Decision to play in 2021 Music City Bowl paved way for Vols' success

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Less than two miles separated the stage where Omari Thomas stood inside the Grand Hyatt hotel in downtown Nashville and the place where Tennessee's 2021 season ended two years ago.

Virtually in the shadow of Nissan Stadium—the site of the 2021 Music City Bowl—the Vols' senior defensive lineman spoke at SEC Media Days on Thursday about the school's decision to play in that game, despite an on-going NCAA investigation that possibly threatened a postseason ban in the near future.

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It would have made sense for Tennessee to skip out on playing Purdue. A self-imposed ban may have made the punishment for severe recruiting violations committed by the previous coaching staff more lenient. The Vols would have also avoided a crushing end to an otherwise promising season.

But Tennessee played and despite a loss that ended on a controversial goal line stand, the program was the better for it.

"(Playing in the bowl game) was big. It was big," Thomas said. "That was my first bowl game. Just to be in that situation, I enjoyed it a lot and I understand that coach (Josh Heupel) really pushed for us and really wanted us to get the best out of that year and I really feel like it just shows who he is and the people we have at Tennessee in our administration. We're just all family and we wanted the best for everybody in the facility."

When Josh Heupel took the head coaching job in January 2021, the mass exodus to the transfer portal had already begun. Tennessee ended up losing 35 players, leaving the team with 65 scholarship players by the fall.

"The easiest thing would have been for our administration and me, too, is to take a bowl ban in year 1, but that wasn't right," Heupel said. "The guys that were left were innocent guys and new staff. There's nobody left from that administration in our athletic department to the football side of it, football staff, to our players that was really involved. And so it was right to compete and give those guys an opportunity to fulfill or have an opportunity to fulfill all of the things that they wanted to inside of a college football season for those guys that were going out..appreciate our administration and everybody fighting for those guys."

Tennessee followed up that bowl game with its best season in more than 20 years.

Those players that stayed, mixed in with a number of their own transfer portal additions that included record-breaking quarterback Hendon Hooker, won 11 games, earned the Vols their first No. 1 ranking in the College Football Playoff Top 25 and beat Florida, LSU, Alabama and Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

"After that (2021) season, everyone was like, 'OK, we can do something really special here,'" Thomas said. "We didn't really believe in ourselves, but now we expect it. We come in everyday, knowing what we've got to do, knowing how to attack the day and knowing we can't get complacent."

Now there is expectation.

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Tennessee football takes the stage at SEC Media Days

Tennessee enters the 2023 season with reason to believe it can compete for the SEC Eastern Division and more.

That was the common theme in Nashville this week—the goal of getting to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, which Tennessee finished short of last season. Now the Vols can pursue it without the cloud of an NCAA investigation hanging over it after last Friday's ruling, which included fines and scholarship reductions, but no bowl ban.

"When we first got here two years ago, we never set a ceiling on what we could accomplish," Heupel said. "Those guys have been our guys, my guys from the very beginning. It's been a huge part of why we've grown as quickly as we have. (Playing in the bowl game) was absolutely the right thing to do."

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