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Josh Heupel speaks on building Tennessee, his quarterbacks and more

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel speaks at SEC Media Days Tuesday in Hoover, Ala.
Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel speaks at SEC Media Days Tuesday in Hoover, Ala.

Josh Heupel has something no other SEC head coach has.

The first-year leader of the Tennessee program is the only one of the league's head coaches to have won a national championship as a player. He took home a title as Oklahoma's quarterback in the 2000 season.

Heupel took the stage for his first ever SEC Media Days appearance on Tuesday morning. Volunteer receiver Velus Jones and defensive back Alontae Taylor followed their head coach.

Here are some highlights from the Tennessee contingent.

Q. Coach, obviously, this program about 20 years ago was used to competing for championships and has gone through a lot of coaches the last 10 or 15 years, trying to get back to that. How big do you think the chasm is from where the program is now to where it was then, and what is your vision for getting it back to that?

JOSH HEUPEL: If you go by wins and losses, right, we're not where we need to be for sure. But the only time constraints you put on that are ones you put on yourself.

I have a different perspective a little maybe of the opportunity that is Tennessee football, and I say that from my playing experience. I went to Oklahoma when they hadn't been to a Bowl game for five straight years. When you get the right alignment from president to chancellor to athletic director to head coach, and you hire a great staff, and you're consistent and you're accountable, I feel like you have an opportunity to move things forward quickly.

There are certainly challenges we face as a program, but there are great opportunities, and that's why I came to Tennessee. This is Tennessee. This is one of the iconic programs in all of college sports, in all of college football. We have an opportunity to celebrate the great traditions, while putting a new age approach on it. Our kids and our staff, they're all there because of that. They chose the power of T for those reasons. Our staff chose the power of T for those reasons.

We're going to go out and compete every single day and push forward.

Q. I know a lot of positions are opening camps, specifically the quarterback position, as we already mentioned. How long until you start cutting down those reps and start singling down the two guys, one guy, three guys, whatever the case may be. How long at camp?

JOSH HEUPEL: There's competition at every spot. There's no job that's secure at this time. You have to earn it every single day. That's the rule in college football, no matter what. You have to earn the right to get a rep, earn the right to prove you're going to be on that football field and that we can trust you.

I think the quarterback position, it's really important that every other member of your team, offensively and defensively, see that that guy has earned the opportunity to be your quarterback. When there's a bad play—and there will be at some point—they've got to know that's the right guy for them that's leading that football team, and that only comes through time.

As we move, guys are going to earn more reps. Guys are going to earn less reps. Once they've done that, we're going to move at that rate. Obviously, we'll have a starter before we get to kickoff, and looking forward to that competition.

Q. You say it's a quarterback-friendly offense. We've definitely seen that in the past, passing for upwards of 300 yards per game. But in the SEC, we also know the run game is just as important. I just want to know how the running backs fit into your system.

JOSH HEUPEL: I think that's the misnomer about what we do offensively. You look at, when we were at Missouri, we set a Power Five record for the fewest amount of zero negative yard plays, and then reset the record the following year. When we took over at Missouri, they were 125th in the country in total offense. We ended up leading the league for two straight years in total offense.

We're very balanced in our approach. You look at our numbers, run and pass, we're extremely balanced.

So our ability for us, it really starts with the run game. It starts with the five guys up front, your tight ends, if they're playing. They're located in the core. And then our running backs have to be great with the football in their hands. That's a position we're relatively young at, were hit by the transfer portal, but really like the guys we have on campus.




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