: 'We want to be dominant'

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel is known for his offensive prowess, but on the other side of the ball, Tennessee’s defense has slowly but surely become a force in the SEC.

Heupel joined On3’s Andy Staples at SEC Media and opened up about his defense. Speaking on building a culture on defense and how this year’s group has the potential to be the best since he took over the program in 2021.

“I really am excited about defense, who we have in the building,” Heupel said. “But what Coach [Tim] Banks, our defense staff have done over the first three years, nothing short of remarkable. There’s a lot of areas that we need to get better at too, I get all that, but you go back to when we first got here. All the things that we had to navigate, players lost, with the reductions that we had to take. Our best is still way out in front of us.”

Many consider Vols EDGE James Pearce Jr. the best defender in the SEC heading into the 2024 season. But according to Heupel, all three levels of the Tennessee defense are looking strong ahead of his fourth season at the helm.

“This is the deepest that we’ve been. The length, athleticism up front, short area quickness, block destruction second level, athleticism on the third level. Really excited to get in training camp, grow with these guys, and go play,” Heupel said.

Year after year Tennessee’s defense has taken a step in the right direction since Heupel and his staff arrived in Knoxville. Coming off of their best season to date since 2021 after holding opponents to just 22 points and 348.7 yards per game. But improvement alone doesn’t satisfy the Volunteers’ defense.

“Statistically yards per carry defensively, led the league last year. Tackles for loss, sacks, top two over the last two years in all those categories. Turnovers, there’s so many things that we’ve done well,” Heupel explained. “Now there’s more out there for us to go take, but for us, we want to be dominant. Not just good, but dominant on the defensive side of the ball. That is the standard of Tennessee football.”

Heupel pulled back the curtain on the inspiration behind building on the defensive culture at Tennessee. Striving to uphold a standard previously set by all-time greats with an approach that has been predicated on the details.

“Al Wilson, Reggie White, they’re echoing through Neyland Stadium right now as we speak,” Heupel said. “But for us in our structure, what we do in our practices, maintaining balance, not playing with tempo, formation shift, trade motions. So they have to communicate through that, chase the football.”

“When do we do our tempo period? Why are we doing it? How do we do it the right way for all phases? Those were things that we’ve continued and I’ve continued to get better at during the duration of my head coaching career.”

Iron has clearly been sharpening iron at Tennessee’s practices over the years, and while their offense may be the headliner, it will be fascinating to see if their defense can continue trending in the right direction in a potential breakout season on that side of the ball.