Tennessee Vols dominate Vanderbilt and Josh Heupel fires back at the haters
The Tennessee Vols dominated the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday night in Nashville and erased a silly narrative in the process. Tennessee cruised by Vandy 56-0. The win came after listening to various analysts — including ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit — spread false rumors all week about Vols players "fighting amongst themselves". The only fighting that happened […]
The Tennessee Vols dominated the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday night in Nashville and erased a silly narrative in the process.
Tennessee cruised by Vandy 56-0. The win came after listening to various analysts — including ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit — spread false rumors all week about Vols players "fighting amongst themselves".
The only fighting that happened on Saturday night was the scoreboard operator fighting to keep up with Tennessee's frantic scoring pace.
After the big win, Vols head coach Josh Heupel addressed the rumors about UT's culture.
"This is a great win for our program," said Heupel to SEC Network's Cole Cubelic after the win. "A lot's been made about the culture in the locker room, whatever it might be. This is a culture win."
Heupel credited Tennessee's culture for the win against Vanderbilt. That's how you fire back against false rumors and narratives.
The truth about the Vols' locker room and the loss to South Carolina is far less dramatic than the fiction that was sold all week. Tennessee simply didn't have a good plan against the Gamecocks. As for the locker room, every team has disagreements from time to time. That's all that happened last week in Knoxville. Nothing more, nothing less.
Of course, telling people that is one thing. Words don't always do the trick. Blowing out an SEC rival 56-0, however, is the best way to silence those questions.
Tennessee is 10-2 in year two of the Heupel era. It's the first time the Vols have won 10 regular season games since 2003.
The future of Tennessee football is bright. While the loss to South Carolina certainly hurt, there's no reason for Vols fans to be anything but optimistic moving forward.
Featured image via George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA TODAY NETWORK
