‘It was a bad day at the office’ – The Tennessee Vols’ new strength coach wasted no time sending a message
The Tennessee Vols’ new strength coach got straight to work this week after arriving in Knoxville.
The Tennessee Vols made one of the biggest hires of the offseason by swiping strength coach Derek Owings from the Indiana Hoosiers.
Owings officially joined Tennessee just hours after Indiana’s win over the Miami Hurricanes in the national championship game.
Hiring Owings away from Indiana not only shows that Vols head coach Josh Heupel is serious about taking a big step forward in 2026, it also shows how well respected Tennessee’s head coach is in college football. Owings was viewed as an extremely important part of Indiana’s staff, yet the Hoosiers, despite going 16-0 in 2025, couldn’t keep him away from Heupel and Tennessee.
Derek Owings didn’t waste any time getting to work this week
Owings arrived in Knoxville on Tuesday morning. By Wednesday morning, Owings was leading Tennessee’s first full offseason workout.
And it was no joke.
VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs joined 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will on Friday, and he made sure to point out that Owings didn’t take it easy on Tennessee’s players on day one. Hubbs also noted that there were plenty of “puke garbage cans” around for workout No. 1 with Owings.
“Owings jumped right into the fray on Wednesday,” said Hubbs. “And for a team that had been out of workouts for three or four weeks, that’s a team that Wednesday was rough [for them]. It was a bad day at the office….it was, ‘I am here, and we are setting the tone out of the gate.’”
The Vols’ biggest objective this offseason is to get more physical and in better shape. That’s an area that was a concern for Tennessee last season.
“Tennessee’s got to be mentally and physically tougher, mentally and physically stronger,” said Hubbs. “That’s just the reality. They’ve got to finish better. They’ve got to finish games better. They’ve got to finish seasons better. They’ve got to finish halves better and drives better — on both sides of the ball. To do that, they need to be physically better, and they need to be mentally tougher.”
The Vols have a long way to go to get to where they need to be, but Owings’ first full day on the job shows he is clearly the right guy to get them there.
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