Vols coach makes statement that will get Tennessee fans fired up ahead of 2023 season
The Tennessee Vols' coaching staff should be feeling pretty about themselves after the 2022 season. Tennessee's current coaching staff is the first staff to oversee an 11-win season in Knoxville since 2001 when the Vols went 11-2 under Phillip Fulmer. But despite the impressive season for the Vols in 2022, no one on Tennessee's coaching […]
The Tennessee Vols' coaching staff should be feeling pretty about themselves after the 2022 season.
Tennessee's current coaching staff is the first staff to oversee an 11-win season in Knoxville since 2001 when the Vols went 11-2 under Phillip Fulmer.
But despite the impressive season for the Vols in 2022, no one on Tennessee's coaching staff is patting themselves on the back. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
Vols special teams coordinator/linebackers coach Mike Ekeler met with reporters on Thursday following Tennessee's last "normal" spring practice (the final practice will be Saturday's Orange and White spring game).
And Ekeler made it clear that the 2022 season wasn't good enough for the Vols.
"The expectation — Coach Heupel said it when we got here — is to be the best," explained Ekeler. "That's the standard. Last year, we were ranked second in the SEC. That's not good enough. We got the talent in that room to do it, and it's just a matter of, you have to go earn it."
"That's what our focus has been on, is finding those ways to just continue to push the envelope, get better, and continue to teach it better, continue to drill it better. Just so our guys understand the concepts. We have worked our tails off, but that's our job. We are not going to stop until we are the best."
No one expected the Vols to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff last season.
Tennessee, after all, is just two years removed from a major recruiting scandal that left the Vols' roster depleted.
Josh Heupel, his staff, and his players, however, never used the depleted roster or the recruiting scandal as an excuse. They never said that rebuilding the program would take years. Instead, they entered the 2022 season with a goal of winning the SEC and reaching the playoff. They came up short of their goal, but they got closer than anyone imagined they would.
Still, that wasn't good enough for Heupel and his staff.
The program took a massive step forward in 2022, but Tennessee's coaches won't be celebrating until the Vols bring a natty back to Knoxville.
