“Another thing that registered with me on our Zoom call last night was Danny’s conversation with the leadership council on the football team and the things they are focused on accomplishing. That’s why they came here to one of the biggest brands in college football. One of the biggest things they said they wanted inside the locker room was connection. That’s one of the things that’s extremely important to me. It’s been really hard this past year with COVID, but you play this tough, physical and demanding game because of connection. There has to be a sense of belonging and brotherhood that resides in that locker room. To do that you have to spend time with each other and you have to do things outside of the game. That’s one of the things we try to pride ourselves on in our program, here at Tennessee as we move forward. That sense of connection allows you to chase greatness outside of the game. When you are connected you have a chance to love, when you are able to love you are able to sacrifice for your teammates and this game is all about sacrifice. Accountability is also something we talked about. Making sure that we’re being accountable to each other, the program, the process and the people that reside inside of it.”
NEXT: Josh Heupel’s opening statement continued