Joshua Josephs opting out of Music City Bowl for draft preparations

Tennessee LEO Joshua Josephs is opting out of the Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl and is turning his attention to preparations for the NFL Draft.

The senior from Georgia has been battling a myriad of bumps and bruises the last six weeks or so and is focusing on being 100 percent for workouts for his draft stock. 

Josephs finished the season with 33 tackles, six tackles for loss and four sacks. Josephs recorded his four sacks in the first five games of the season. After a nine-tackle performance at Mississippi State, Josephs had just 11 tackles the last seven games and only a .5 tackle for loss. 

Josephs finishes his career with nine sacks, 22 tackles for loss and 104 total tackles as he appeared in 48 games in his career.

While putting up good numbers, Josephs has made it clear what he expects of himself and has never been too publicly shy about criticizing his game. 

“I feel like everyone should be hard on themselves,” the defender said this fall. “We should be our biggest critics. I don’t feel like I’m too hard on myself.”

Pro Football Focus has Josephs as the highest rated Vol defender, but Josephs has always said there’s more to his game as he has challenged himself to improve. 

“I really feel like there’s a lot more I should have done out there that I still hold over my head. I’m still trying to move on from it. So, I still feel like I have something to prove,” Josephs said. 

Josephs will certainly get his opportunity to prove himself at the next level with upcoming NFL workouts, something he’s getting a jumpstart on this month. 

Without the Georgia native, Tennessee’s LEO’s room is small with Caleb Herring and Jordan Ross, who’s been bothered by a lingering hamstring. 

Tennessee will play on December 30th in the Music City Bowl against Illinois.