How Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel destroyed a silly sports cliché this week
Tennessee Vols fans heard enough clichés (which were often used as excuses) for a lifetime during Butch Jones' five years in Knoxville. From "brick by brick" to "five-star hearts", there was never a shortage of corny phrases and clichés from Jones. Fortunately for Vols fans, those days are long gone. Current Tennessee head coach Josh […]
Tennessee Vols fans heard enough clichés (which were often used as excuses) for a lifetime during Butch Jones' five years in Knoxville.
From "brick by brick" to "five-star hearts", there was never a shortage of corny phrases and clichés from Jones.
Fortunately for Vols fans, those days are long gone.
Current Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel doesn't always give much information away to the media, but he stays away from clichés and coach speak. Instead, he seems like a normal guy having a conversation when he interacts with the media.
It's just who he is — a genuine coach who isn't trying to be someone he isn't.
That's why it shouldn't come as a surprise that Heupel — not even on purpose — destroyed an old sports cliché this week.
During Vol Calls on Wednesday night, Heupel was asked about the upperclassmen on Tennessee's roster and the way they bought into the coaching staff when they arrived in early 2021.
Heupel made it clear that even though he didn't recruit those players, they're still "his guys".
"They were in that hope-and-believe stage coming out of what they had come out of," said Heupel of the roster he inherited in early 2021. "If we worked the right way, I truly expected us to do some unique things, but they are my guys, like there’s no question."
“When you come into a program, man, those are your guys," added Heupel. "They will be my guys forever. It’s how we’ve approached it. Just like the people that we have in the building, our coaches, our young coaches, our support staff, the wives that we have, like they all pour into these young guys and we receive it back from them, too. I’ve learned so much from these guys, and they will be my guys forever."
Heupel also made it a point to say how much former Tennessee players mean to the program.
“I think one of the unique things that Tennessee does a good job of is the pride from former players. Staying connected is something that we’ve been intentional of, trying to get more former players back to practice, knowing that they’re family forever. There’s a piece of them that’s on that field inside of Neyland Stadium. I don’t know, what these guys mean to us, and to me, it’s hard to put into words.”
For years it's been a pet peeve of mine to hear the phrase "just wait until [insert coach's name] gets his guys into the program".
I get that certain systems require a different type of player. But I think most folks understand that. It kind of goes unsaid.
What I don't like is using that phrase as an excuse. It's just a bad look. If you want a true family environment at a program, then it has to be about the players in the program, not whether or not the head coach recruited them.
Heupel's "those are my guys" mindset when it comes to players he didn't recruit is, I believe, a huge reason why the Vols are having success this season.
I'm hesitant to heap this much praise on Heupel — Tennessee fans have been down this road before — but everything he's doing just feels right. He's winning games, he's avoiding excuses, and he's fully embraced the (good) craziness of the Vols fan base.
There hasn't been a coach at UT that's felt this right since Phillip Fulmer was roaming the sidelines.
It seems the Vols finally did get it right.
Featured image via Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
