Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel’s opening statement at SEC media days.
Southeastern Conference football media days kicked off on Monday at Omni Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas.
Fourth-year Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with media on Tuesday.
Everything Heupel said during his opening statement is listed below.
“Great to see everybody,” Heupel said. “Hope everybody enjoyed their extended, long vacation here over the course of the summer. Commissioner, thanks for the kind introduction. He mentioned that the last time I got a chance to see him we were in Omaha, and as I was getting ready to come here, got a chance to see Coach Vitello on the MLB draft a couple of nights ago. Obviously the All-Star Game was here — or is here tonight, and this is the first time I have had an opportunity to talk since I got a chance to go to Omaha and watch (indiscernible) and Blake and Coach Vitello bring home a championship to Rocky Top. What an unbelievable experience, opportunity to watch the game with Coach Barnes. Danny, our athletic director, get a chance to be on the field and celebrate that moment. Really proud of what they did bringing home a National Championship to Rocky Top, what Coach Vitello has built there and have an opportunity to have my son with me and really my entire family, so great night.
“You look at the success that our brand, our logo has had recently with baseball, but basketball during the course of the winter, and you look at all the team sports across the board being in post-season play, I think it really speaks to the trajectory of our university, our athletic department, where it’s going, but it also speaks to the leadership that we have there. So fortunate to work with Danny White, our athletic director, Chancellor Plowman and President Boyd. They’re visionaries. They give us all the tools to go compete and have created an unbelievable experience for our student-athletes there on the campus. The brand is stronger than it’s ever been and really excited about where we’re at on the football side of it, but where we’re going.
“As I sit here today, it’s hard to believe that this is the fourth year, the fourth time that I’ve been here at SEC Media Days, and I look back, so proud of what our staff and our players have built, the connection, the committedness, the care factor that they have for each other and the program. 20 wins over the last couple of years, top 3 in the league, the best that it’s been in 20 years on Rocky Top. As good as it’s been, the future is extremely bright, and we’re in a race to get where we need to extremely quickly.
“Proud of the culture that we’ve built. I mentioned that a second ago. We got unbelievable players that care about the people around them and attack every single day the right way. And they do it right on the field. They do it right in the meeting room, but they do it right in the classroom as well and in our community.
“You know, as you look at us academically, we’ve shattered every record over the last three years, have reset that record for fall term GPAs. I think we had 63 individuals that were recognized by the conference at the end of the regular season, and we’re fortunate enough to have some of those guys here with us today.
“We got three really special individuals that are with us today. They represent all that’s good in college football. They represent what it means to be a Vol. I take great pride in that we could have had a lot of different players come with us here to Dallas and have an opportunity to speak with you, but these three guys have unique stories and are great ambassadors for the Tennessee Volunteers.
“Keenan Pili started over 37 games in his career. Unfortunately had a season-ending injury week one of last year, decided to come back for another year of college football. He loves his experience on Rocky Top and is a dynamic play maker that’s poised to have an unbelievable season.
“Cooper Mays, preseason all-American center, has started for us for four straight years. It’s in his blood to be on Rocky Top. His father played there. His brother played there. It’s vitally important to him, and he’s a great member of our squad, and he’s got great understanding of who we are offensively, the ability to communicate and has great leadership skills as well.
“Omari Thomas, who is here for his second time, is a four-year starter for us at defensive tackle. He’s kind of the mayor inside of our locker room. He is our SEC representative on the NCAA Football Oversight Committee, but is vitally important to who and what we are as a program and all four years there he’s been a great leader every single year.
“This football team that we have when we embarked on our off season when we got back in January, it’s a unique roster in that we’re really experienced at certain spots, in particular on the line of scrimmage, and we have some youth that surrounds them. The challenge has been that our young guys can’t be young when we get to the fall.
“The leadership that we have from our veterans, the young guys coming in, buying into the culture, competing every single day, this has been a great group, a great team. Up until this part of the off season, the first three-quarters of our off season, they’ve been unbelievable in their work habits, their competitiveness, how they’ve attacked every single rep every single day, and I cannot wait to get to training camp. I’m ready to go compete with these guys on the grass. And I know Vol Nation is excited about the season that we’re ready to embark upon as well.
“It’s hard to believe that training camp is right around the corner in less than two weeks. We’re ready to go compete. We got great renovations that are going on inside of Neyland Stadium, one of the great venues in all of sports, let alone college football. Our fanbase is extremely passionate, season ticket waiting list of over 15,000 people, and we’ll be ready to go kick off here in a little over a month.”
