Second-year Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with media Wednesday during the Vols’ open date.
Heupel discussed his excitement for the future of Tennessee athletics.
“This brand as an athletic department and as a university too, I think this is a great time to be in Knoxville,” Heupel said. “The passion of our fanbase is obviously felt by our football program, but it is felt by everybody. There is a ton of excitement that surrounds Knoxville, the state of Tennessee, and Vol nation. That creates an energy that helps us recruit great players, and I’m talking every program. When it’s going good, your logo is in front of everybody all year long, 365 days out of the year. Success breeds success across the board.
“I think it’s really unique that within our athletic department, you have a close-knit group of coaches that truly care about each other and genuinely are excited when the other one is successful. All of that parlays itself into us continuing to build and being able to chase championships, not just as a football program but as an entire athletic department. It’s a lot of fun. You guys are in here enough, you see student-athletes from every sport when they are walking in here. The energy is different than when I first got here inside of the building. You can feel that, and it is because of the atmosphere that has been created across all sports.”
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