Josh Heupel’s Tennessee football team finished off their Knoxville portion of bowl preparations before heading home for Christmas.
The team will assemble Christmas night in Nashville to continue their preparations for Purdue and the Music City Bowl.
One of the growing issues facing bowl games and teams is COVID-19 outbreaks. Texas A&M said they didn’t have enough players to play Wake Forest in the Taxslayer Bowl and cancelled earlier today.
Heupel said over 90% of his team was vaccinated and some have gotten the booster shot as well. As his team left Knoxville, they were not dealing with any COVID issues.
“COVID protocols, it doesn’t matter what time of the year it is, obviously there’s been a spike just in our general population,” Heupel said. “You’re always concerned about that because it deals with just the safety of your football team. I think our vaccination rate is up above 90 percent. Some guys have gotten boosters – I don’t know the number of guys that have – but we’re in a good spot right now. Really haven’t had many issues with it, but as you disperse and players go home and they come back, all of those things, you’re concerned about all of them.”
Unvaccinated players continue to be regularly tested and will be tested 48 hours before competition.
CORNERBACK BY COMMITTEE; MAYS STATUS STILL UP IN THE AIR
With Alontae Taylor opting out of the bowl game due to a nagging foot injury, the competition at the cornerback spot opposite of Warren Burrell has been open this month. Defensive coordinator Tim Banks was non-committal last week on who would get the starting nod. Heupel was much the same on Wednesday indicating it might be by committee.
“Bunch of guys that have repped at it,” Heupel said of where things stood. “Have a chance to see multiple guys play there. You know, you’ve seen during the course of the season guys be down and the next guy steps up and has performed really well, so I expect good things from the guys that are out there on the 30th.”
As for right tackle, that’s up in the air as well. Cade Mays hasn’t practiced this month as he battles the ankle injury leaving Dane Davis and Jeremiah Crawford to get the work. Heupel wouldn’t rule Mays out of the bowl game saying it’s just a wait and see deal.
“Cade continues to get better,” Heupel said. “(He) hasn’t gotten a ton of work here at home. We’ll see where he’s at when we get to the bowl site. He continues to get better.”
NEWCOMERS HEADS SPINNING BUT LEARNING
The Vols have had 6 mid-term enrollees going through bowl practice the last 4-6 workouts. NCAA rules prohibit those guys from going to the bowl site to continue to practice so their are headed home until mid-January when the spring semester starts. Even though their work was limited, Heupel said it was beneficial for all of them.
“First of all, they’re getting thrown right into the middle of it,” Heupel said. “We’ve been working with our players for 11 months for them to be where they’re at in understanding our scheme, right? The great benefit for them is they get introduced to the team, get introduced to what the culture is on the football side of it in the meetings and on the practice field. They get a ton of individual work. To me, in these four days— or maybe it’s six days, depending as they all kind of came in at different times—they get great exposure. Now they have three and a half weeks to go back home. They’ll work out a little bit. They get accustomed to what we’re doing in the weight room, so they have a chance to take some of that back home with them. When they come back, I think it just creates great comfort in coming here. They’ve already been introduced into their position groups. They know all the guys and surely have sat in the meeting room with them, hung out with them. I think it just eases the transition when they get back as well.”
A BALANCING ACT
As Tennessee gathers in Nashville, the focus is on playing and winning the game, but there’s also a balancing act to having some fun.
“It’s different for us. We don’t have afternoon meetings. We elongate our morning meetings a little bit to cover up what happened in the previous practice and our situations that we’re going into that day. When it’s football time, we’ve got to be dialed in and be into that moment, truly focus on what’s important in that moment. When you’re done with the football side of it, your players have to enjoy that bowl experience, too. Enjoying it is a part of being ready to go play and do it the right way at the end of the week, too.”
One of the other concerns is the lay off from playing. What’s the rust factor when you haven’t played football in a month. It’s long been a worry for coaches and Heupel acknowledges he has those long standing concerns.
“Yeah, for sure. You watch bowl games, turnovers, penalties rear their head in those games. Rust is a part of that. I think that’s why you got to do a good amount of good-on-good work while you’re here at home, too. Make sure they understand the speed and tempo of the football game. Bowl games are unique in that you got to have some fun and enjoy being around each other, but when you’re in the building that’s football time and you got to be able to lock in. These guys have had really good practices here at home. When you get to the bowl site, you got to be able to manage that in the same way.”
