Josh Heupel stresses importance of leadership council to Tennessee culture

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel knows he can’t be the only leader on the Volunteers’ football team. Last week, Heupel revealed how he relies on the team’s “leadership council” to reinforce the program’s culture.

“What it takes to be successful on a Saturday afternoon or evening hasn’t changed,” Heupel said. “You get between the white lines, the game has not changed. Outside of it, there’s been dramatic changes over the last four or five years. The standards of who we got to be and how we compete and grow together as a team, that can’t change.

“I love the leadership and the accountability piece of what we have inside of our building. The challenge is to continue to grow that through the course of the season… Sometimes that can take a step back if you’re not intentional on it. It’s really important as young guys come into your program, the older guys are essentially being a big brother to those guys, and helping them grow and understand what it takes to be successful at this level, what it takes to be a Tennessee Volunteer. And I think we’ve built a group of guys inside that team room that care about each other.”

Heupel built the leadership council to accomplish this very goal, and he’s already seen them take significant action this offseason. Heupel revealed the leadership council had a large say in how the program handled defensive back Boo Carter missing several mandatory team activities.

Several of the team leaders reportedly confronted Carter when initially missed the team activities, as well. Tennessee received a harsh lesson in the importance of leadership this offseason when quarterback Nico Iamaleava left the program reportedly due to an NIL dispute.

Now, Heupel is focusing even more on building strong leaders out of his players. At the 2025 SEC Media Days, senior tight end Miles Kitselman provided more details about Tennessee’s leadership council.

“There’s maybe 15 of us on the leadership (council) and then we have some ’shadow warriors’ that are some young guys coming up, and every Wednesday we have a meeting and it’s all about are we all on the same page,” Kitselman said.

“… When you have 30 guys on a team that are all leaders, and when one person calls another person out, if that person starts talking back or whatever it is, you’ve got 30 guys coming back saying, ’Hey, no, you’re wrong, he’s right, let’s go, that’s not the standard.’ So it’s incredibly easy whenever you know you have guys like that that have your back.”