Tag: spring practices

Tennessee held its second spring football practice Saturday inside Anderson Training Center.

The Vols will have 15 practices and are set to conclude spring football with its annual Chevrolet Orange & White game on April 24 at Neyland Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m. EDT. SEC Network+ will broadcast the game.

Tennessee will kick off the 2021 season on Sept. 4 against Bowling Green at Neyland Stadium.

Season tickets for the 100th year of Neyland Stadium and the start of the Josh Heupel era are on sale now at AllVols.com. Season tickets start as low as $300, with the Vol Pass and payment plan options offered.

Below are highlights from Tennessee’s second spring practice in 2021. Highlights are provided by Tennessee Athletic Communications.

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Tennessee took to the practice field Thursday, opening spring practices under first-year head coach Josh Heupel.

Heupel met with media following practice and detailed what he wants to get accomplished during the spring.

“I think as an overall program, you’re in a race to become as good as you can as fast as you can,” Heupel said. “That’s the challenge for your players every single day. You’ve got to enter the building with great urgency and put pressure on yourself to soak in as much as possible, go out there, play and execute. At the same time, you’re trying to balance that to where your kids aren’t overwhelmed and they have an opportunity to soak in the information that they need to, go out there and compete. In all three phases, you’re balancing your installs.

“You’ve got to understand that it’s year one. Your system may be this, but it’s year one, practice one for your guys. So, you spoon-feed them. You give them an opportunity to soak in what you’ve done. That’s partially why we backed up spring ball, to make sure that they had an opportunity to get some of that information beforehand and get some of the playbook digested. You can push it as far and as fast as you possibly can before it gets to spring ball. You come back and now you’re back to a day one install. As your players came back to day one, I think they grabbed onto a whole lot more than we probably thought that they would as we got ready for practice one. I thought we handled that pretty well.”

Josh Heupel’s quarterbacks by the numbers

Josh Heupel’s running backs by the numbers

Josh Heupel’s wide receivers by the numbers

Josh Heupel’s tight ends by the numbers

Josh Heupel’s linemen, defensive players on offense by the numbers

Below are photos from Tennessee’s first spring practice under Heupel. Photos are provided by Tennessee Athletic Communications.

Tennessee kicked off spring practices Thursday under first-year head coach Josh Heupel.

Following practice, Heupel met with media. He was asked if any players have switched positions on the roster.

Heupel mentioned there have not been any players to switch positions as of right now.

“Our roster has stayed status quo, as far as their homes where they’re starting out at,” Heupel said. “I think as we go through the early part of spring ball, we are going to find out a lot more about who they are as a player, their skillsets, how they fit into what we are doing, how they’ve grown in the offseason, taken coaching and are implementing the things that we are asking them to do.

“As we go through that process, you’ll find ways to move guys into a spot where they have a better opportunity to compete and earn an opportunity to play inside of our program.”

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Tennessee opened spring practices Thursday inside Anderson Training Center under first-year head coach Josh Heupel.

Heupel comes to Tennessee as one of the sport’s most innovative offensive minds.

Following practice, Heupel discussed Tennessee’s quarterbacks throughout the early stages of playing for him and UT’s new coaching staff.

“I thought they handled the tempo portion of some of our team sets extremely well, handled the communication parts of it, played within themselves,” Heupel said of Tennessee’s quarterbacks. “They made some mistakes out there, too, but they did a lot of really positive things, too. The thing that we’ve challenged to our guys is don’t make the same mistake twice. Be coachable, accept coaching in a positive way, learn from it, grow from it, change from one rep to the next.

“As we called the team up today, that was just one of the points of emphasis I made to them. I saw guys who really accepted coaching, challenging themselves to get better from one rep to the next in a really positive way. I thought there was a ton of positive energy out there between players and coaches.”

Heupel also discussed how Tennessee’s quarterbacks are grasping his playbook, saying they are “right where you want them to be.”

“I think as a coach, you always want to be further ahead than where you’re at,” he continued. “You’re never accepting of where you’re at. You’re always pushing forward, but we got guys that they’ve been great inside the meeting room. A bunch of guys that are learning how to put in extra time and effort, meet with coaches, on top of what’s required.

“Players meeting together, watching film together. Those are the things you know everybody, you know, there’s a NCAA requirement or max number of hours that you get with a man. Great players, great teams, they’re going to go above and beyond that all the time and our guys are learning to have, how to have, really good work habits.”

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The Vols opened spring practices under first-year Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel on Thursday.

Heupel recapped his first practice as Tennessee’s head coach Thursday evening.

“This afternoon was a really exciting day for us as, the guys that have been working in the first quarter of our offseason strength and conditioning program and then them having an opportunity on day one and practice and compete, make a bunch of mistakes, get a whole lot better during the course of it as well,” Heupel said. “There was a tremendous amount of energy and effort from those guys. They took coaching really well. They were really positive with each other.

“A lot of things that we’ve been working on as far as our accountability and the way we communicate with each other, players and coaches alike. I saw a lot of those things in a positive way today during the course of practice. I am excited as we continue go through spring here.”

The Vols will conclude spring practices with its annual Chevrolet Orange & White game on April 24 at Neyland Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m. EDT.

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Tennessee is slated to kick off spring practices Tuesday under first-year head coach Josh Heupel.

The Vols’ coaching staff will look for players to step into leadership and productive roles throughout the team and within the offensive unit.

Ahead of spring practices kicking off, Vols Wire takes a look at players that have the ability to step into both roles on offense for Heupel’s first team at Tennessee.

Josh Heupel’s quarterbacks by the numbers

Josh Heupel’s running backs by the numbers

Josh Heupel’s wide receivers by the numbers

Josh Heupel’s tight ends by the numbers

Josh Heupel’s linemen, defensive players on offense by the numbers

Dixie State offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kelly Bills discusses coaching alongside Josh Heupel at Utah State