‘Does anybody care though?’ – There’s an excuse Josh Heupel could be using at Tennessee right now, but he has no interest in it
Believe it or not, the Tennessee Vols’ 2025 regular season is already a quarter of the way over. Tennessee is 3-1 through the first four games of the season. The Vols’ lone blemish so far is a gut-wrenching 44-41 overtime loss to the Georgia Bulldogs (Tennessee was a missed field goal away from upsetting the […]
Believe it or not, the Tennessee Vols’ 2025 regular season is already a quarter of the way over.
Tennessee is 3-1 through the first four games of the season. The Vols’ lone blemish so far is a gut-wrenching 44-41 overtime loss to the Georgia Bulldogs (Tennessee was a missed field goal away from upsetting the Bulldogs).
Most fans and analysts are feeling pretty good about what they’ve seen so far from the Vols this season. The offensive line has played extremely well, the wide receivers are living up to expectations, and the quarterback play from Joey Aguilar has been fantastic.
The one concern that’s emerged for the Vols has been on the defensive side of the ball.
Last season, Tennessee finished with the No. 7 scoring defense in the nation after giving up just 16.1 points per game.
Through four games this season, the Vols are allowing 27.5 points per game (and they’ve only played one SEC opponent).
A key reason for the Vols’ early-season defensive lapses is injuries.
Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, however, isn’t interested in using injuries as an excuse.
Josh Heupel isn’t blaming injuries for some of the Tennessee Vols’ defensive struggles
After Tennessee allowed 394 total yards of offense to UAB in the Vols’ 56-24 win on Saturday, Heupel was asked about the impact that injuries have had on UT’s defensive performance.
Heupel made it clear that no one cares if you have injuries or not — you just have to go win.
“Sure. Right. Yeah. You’re missing some corners,” said Heupel. “You’re missing some interior guys. Yeah. Does anybody care though? At the end of the day, you either win or you lose, right? There’s no asterisk next to it. They don’t say, ‘yeah, but.’ You gotta go win.”
Tennessee is without its top two cornerbacks — a future first round NFL draft pick in Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson, a 2025 preseason All-SEC third team selection.
The Vols are also without starting defensive linemen Jaxson Moi and Daevin Hobbs.
Moi is expected to return for Tennessee’s game next weekend against Mississippi State. Hobbs could also return for that game, but his status isn’t quite as clear.
McCoy probably won’t be back until the Arkansas game on October 11 at the earliest. And Gibson is expected to miss the rest of the season.
Heupel, though, knows that the goal for the season doesn’t change just because a few key players are down (after all, every team is dealing with injuries to some extent). The mission — winning games — is the same regardless of who’s on the field.
There’s a lot of excuses that Heupel could’ve used during his first few seasons at Tennessee — scholarship reductions from the Jeremy Pruitt recruiting scandal, injuries, losing a starting quarterback to the portal during spring practice, etc. But he’s never used any adversity the program has faced as an excuse. That’s a far cry from some past Tennessee coaches (looking at you, Butch Jones). And it’s a big reason why Vols fans have fully embraced Heupel on Rocky Top.
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