Josh Heupel credits senior class for resilience in careers
Josh Heupel may not have known the Tennessee senior class their entire career, but he has a ton of love for them.
That’s why Saturday’s Senior Day will be a bittersweet moment for Heupel, as he explained on Thursday during his press conference.
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“At the beginning of the week, you kind of questioned this group, like how would they respond, but if you just look at all of the obstacles, the hurdles that this group has gone through, it tells you about the resiliency, their ability to grow and focus, make corrections,” stated Heupel. “The DNA of who each of them are and how they’ve responded to anything that’s been thrown at them in however long it’s been now, 20 months or whatever that I’ve been here. The ability to see them grow. There’s so much that is inside of our building because of who these guys are.
“It’s a class that I’ll remember forever, but a group of guys that accepted me, accepted our staff and allowed us to get out and running very quickly.”
It wasn’t always pretty for the current Volunteers seniors throughout their time in Knoxville, but they couldn’t have asked for a better sendoff then they’re receiving in 2022. No matter how it ends, they’ll be forever remembered for laying the groundwork of Tennessee’s return to relevancy.
Josh Heupel admits Senior Day will be emotional for Tennessee
When Josh Heupel was hired, there was a lot of concern about the future of the Tennessee program. However, in just two seasons, Heupel has turned the Volunteers into a College Football Playoff contender. In no small part, that was because of the seniors on the roster.
While speaking to the media, Josh Heupel spoke about the emotions of Senior Day and how the coaches are going to handle those emotions.
“You try to prepare them,” Josh Heupel said. “You know, it’s unique in that you pause for five minutes before you go back in the tunnel, and it is, you get a chance to see your family, take it in one last time.”
“Obviously, our appreciation as a program and our fans too, to recognize those guys–what they’ve meant, what they’ve done inside of our program,” Josh Heupel continued.
“When you run back in, then you’ve got to reset and it’s got to be just about football for 60 minutes. A year ago, our guys handled that pretty well. It’ll be important that our guys do that here too. A lot of those guys are gonna play a lot of football for us.”
This weekend, Tennessee will host Missouri for Senior Day. Those seniors who are celebrated will still have two regular season road games to play with the Volunteers. However, this will be their last game at Neyland Stadium.