‘What the **** are these clowns doing?’ – Tennessee Vols catch some shade from Ohio State Buckeyes QB
One of the lasting memories from the Tennessee Vols’ blowout loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the College Football Playoff was the sight of various UT players warming up in the sub freezing temps without shirts. Multiple Vols players took the field for warmups sans shirts, which led to some […]
One of the lasting memories from the Tennessee Vols’ blowout loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the College Football Playoff was the sight of various UT players warming up in the sub freezing temps without shirts.
Multiple Vols players took the field for warmups sans shirts, which led to some ridicule from opposing fans and some media analysts.
Former Ohio State quarterback Will Howard recently joined Jon Gruden’s “Gruden QB class” ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft to review some film. And one of the pieces of film they checked out was the playoff game between Ohio State and Tennessee.
At one point, Gruden asked Howard what he thought of Tennessee’s players coming out with no shirts on.
“The thing is, they came out with their shirts off and they ran over to the opposite end zone and they immediately put them back on,” said Howard. “I was like what the f*** are these clowns doing? At the moment I knew we had them.”
Howard wasn’t wrong — the Buckeyes cruised to a win in a game that was never close.
A week after the game, Vols center Cooper Mays explained Tennessee’s decision to go without shirts.
"We do warmups at the hotel before [the game], so we did a little walk-through outside at like 10 AM, so I did that shirtless," said Mays. "Just to kind of like make sure — I knew if I could go out there shirtless at 10 AM, then I'd be fine for the game. You know what I'm saying? Like I've already done the worst of it. So I did that.
"And then kind of everybody wanted to do it in the stadium during pregame. And I was like well if other people are going to do it, I'm not about to run out there with my sweatshirt on. I'm not about to be that guy. So I was like heck yeah let's do it. A lot of people were wearing vaseline. I didn't wear any vaseline. I just took it on the chin."
When you win by 25 points, I guess you can talk a little trash after the fact.
