Tennessee Football: Vols honoring 21 seniors on Senior Day against Missouri
Tennessee football will honor 21 seniors on Senior Day at Neyland Stadium, before Saturday’s Noon Eastern Time kickoff against Missouri. The game between fifth-ranked Vols (8-1, 4-1 SEC) and Tigers (4-5, 2-4) will be broadcast by CBS.
The players running through the ’T’ for the final time include quarterback Hendon Hooker, wide receiver Cedric Tillman, defensive end Byron Young, defensive back Trevon Flowers, punter Paxton Brooks, offensive tackle Darnell Wright, linebacker Jeremy Banks, linebacker Solon Page III, offensive lineman Jerome Carvin, defensive end LaTrell Bumphus, tight end Princeton Fant, wide receiver Michael Bittner, defensive lineman Maurese Smith, linebacker Nick Humphrey, tight end Jacob Warren, linebacker West Shuler, wide receiver Grant Frerking, defensive back Cheyenne Labruzza, kicker Toby Wilson and defensive back Romello Edwards.
Tennessee, playing in front of a sixth consecutive sold-out crowd at Neyland Stadium, is looking to finish a perfect 7-0 in Knoxville. The Vols haven’t finished undefeated at home since 2007.
Earlier this week Tennessee thanked the fans in a social media video voiced by Carvin.
“Vol Nation, you made our home the most unbelievable environment in all of college football. Every Saturday, you showed up and made an impact on our opponent. And we just want to say thank you. Thank you for the Vol Walks. For the pageantry that makes us who we are. For Checker Neyland. For celebrating all our wins. For the 703,726 of you that came to watch us perform. For all the times we sang Rocky Top. And for the passion that made our home field the toughest place to play in all of college football. We just want to say thank you.”
No. 5 Tennessee vs. Missouri, Noon ET, CBS
“It will be great to recognize this group of guys that have poured so much into this program,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “Stuck it out here in tough times and have helped this program continue to rise here over the last two years, since myself and my staff got here.
“Appreciative of what those guys have done and what they’ve meant to this football program and the Power T during their playing career. Obviously in the future, too.”
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Vols honoring seniors for ‘what they’ve meant’ to program
Part of the preparation process for senior day, Heupel said, is getting ready for the emotions of the pregame ceremony, then being able to turn your attention to the game.
“You try to prepare them,” he said. “It’s unique that you pause for five minutes before you go back in the tunnel. You get a chance to see your family, take it in one last time. Obviously our appreciation as a program, these fans too, to recognize those guys, what they’ve meant, what they’ve done inside of our program.
“When you run back in,” Heupel added, “then you have to reset and it’s got to be just about football for 60 minutes. A year ago, our guys handled that pretty well. It will be important that our guys do that here too. A lot of those guys will play a lot of football for us.”
