No hype? No problem.
Tennessee has restored stability and consistency since Josh Heupel arrived back in 2021. A program that just couldn’t seem to find its footing actually settled in very quickly under Heupel, finally entering the 21st century offensively.
In fact, the ship got turned around faster than anyone could have ever dreamed, as Heupel and Hendon Hooker led the Vols back to a No. 1 ranking in 2022. Tennessee took a step back last year after Hooker’s exit, but they do appear set now to be a player in the now expanded College Football Playoff.
And yet…. there’s just not a lot of national chatter about the Volunteers. Tennessee has been sort of overshadowed by the entrance of Texas and Oklahoma, Nick Saban’s retirement and the dominance of Ole Miss in the transfer portal this offseason.
A lack of chatter isn’t exactly a bad thing though. Not that Tennessee needed any, but seeing themselves ranked as the 6th to 8th best team in the conference can’t hurt.
Veteran leaders Keenan Pili and Omari Thomas spoke on the matter this week.
“I don’t care if we’re at the bottom. I kind of hope we’re the underdogs,” Tennessee linebacker Keenan Pili told 247Sports. “I hope there’s no hype. We want to earn that every day. I think at the end of the day, that’ll help us on Saturdays, being the underdogs.”
“Our team, we don’t need validation from anyone,” Thomas said Tuesday as his diamond-encrusted “O” chain rested on his chest. “It’s just good to know we come in together and we’ve got each other’s backs. We’re going to be the ones to push ourselves to go to where we want to go and that’s win the national championship.” (247Sports)
The hype is certainly there for former No. 1 overall player Nico Iamaleava, who is set to take over under center for Tennessee this season. Iamaleava lit up Iowa in his first ever start in the Citrus Bowl, setting the stage for what could be a big season this fall.
Iamaleava is hovering in the top ten of Heisman odds, yet that chatter hasn’t really spilled over to the win column. Assuming Tennessee can get past a tricky spot in Charlotte against NC State in week two, the Vols’ season really can be boiled down to three games — at Oklahoma, Alabama and at Georgia. Taking care of the rest of your schedule and perhaps just winning one of those games would put Tennessee in the thick of the playoff bubble.
Nobody really saw that 2022 season coming, either. Could the Volunteers be in for a repeat this fall? The parallels are there — a potentially tricky non-conference game away from home. A huge, early road conference game against Oklahoma — very similar to the setup at LSU back in 2022. Drawing Florida and Alabama at home, then finishing with Georgia.
“At the end of the day, we got to continue to grow individually, collectively as as a program,” Heupel said on Tuesday. “I’m really proud of what we’ve done.
“And I think we’re third in the league in wins over the last couple of seasons, but there’s more meat on the bone for us to go take. And that’s what we’ve done all offseason.”
Tennessee opens training camp in less than two weeks. The Volunteers will open on August 31st against Chattanooga.