The 2023 season will mark the 25th anniversary of the Tennessee Vols' last national championship. 

And current Vols head coach Josh Heupel will be hoping to celebrate the anniversary of Tennessee's 1998 championship team by bringing a new championship trophy to Knoxville. 

The 2023 Tennessee squad, like the 1998 team, will have to face a tough SEC schedule without their superstar quarterback from the previous season (it was Peyton Manning in 1998 that was gone and in 2023 it's Hendon Hooker). But Heupel made some comments this week in Nashville that suggest it could still be a special season for the Vols in 2023. 

Heupel, who was in Nashville earlier this week for a stop on Tennessee's Big Orange Caravan tour, joined 104.5 The Zone's 3HL for an interview on Wednesday. 

During the interview, Heupel was asked about the incredible culture that he and his staff have quickly built in Knoxville. 

Heupel pointed out that Tennessee has the type of locker room this season that leads to championship seasons. 

"You come out to the practice field and sometimes as a coach, man, it's hard to get in there (to coach), which is awesome," said Heupel. "You're like, alright, you got it. And I think that's when, you know, championship seasons happen because it comes from within that locker room. The locker room's different and they care about the success of the guys around them. They're knowledgeable enough to actually be invested in that process." 

"There's a sense of accountability that comes from within," added Heupel. "And you know, that's one of the things that's just totally changed. You know, off the field, they're still 18 to 22, gonna knock on some wood when I say we haven't had, you know…no issues off the field. We get to go compete every day and enjoy that. It's a fun group."

Obviously, a lot of things will have to go right for Tennessee this fall to win a championship (like finally getting past Georgia, which is much easier said than done). And it's not like the Vols are frontrunners. Just like in 1998, most media outlets are expecting Tennessee to take a step back in 2023 after losing players like Hooker, Jalin Hyatt, Darnell Wright, and Byron Young. 

But the Vols are in the conversation. And the vibe on Rocky Top is a championship vibe. Make no mistake — Tennessee is aiming to go 15-0 in 2023 and they don't care what the doubters are saying. If anything, they thrive on the doubt. Just as Hooker said earlier this offseason, the Vols play with a chip on their shoulder. 

“We play with a chip on our shoulder at Tennessee. We get a lot of disrespect.” — Hendon Hooker at the combine (?: College Football Playbook) pic.twitter.com/hwOXWCAo8l

— zach ragan (@zachTNT) March 7, 2023

Speaking of 1998, a lot of the comments coming out of Tennessee's spring practice this month sound like comments that were made by Vols players in 1998.

From Saturday Down South: “Once you win one, you want to continue winning them,” Al Wilson said. “It fueled the fire. It was the fuel that we put on that fire for that 1998 season. Even though we lost so many great players going into the ’98 season, we still knew that we had a helluva football team. We still had some players that could really play and some of the best players in the country.” Those players didn’t play like the best players in the Orange Bowl. With a possible national title at stake for Nebraska, the Cornhuskers hammered the Vols 42-17. That was more fuel for the fire leading into 1998. “Let’s be completely honest,” Wilson said, “Nebraska just kicked our butt hands down. They manhandled us. … That particular game showed us that we had some work to do. In the offseason, we needed to get bigger. We needed to get stronger. We needed to work harder. We needed to be more in tune to what our jobs are. And we needed to hold each other accountable."

Those comments from Wilson could easily apply to Tennessee's 2023 squad. We already touched on the talent the Vols are losing from their 2022 squad that went 11-2. But the Nebraska comment applies, too — just switch out Nebraska for South Carolina. 

Even the comment from Wilson about needing to be stronger sounds like a comment that Heupel made after UT's Orange and White game earlier this month.

"Our guys will get back in the weight room here next week," said Heupel when asked what's next for his team this offseason. "There are some gains that they have to make. It is a unique time of year where they have a chance to be very intentional in adding some size and mass to their frames."

The 1998 Vols were also a close-knit team. That's something that former Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer mentioned in 2018 when discussing his 1998 team. 

"There were plenty of fights on the practice field. But when they left the practice field, they were best friends," said Fulmer. "It was a team that enjoyed being around each other. There weren't any cliques, just a bunch of guys who trusted each other and believed in each other."

The 2023 Vols will play a very different style of football than the 1998 team that suffocated teams with its stifling defense. But there are still a lot of parallels between the two teams. Replacing key talent, having elite player leadership, and national media outlets that aren't believers — it's all there in 2023 like it was in 1998.

We'll see how the season plays out — no one knows what the 2023 season holds — but this is a Tennessee team that believes it can win it all. And they might be right. Sometimes special seasons happen when no one's expecting it.