Tennessee football has reached its bye week for the first time this season.

As the Vols are off to a 4-0 start, there are still areas head coach Josh Heupel would like to see improved with the week to focus on themselves.

Here's what he wants cleaned up.

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Heupel's main focus with no opponent to cap off the week is on his own program. Without in-depth scouting urgently needed, Tennessee is able to take a self-look at what its weaknesses are and how to improve.

One of the mantra's Heupel has adopted this year is 'good teams continue to get better.' This will ring especially true with the internal focus this week.

The open date on the weekend also opens up time to hit the road to recruit.

"Focusing on us here during the course of this bye week and trying to improve in the areas that we need to," Heupel said. "And there's a lot of ways that we can in all three phases of the game. So, big week for us to continue to get better. You've heard me say it, good teams continue to get better throughout the course of the year. And you know, on the back end of the week, a lot of our staff will be on the road recruiting."

Heupel is clear he wants his team to improve, but what categories does that entail?

The Vols' head coach is satisfied with a lot of areas through four games but is looking at the small details during the bye week.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: WATCH: Josh Heupel, Tennessee football players talk open date

"Communication, you know, two of the phases for sure," Heupel said. "Alignment, assignment and technique. From there, everybody's gotta be tied in together. And there's a lot of good things that we've done here in the early part of the year that we did last Saturday, but there's certainly some areas we gotta get better at."

Different than many previous years, Tennessee has two open dates this season. This one comes early during week five with the next coming between the Alabama and Kentucky games in late October.

While the Vols are certainly happy there is an extra week for players such as Lance Heard, John Campbell Jr. and Boo Carter to recover from prior injuries, it'll be the second one that has more of a focus on the health of the team.

This time, the focus remains on improving.

"It is different. It's been a long time since I've had two during the course of the year," Heupel said. "Early part of it, certainly need to continue to improve fundamentals, technique. As you get to the second one, I'll probably look a little bit more at the health of your roster and being intentional and make sure that you are ready for that."

Tennessee will have the extra week of rest heading into a road clash against Arkasnas. The Razorbacks aren't afforded the same advantage with a matchup against Texas A&M this weekend.

The Vols have played well coming off byes in the past under Heupel and will look to continue the trend in 2024.

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