On his general impressions of the early enrollees taking part in bowl practice and his thoughts on what those players gain from the experience
“First of all, they’re getting thrown right into the middle of it. We’ve been working with our players for 11 months for them to be where they’re at in understanding our scheme, right? The great benefit for them is they get introduced to the team, get introduced to what the culture is on the football side of it in the meetings and on the practice field. They get a ton of individual work. To me, in these four days—or maybe it’s six days, depending as they all kind of came in at different times—they get great exposure. Now they have three and a half weeks to go back home. They’ll work out a little bit. They get accustomed to what we’re doing in the weight room, so they have a chance to take some of that back home with them. When they come back, I think it just creates great comfort in coming here. They’ve already been introduced into their position groups. They know all the guys and surely have sat in the meeting room with them, hung out with them. I think it just eases the transition when they get back as well.”
On his favorite Christmas gift he has received and any Christmas traditions he looks forward to
“Probably a set of lockers when I was like five years old. I felt like my bedroom had turned into a locker room. I thought that was pretty cool. Purple and gold. Big Vikings fan back in the day, so was pretty excited about that. Christmas traditions? Man, major Christmas tradition is this afternoon I’ll take my daughter—potentially my son, but definitely my daughter—and we’ll go do some shopping for my wife. That’s the No. 1 checklist item I have to get done before we get to the 25th.”
On quarterback Hendon Hooker returning
“Excited for him because he made a choice, based on the information that he was provided, that’s going to help him in the long-run. He’s excited and wants to (come back), his heart is here at Tennessee, he wants to be a part of this football team moving forward. Extremely excited for him, his family, and for our football team. (He’s a) great leader and I just believe that he is still becoming the best version of himself as a player. (He) has an opportunity to change some things fundamentally, continue to grow. Last year, you’re so worried about getting your scheme in that, some of the global view things, you don’t get a chance to touch on in year one. We’ll be able to do that with him and really excited to have him. Obviously, the way that he’s played, you look at it like a football game, each quarter of the season he’s continued to get better and better. That speaks to what he (will be) able to do next year, too.”
NEXT: Josh Heupel’s media availability continued