Football talk is about to give way to preseason football practice at Tennessee.
The Volunteers are scheduled to conduct a media session Tuesday afternoon before Wednesday morning’s start to August camp. Wednesday is technically the final day of July, but the earlier start this summer is due to an earlier season opener.
Tennessee will begin its 2024 season, the fourth under coach Josh Heupel, inside Neyland Stadium against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Aug. 31. The Vols are 27-12 under Heupel, including a combined 20-6 mark the last two years.
“Everybody can go back and kind of research what we embarked on when we first took this job as far as challenges and how we had to navigate those,” Heupel said at the Southeastern Conference’s annual media days event earlier this month in Dallas. “We’re at the point now where we’re almost free and clear of navigating all those things. Our roster is the deepest that it’s been by far, and inside of this league, that’s important as you go through the season.
“I couldn’t be more excited about going and lining up with this group this fall.”
Tennessee’s opener against Rusty Wright’s Mocs, the preseason picks to win this year’s Southern Conference race, has a 12:45 p.m. start on the SEC Network.
The Vols will practice Wednesday and Thursday before taking Friday off. They will resume Saturday through Monday before having their second off day next Tuesday.
“We have a bunch of guys who are veterans on our team,” Vols fifth-year senior defensive tackle Omari Thomas said in Dallas. “It’s good to know that a lot of guys who I came here with and started this change here at Tennessee will get to go out there and do it all over again for one more year.
“We’re going to put everything into it so that way we can get the maximum out of it.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.