Josh Heupel addresses weather challenges of playing at Ohio State

The Tennessee Volunteers were hoping to host in the first round of the College Football Playoff. However, it didn’t work out for them and now head coach Josh Heupel needs to have his team prepared to make the trip to Columbus to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Ahead of the game, one major talking point has become how a southern team is going to handle winter weather in the north. However, Heupel is confident that the Volunteers are going to be ready, regardless of how cold it gets.

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“Not sure what the temperature will be up there at night,” Josh Heupel said. “I know it won’t be sunny and 85 [degrees]. We played in 30-degree weather a week ago.”

Tennessee is coming off a game in Nashville to play Vanderbilt at the end of November. That night, the weather did drop into the 30s once the sunset. However, weather predictions for the night of the game list the low temperature as dropping into the 20s for the game against Ohio State. Luckily, it will be mostly clear skies, though there is time for weather patterns to change.

Regardless of the weather, Josh Heupel believes that his team is going to be prepared for the challenge and the focus is going to be on being their best.

“For us, a lot of our practices are in the morning. We’re outside,” Heupel said. “It’ll be similar temperatures to what you’re going to get up there. Our guys got to be able to handle anything that comes at them. That’s weather. It’s outside distractions. It’s us getting ready to go be our best 11 on 11 between the white lines, and we’ll be ready to handle that and operate at a high level.”

The first round of the College Football Playoff being on campus offers a big advantage to schools, in particular, because of the home field advantage that comes with it. Weather, particularly when a southern team needs to travel north, is a major part of that. Still, playing a night game in late December is going to be a new situation for everyone, including the Buckeyes.

Regardless of how prepared Tennessee is going to be for the weather in Columbus, it is still a disappointment for the Volunteers that they ended up the nine-seed, just one slot away from being able to host the game themselves at Neyland Stadium.

Tennessee and Ohio State are currently scheduled to kickoff at 8:00 p.m. EST on December 21st for their first round Playoff game.