Last season, the Tennessee Volunteers went undefeated in both September and October for the first time since winning college football’s national championship in 1998.
That success wasn’t birthed right before Labor Day, which is why Vols third-year coach Josh Heupel is putting a premium on the days and weeks ahead.
“Late April, May, June and July — you’ve got to win these months if you’re going to have a chance when you get to September,” Heupel said late Saturday afternoon following an Orange & White game that drew 58,473 fans to Neyland Stadium. “This group has been very mature in how they’ve handled themselves, and it’s one of the things I love about them.
“I love seeing them when they come into the building. They’re super competitive and have done things the right way, and I anticipate us continuing down that stretch here as we get into May.”
While the fans will not get to see the reigning Orange Bowl champions again until the Sept. 2 season opener against Virginia in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium, the players are headed back to the weight room this week.
“There are some gains they’ve got to make,” Heupel said. “This is a unique time of year to be very intentional in adding some size and mass to their frames. We’ll get a couple of weeks off before we get back here as we get ready for summer.”
The Vols staged their spring showcase without their top two running backs (Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright), their top four receivers (Ramel Keyton, Bru McCoy, Squirrel White and Oregon transfer Dont’e Thornton), and their top two linebackers (Aaron Beasley and BYU transfer Keelan Pili).
Yet starting quarterback Joe Milton III and five-star backup Nico Iamaleava played and provided solid performances, combining to complete 17 of 29 passes in the 87-minute contest, with Milton tossing a 4-yard touchdown to Kaleb Webb. Milton has been praised throughout this spring as not just a leader of the offense but the leader of the team, and he echoed Heupel’s comments about the importance of this spring and summer stretch.
“I just want to use this time to improve overall,” Milton said. “Anything can get cleaned up. It can be from mental to physicality stuff. Everything can improve to where Tennessee can be Tennessee.”
Heupel stated that the Orange & White game was “not the end of the competition at any position.” The Vols will enter August practices needing to solidify an offensive line that appears to have only senior center Cooper Mays and senior right guard Javontez Spraggins cemented at their spots, and then there is the matter of a secondary that returns nine players who have started for the Vols and a 10th, cornerback Gabe Jeudy-Lally, who started last season at BYU.
Of course, those are now viewed as first-world problems compared to two years ago, when Heupel inherited a depleted roster coming off a three-win season.
“It’s different,” Heupel said. “Our roster is different. Our understanding of what we’re doing inside of our program is completely different in terms of who we’re wanting to be on a daily basis.”
Farooq commits
Tennessee received its ninth commitment for the 2024 signing cycle on Sunday afternoon, picking up a nonbinding pledge from three-star safety Edrees Farooq out of St. Frances Academy in Baltimore. The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder is the nation’s No. 47 safety and the No. 561 overall prospect in the 247Sports.com composite rankings.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.