Tennessee’s football team produced a rewarding Saturday after enduring a challenging Friday.
The 22-7 victory by the Volunteers at Texas A&M was supposed to end roughly 24 hours after Tennessee arrived in the Lone Star State, but the team didn’t land until around midnight due to Friday’s grounding of all flights throughout the country.
“There were so many things going on,” Vols coach Josh Heupel said. “The pilots were communicating with the airlines. Our administration was in communication with our conference. There were not a lot of answers.
“Even with our schedule once it was lifted, I told the players that we would figure it out once we landed. We let the guys sleep in a little bit longer. I’m really proud of our guys for the way they handled it.”
Tennessee arrived at McGhee Tyson Airport outside Knoxville on 3:40 p.m. Friday with a scheduled departure of 4, but the ground stop was ordered at 3:54. Vols players sat on the plane until 5:59 before leaving and returning to the team facility at 6:47 for dinner.