Vols OC Joey Halzle just quietly sent a loud message about Tennessee football and it should frighten the rest of the SEC
The Tennessee Vols won 10 games last season. They beat Alabama and Florida. And they went to the College Football Playoff. And yet no one seems to believe in the Vols in 2025 (which is confirmed by where Tennessee landed in the new AP Top 25 poll after beating Syracuse by 19 points in Week […]
The Tennessee Vols won 10 games last season. They beat Alabama and Florida. And they went to the College Football Playoff.
And yet no one seems to believe in the Vols in 2025 (which is confirmed by where Tennessee landed in the new AP Top 25 poll after beating Syracuse by 19 points in Week 1).
Tennessee’s players and coaches know that no one in the national media believes in them. And that non-belief is something the program is using as a rallying cry this season.
“It’s us against the world, fellas,” said Vols linebacker Arion Carter to his teammates before Tennessee’s win against Syracuse. “Don’t nobody believe in us. Don’t nobody believe in us. Man, we don’t need nobody to believe in us — because I believe in you.”
The lack of belief in Tennessee is due to several factors — a new quarterback in Joey Aguilar who joined the program during the summer, the loss of running back Dylan Sampson (the 2024 SEC offensive player of the year), a young wide receiver room, and a mostly new-look offensive line.
Those are all reasonable concerns. But the Vols, despite those question marks, are a talented team. And they know that.
And after the way they played against Syracuse, Vols offensive coordinator Joey Halzle is even more confident in Tennessee’s roster.
“Leaving the field on Saturday, we know we’ve got a tough, smart, competitive team,” said Halzle on Tuesday. “And you fill your locker room with a bunch of guys that are tough, smart, and competitive, you’re going to have a chance every Saturday. They grasped the stuff we were doing at a really high level. We don’t anticipate that changing. So the guys that we roll out there with every Saturday, we feel like, give us a competitive chance to go get a win.”
“We feel like there’s a really talented young roster here,” continued Halzle. “And I am talking about the actual young guys that are Year 1 or Year 2 here. A lot of them did get on the field, but we feel really confident with all those guys getting their chance that they’ll come out and show out at a high level.”
Tennessee’s coaches and players sounded extremely confident during “talking season” about their chances in 2025 despite no one in the national media showing much belief in them.
Halzle’s comments suggest that the confidence they felt was validated by the product the Vols put on the field Saturday against Syracuse.
Tennessee is only going to get better as the 2025 season progresses. I’m not sure exactly how this season will unfold — we’ll all see over the next couple of months — but based on the talent on the roster and the confidence from players and coaches, I’m confident the Volunteers will be a tough team to face on Saturdays this fall.
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