Vols follow Josh Heupel’s lead in personality and play

In the final minutes of the Vols 40-13 win at LSU, Tennessee fans gathered in mass in the south end of Tiger Stadium – turning it into a Big Orange party that those of us who have seen every road game since Syracuse 1998 haven’t seen in quite a while.

Those thousands of orange clad fans were greeted by the Vols and head coach Josh Heupel. Heupel made his way along the front row of the stadium shaking hands and high fiving those of the Tennessee faithful who made the effort to join the party in the Bayou.

And they were treated to one heck of a party.

Phrases like ‘statement wins’, my team is ‘back’, culture, buy in, and on and on —they are over used and are too often extreme hot takes. I’m not saying the Vols are back. I’m saying it was a statement win as the top-10 Vols moved to 5-0 for the first time since 2016.

Saturday afternoon in Tiger Stadium was the Vols’ most complete win of the Josh Heupel era. LSU isn’t great, but the Vols are pretty good and that’s not a hot take.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” Heupel stated. “I thought they played extremely hard, did a lot of really good things early offensively. We need to get the ball in the end zone on some of the red zone possessions.

“Defensively we were relentless. Controlled the line of scrimmage, we created some negatives in the run game and with sacks. We did enough to get off the field on third downs.”

Tennessee wasn’t perfect, but they were pretty dang good and it sets up a visit from Alabama next Saturday that will have the Big Orange faithful buzzing all week. When asked about his team being unbeaten and sitting at 5-0, Heupel said it means they have done what they need to do to this point.

“It says that we’ve found a way to be the best team on the field the last five weeks,” Heupel said of the unbeaten start. “Our players have worked hard, they expect to play in a good way and expect to win.”

The key statement in that quote is ‘expect to win.’

That statement is not a hot take and the reality is that it’s not been a commonplace on Rocky Top for a long time.

In 18 months on the job, Heupel and his staff have turned a stagnant offense into the top offense in the country. They play an exciting brand of football. But the biggest achievement is the confidence and internal expectation from players to win football games.

And it all starts with the head coach’s mentality. The bigger the game the happier the head coach. He relishes the competition. His team feeds off of it.

Regardless of the opponent the routine doesn’t change and more importantly neither does the mindset. There’s no tightening up. There’s no playing cautious.

It’s a ‘rip it’ mentality and not just for the quarterback, but for the whole team. It’s an approach that resonates with the players.

In other words, ‘hey, you be you’. Saturday, Tennessee was Tennessee. Defensively, they attacked. Offensively, they attacked. They played with no fear.

There’s no better example than Dee Williams. His first snap in a Power 5 football game was a punt return looking into the sun on the road in the SEC which he took for 58 yards.

Rip it.

How good this team becomes is unknown. No one can predict the future.

What I do know is the Vols are getting better just as a they did a year ago. I know Saturday was the most complete game this program has played since this staff arrived.

Everyone is going to ask all week if Tennessee has a chance to knock off the number one team in the country.

I don’t know that one, but I can promise you that the orange clad Volunteers will play with confidence and they won’t be tight against No. 1 Alabama.

It’s not in Heupel’s DNA.

In other words they are going to rip it.