Josh Heupel's latest comments leave no doubt about his intentions for the Tennessee Vols in 2023
The Tennessee Vols have a clear goal in 2023. Tennessee wants to win the SEC East and play for a conference championship in Atlanta. Josh Heupel reiterated that goal on Monday during a Big Orange Caravan stop in Knoxville. Heupel was asked on Monday in Chattanooga about the Vols averaging 46 points per game last […]
The Tennessee Vols have a clear goal in 2023.
Tennessee wants to win the SEC East and play for a conference championship in Atlanta.
Josh Heupel reiterated that goal on Monday during a Big Orange Caravan stop in Knoxville.
Heupel was asked on Monday in Chattanooga about the Vols averaging 46 points per game last season.
The third-year Tennessee head coach made it clear that while the Vols want to score on every possession, ultimately all he cares about is winning games so his team can get to Atlanta in December.
“Well, we want to score every time we’ve got the ball," said Heupel. "At the end of the day, we want to win football games. That’s the most important thing. So the number we pay the most attention to is the record and at the end of the day, we’ve got to get to Atlanta. We’ve got to continue to grow as a program.”
You can sense some urgency in Heupel's answer when he says the Vols "got to get to Atlanta".
It's obvious that Heupel isn't pursuing a long-term rebuild in Knoxville (I think everyone knows that after watching the Vols go 11-2 last season). It would be easy for Heupel to downplay expectations heading into 2023 after losing five players to the NFL Draft (and UT also lost several other key players to undrafted free-agent NFL deals).
But instead of shying away from the expectations just because he lost his superstar quarterback and wide receivers, Heupel is entering 2023 with not just the hopes of getting to Atlanta but the expectation that his team will.
Getting past Georgia will obviously be a tall task. But after what the Vols showed last season by beating teams like Alabama, LSU, and Clemson, I wouldn't rule out Tennessee giving the Bulldogs a run for their money in 2023. Georgia can't keep going undefeated in conference play forever. Someone eventually has to knock them off. And these Vols might just be the dudes who do it.
