Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel drops quote that should catch the attention of the national media and the rest of the SEC
The Tennessee Vols, mostly because of their quarterback situation (specifically the departure of Nico Iamaleava back in April), aren't viewed by the national media as a legitimate championship contender in 2025. Nearly every College Football Playoff prediction this offseason has excluded the Vols. There are even some pre-season top 25 rankings that don't include Tennessee. […]
The Tennessee Vols, mostly because of their quarterback situation (specifically the departure of Nico Iamaleava back in April), aren't viewed by the national media as a legitimate championship contender in 2025.
Nearly every College Football Playoff prediction this offseason has excluded the Vols. There are even some pre-season top 25 rankings that don't include Tennessee.
There's essentially no outside pressure on the Volunteers to reach the College Football Playoff for a second straight season. 2025 is basically a mulligan for head coach Josh Heupel and the Vols due to the way the program lost its starting quarterback in the spring (UT will feature an open quarterback competition during fall camp).
Heupel, however, doesn't view the 2025 season as a mulligan at all. If anything, he's as motivated as ever to win a national championship — and that's in large part because of the way Tennessee's season ended in Columbus last December.
Tennessee's head coach admitted on Tuesday at SEC Media Days that the Vols' 42-17 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the College Football Playoff left a bad taste for everyone in the UT football program.
"You want to play here in Atlanta and play for a conference championship, win it, and then get in the playoff and go win that thing, too," said Heupel before his appearance on the main stage at SEC Media Days. "Everybody inside of our program will tell you that the taste that was left in our mouth in December — make sure everybody understands that's not the goal. We want to get in it, but you got to go win. And it's been a part of helping us be challenged every single day throughout the course of the winter, through spring ball, and certainly through the course of the summer."
"Everybody inside of our program didn't like the taste in their mouth as the season finished up in late December," reiterated Heupel on the main stage at SEC Media Days. "That's been a part of spurring us on throughout each quarter of our offseason. It's been a part of how intentional and how focused that we've been throughout the course of the summer."
Vols senior tight end Miles Kitselman shared a similar sentiment while talking with reporters in Atlanta on Tuesday.
"It was a great learning experience," said Kitselman when asked about the loss to Ohio State. "We're not going to cut around corners — it sucked. But at the same time, that's the taste that we have in our mouth right now. And we're going to come out, we're going to play hungry and play fast because of that."
Kitselman added that the surprising departure of Iamaleava in the spring, combined with the bad taste from the loss to Ohio State, has brought the team closer together this summer.
"It was like a random Thursday night and we maybe had 40 or 50 dudes just hanging out at the pool, just getting to know each other," said Kitselman. "And I think that's awesome….you don't see that everywhere. You don't see 50 or 60 guys on a football team come together on a Thursday afternoon and work on our tests that we have — our position tests that we have on Fridays — and just talking ball, getting to know each other, building those connections."
"I think whenever you have something happen, like what we had in the spring (with NIco), you have guys that kind of fall out and don't necessarily buy into it, and then you have a lot of guys that kind of have that chip on their shoulder," added Kitselman when asked what brought the team closer during the offseason. "And I think that everybody has came together on the same page, saying that we're all going to need each other if we want to go out and do what we really want to do."
The fact that national media isn't predicting the Vols to be a championship contender in 2025 isn't disrespectful to Tennessee. It's reasonable considering the questions the Vols have to answer this fall (the QB situation, the new look offensive line, the young wide receiver room, replacing Dylan Sampson, etc).
But at the same time, the ingredients are there for Tennessee to have a great season and contend for a championship. The Vols have elite talent along the offensive line. They have elite talent in the wide receiver room. Tennessee also has plenty of returning studs on the defensive side of the ball. And the Vols have a history of running the ball well under Heupel regardless of who's in the backfield (that's no slight against Sampson — he was elite in 2024).
A lot has to go right for the Vols to contend in 2025. But if everything does go right, then Tennessee will likely be in the mix for a playoff spot.
This team is clearly motivated after losing Nico and losing to Ohio State. And a doubted team that's motivated can be extremely dangerous for the rest of the SEC.
