New Tennessee Vols strength coach Derek Owings makes a promise that he’s already delivering on
New Tennessee Vols strength coach hit the ground running back joining UT’s program in January.
New Tennessee Vols strength coach Derek Owings hit the ground running after arriving in Knoxville in January.
Owings, who previously served as the strength coach at Indiana, joined the Vols the morning after the Hoosiers beat Miami in the national championship game.
And he quickly got to work.
The changes that Owings has brought to Tennessee have been drastic, but necessary. And though the changes have led to some “culture shock”, they’re going to help the Vols become a more physical team — something that was lacking at times in 2025.
“He’s very impressive,” said VolQuest’s Austin Price recently. “He’s got a plan. He’s very passionate about the stuff that he believes in…the full sugar Gatorade is gone, the fried chicken is gone. He’s really trying to change the mindset of Tennessee football.
“And in talking to a bunch of the kids, I mean, it’s been a little bit of a culture shock. But they’re really excited, and they feel like this was the change necessary for them to take the next jump as a football program. And the players have responded well to it, because he’s one of those, much like Jim Knowles or Rodney Garner, he is going to jump your rear, but he is going to love you hard. He’s really diligent about trying to make Rocky Top, and make Tennessee, into a contender — much like Indiana was the last couple of years with him up there in Bloomington.”
“He’s doing the little things to try to make Tennessee better,” continued Price. “To try to help this team be in better shape, to be more disciplined.”
Derek Owings makes promise he’s already delivering on
Owings’ mission this offseason is simple — transform Tennessee into a bigger and stronger football team.
And he says the Vols will “absolutely” be bigger and stronger. In fact, some players on the team, according to Owings, have already added 15 pounds of muscle.
“Absolutely,” said Owings when asked by Vol Network’s Mike Keith if Tennessee will be a bigger football team in 2026. “I mean, we have a lot of guys that have already added 15 pounds of muscle in a six and a half week training block.
“Everything we do, it has to fit together like a puzzle. And the reason why we track speed every single week, we track power every single week, and vertical jump [is] to make sure the weight we are putting on is good weight. What makes these guys great is because they’re athletic, they’re twitchy, and they’re good football players. As soon as we make them too big, and it takes away from those qualities, now we’re taking away from football. So we want to enhance those abilities, not hurt them. So it’s the constantly tracking week to week to make sure that the weight we are putting on is good weight. And if we get to a point where, hey, this kid’s too big, we’re getting slower, then we’ve got to pull back and keep them there until we can start increasing that speed, that power, and that explosiveness again. And then we can see if we can keep improving. Because there’s some kids, that they’re at a good body weight.”
There were plenty of rumblings last season that Tennessee wasn’t nearly physical enough, which is a big part of what led to Josh Heupel swiping Owings from Indiana.
“One source told On3 that one of the biggest concerns among some within the program is that the practices throughout the entire year, not just the season, aren’t physical enough and that there’s not enough contact,” reported On3’s Chris Low in November.
Owings isn’t wasting any time making sure that narrative is flipped this offseason.
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