Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel sent a message to his team at SEC Media Days and it was important that he did it publicly
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel sent a message to his team at SEC Media Days in Atlanta this week. And it was important that the message was sent publicly. Tennessee will hold a highly-publicized three-man quarterback battle during fall camp between UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar, redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger, and true freshman George MacIntyre. […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel sent a message to his team at SEC Media Days in Atlanta this week.
And it was important that the message was sent publicly.
Tennessee will hold a highly-publicized three-man quarterback battle during fall camp between UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar, redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger, and true freshman George MacIntyre.
Most folks in the media believe that Aguilar, due to his two years of starting experience at Appalachian State, will eventually win the starting quarterback battle.
Aguilar, however, didn't transfer from UCLA to Tennessee because he was promised the starting job. This is a true competition and he'll have to go out and win the job in fall camp.
Heupel's message to the media — and to his team — is that it's important for everyone on Tennessee's roster to see one of the three quarterbacks clearly win the job. In other words, he doesn't want there to be any doubt that the right player was named the starter when that time comes.
"We talk about it at the beginning of every year," said Heupel. "You earn everything in this game, and you certainly do inside of our team room. That’s in who you are, your understanding of what we want to be — fundamentals, technique, scheme. It’s how you compete every single day. It’s what you’re doing off the field. That’s certainly true at the quarterback position. I think it’s important, through my career as a player, as a coach, and different spots that I’ve been, I think it’s really important that everybody on your team sees that guy earn that job."
"I think it’s really important that the guys around them see them earn it through the course of training camp," continued Heupel. "We don’t have a set timeline on when we want to announce somebody as our starter. Once somebody earns that opportunity, then they’ll be named that guy."
That's undoubtedly a message that Heupel has shared with his team behind closed doors. But I think it was important that he made that comment publicly, too. He's essentially holding himself accountable for whatever quarterback decision is made later this summer.
Now, that doesn't mean that he's going to get it right. Maybe the guy who wins the job doesn't play well on Saturdays and the next guy in the competition ends up getting a shot. You never really know if you have the right guy until real games are played (as we saw with Joe Milton and Hendon Hooker in 2021).
The starting quarterback in the first game of the season, though, will have that honor because he earned it in front of the whole team, not because of a backroom conversation or promise.
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How is Tennessee always involved?
