Vols head coach Josh Heupel has a great take on why he loved playing on the road as a player
The Tennessee Vols have two games remaining this season and both of those matchups (against South Carolina this weekend and against Vanderbilt next weekend) will take place on the road. Tennessee played its final home game of the season this past weekend against Missouri (a 66-24 win for UT). The Vols will encounter a hostile […]
The Tennessee Vols have two games remaining this season and both of those matchups (against South Carolina this weekend and against Vanderbilt next weekend) will take place on the road.
Tennessee played its final home game of the season this past weekend against Missouri (a 66-24 win for UT).
The Vols will encounter a hostile environment in Columbia against the Gamecocks. South Carolina's had a rough couple of weeks, but Williams-Brice Stadium still provides one of the more electric environments in college football.
Fortunately for Tennessee, head coach Josh Heupel loves playing on the road.
It's something he's loved since his days as a player.
Heupel was asked during Vol Calls this week if he enjoyed road games as a player.
“Yeah, man, it’s like you against everybody, you know what I mean," said Heupel. "You against everybody. There’s something different when you walk into that visitor locker room after you get a win and you know it was just the guys in that room.”
It's not a surprise that Heupel has that kind of confidence. This is the quarterback who famously told Oklahoma's sports information director in the summer before the 2000 season that the Sooners were going to the Orange Bowl (the national championship game).
Oklahoma was coming off a 7-5 season and they were far from national championship contenders. Heupel, however, didn't care about any of that — he knew his team could compete (sounds a lot like Tennessee this season).
As for playing at South Carolina, I imagine Heupel's confidence will transfer to the players — especially after not playing well on the road against Georgia a few weeks ago.
There's no doubt the Vols had some trouble in Athens. But I think that's out of their system now (they just hadn't been in a road environment that loud before). I'd look for them to mirror their head coach's confidence this weekend in Columbia and play as well as they have all season.
Featured image via Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
