Josh Heupel immediately dismisses a big concern that the Tennessee Vols will face against Ohio State
The dust had barely settled from the final College Football Playoff rankings reveal show when a big concern about the Tennessee Vols facing Ohio State on the road emerged. Tennessee and Ohio State will likely be dealing with temperatures that are around 30 to 40 degrees in Columbus on December 21 in the first round […]
The dust had barely settled from the final College Football Playoff rankings reveal show when a big concern about the Tennessee Vols facing Ohio State on the road emerged.
Tennessee and Ohio State will likely be dealing with temperatures that are around 30 to 40 degrees in Columbus on December 21 in the first round of the playoff.
The feeling is that Ohio State will be more well equipped to handle the cold than Tennessee.
Vols head coach Josh Heupel, however, isn't concerned one bit about how the cold weather will impact his team.
“Not sure what the temperature will be up there at night," said Heupel when he was asked on Sunday about playing in the cold weather in Columbus. "Know it won’t be sunny and 85. We played in 30 degree weather a week ago (against Vanderbilt). For us, a lot of our practices are in the morning. We’re outside. It’ll be similar temperatures to what you’re going to get up there. Our guys got to be able to handle anything that comes at them. That’s weather, it’s outside distractions. It’s us getting ready to go be our best 11 on 11 between the white lines. And we’ll be ready to handle that and operate at a high level.”
Heupel also noted that the Vols will practice outside as much as possible leading up to the game against Ohio State.
"We’ll be outside as much as we possibly can," said Heupel. "Typically the temperatures, at some point during this preparation will mirror what we think we’ll have on Saturday night up there. We typically get outside unless something’s not right with the grass fields, as far as wet, damp, frost, whatever it might be.”
Tennessee played one of its best games of the year against Vanderbilt in the regular season finale. The temps were in the mid 40's for that game, so not quite as cold as it will probably be at Ohio State, but still in the same neighborhood.
It would be different if Tennessee had a roster full of kids from South Florida who have never experienced playing in cold weather. Tennessee's players, though, have played in some cold environments before. If they lose to the Buckeyes on December 21, it won't be because of the weather.
Like Heupel has said all week — you gotta be ready to play anytime and anywhere if you want to be a national champion.
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