Josh Heupel likes Tennessee's newcomers, but expectations remain the same

A lot has changed for Tennessee football since New Year's Day. The expectations haven't.

Roster movement was already well underway before the Vols played Iowa in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. It was followed by even more after Tennessee capped its 2023 season.

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Josh Heupel was tasked with replacing a number of losses in the secondary and a few at wide receiver. That's where the Vols used the transfer portal to their advantage, snagging defensive back Jermod McCoy from Oregon State and Jakobe Thomas from MTSU.

On offense, Tennessee added Tulane wide receiver Chris Brazzell II and tackle Lance Heard from LSU, both of which are expected to be immediate contributors.

That crop of newcomers, including some early enrollees that have been with the team since bowl preparations in December, took the field for the first of 15 spring practices on Monday.

“That’s a different team than it was at the bowl game. There’s a lot of guys that are here with us," Heupel said. "Obviously December is a different month, whatever it might be...Every year, it’s always been true, but certainly rosters turn over more frequently at this point and this time in college football. So it’s a process. It’s a journey. You can’t short change it, you can’t cut it. And for us, strength and conditioning, the accountability factor, being intentional and trying to develop leadership, communication from within the locker room. I thought our guys handled that extremely well. Grew throughout it. Some great days, some tough days that we had to learn from, too. But that’s all part of the process and the journey.

"What I do like about this group is that they do compete extremely hard. They care about one another and they’re willing to get coached. And today is just the beginning of the on-field stuff for everybody in the building."

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Our observations from Day 1 of Tennessee football spring camp

Tennessee's current roster features a mix of everything. There's returning leadership, most notably at quarterback in Nico Iamaleava who is now the Vols' unquestioned starter at the position.

The offensive line is as experienced as any in college football and even bigger, too with the addition of the 6-foot-6, 325-pound Heard. The same could be said about the defensive front, which returns arguably one of the most explosive playmakers in the SEC in edge rusher James Pearce Jr.

There's plenty of questions, too but that's what the next month is for.

For Heupel, there isn't too much of a difference in newcomer and veteran player when it comes to expectations, especially for the transfers who are picking up their careers in a new spot after playing elsewhere.

“You see urgency from everybody that’s putting helmet on, going out to practice. I don’t care how long you’ve been playing," Heupel said. "The best in the game are always working on their craft. It’s Hall of Famers, 15-year vets. Same at this level, man. There’s constant growth and all our guys got areas that our strength staffs pinpointed, our coaches have pinpointed in areas that they got to get better at. So continuing to compete every day.

"Guys that compete the hardest and the do it the longest are typically the ones that win out. That’s true in a position battle, it’s true when you get out in the field on Saturday afternoon, too.”

Brazzell is among the newcomers battling for a starting spot.

At Tulane, the 6-5 Brazzell caught 44 passes for 711 yards and five touchdowns last season. He averaged nearly 17-yards per catch and was one of the top available wide receiver prospects in the transfer portal by the end of last year.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Takeaways from Tennessee's first day of spring football practice

Brazzell joins a wide receivers room that returns Bru McCoy, Squirrel White and Dont'e Thornton. Nathan Leacock, Chas Nimrod and Kaleb Webb saw a lot of reps last season because of injuries and highly touted freshmen Mike Matthews and Brandon Staley have been on campus since before the bowl game.

Brazzell is still a young player himself, preparing for his redshirt sophomore season, but he has been embraced since he stepped foot on campus.

“We’ve been really fortunate building a culture where the vets want good players around and want to help them grow," Heupel said. "And that happens because of the position coaches that we have inside of those rooms. The culture that they set inside of those rooms. It happens because of the locker room. So for Chris, all the veteran guys that have been in this one, they help them grow just in how to play the game within the game. For us, the mechanics, how to process, can be specific routes. But they also help them, just the culture of the building, who we need to be individually and thus collectively as a group.

"And our first quarter of our off season, I said it earlier, we spend a lot of time with leadership and communication and we got good leadership. It’s got to become great leaders and we need to be championship leadership on side of that."

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