Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the culture he’s created on Rocky Top.

One of the most important ingredients to being a championship-caliber team is being connected. Players have to play for each other and not for themselves to have any shot at a special season.

Building a connected team, however, is more difficult than even in the transfer portal era. Rosters change dramatically from year to year. Many players are only around the team for 10 or 11 months before they’re off to the next stop.

Heupel, though, has found a way to make sure that Tennessee has a connected culture.

The 2026 team, in fact, may be Heupel’s most “connected” team at Tennessee.

And that’s in large part because of a unique approach with meals that the program has taken over the last couple of years.

“I think this is a close team,” said VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs on Tuesday on WNML’s SportsTalk. “I think you look at what they have done since the season ended a year ago. I think you look at the bonds they’ve created in the locker room — the leadership that this team has from Arion Carter and Jeremiah Telander. And the development of leadership with guys like Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley. I mean, there were times on Saturday (against Alabama) that Staley and Matthews were in the defensive back huddle before a series started…They were just there for encouragement.

“… I think that Josh Heupel has done something really unique the last couple of years, and I think it’s become more and more imperative that you do so when you have the transfer portal and the turnover of roster that you have. They do what they call red cards, which is legal by NCAA rules. They get gift cards for when the cafeteria is closed. They have these gift cards that they can use at various places in town to eat. And one of the things they’ve done with those red cards is that you go to dinner or lunch and you have a meal with somebody outside of your position group. It’s encouraged to be somebody outside of your side of the ball. So a linebacker will go have a meal with an offensive lineman. A defensive back will have a meal with a tight end or whatever the case may be. And the design of it is to learn everybody’s why — to learn why football is important and to learn why you’re at the University of Tennessee.”

“They’ve done it before,” added Hubbs. “This is not the first time they’ve done it. They did it a year ago. And I think it’s something that this team has gravitated to, and it’s allowed them to be a more unified team in a lot of ways. It’s a team that understands it’s going to take everybody to win a game.”

A lot of coaches talk about culture, and a lot of coaches do a good job of building strong cultures, but I don’t think anyone out there is doing it better than Heupel.

It’s not always going to be perfect — not everyone in the program is always going to be best friends — but Tennessee has consistently had a strong culture during a time when it’s harder than ever to build a culture.

And I think that’s a really big reason why this Tennessee team has found a way to win some tough games this season.