Tennessee HC believes high expectations can fuel the Volunteers

There's a lot riding on the line for the Tennesee Volunteers in 2024.

Head coach Josh Heupel has become one of the better coaches in college football — having gone 27-12 over three seasons at Rocky Top with a 2-1 bowl game record — and the hype around starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava is real.

As such, the expectation for Tennessee is that they at least make the now-expanded 12-team College Football Playoffs, but they may be even bigger than that amongst the fan base.

With expectation comes pressure, but that's not something Heupel is worried about. In fact, he believes his locker room can feed off it. Expectations are always high at Tennessee, anyhow.

“That’s just the way you want it. That’s why you come to Rocky Top,” he said at SEC Media Days (h/t On3 ). “They do care, 365 days out of the year. The expectations outside of the building are never going to be higher than what they are inside of our room. Yeah, and our guys in today’s landscape, you don’t block out the noise. But you can be intentional on what you let live in your headspace, versus moving it out of your headspace, and for us, this group has been really good at how intentional they are in their work habits."

Heupel explained that for his players, the pressure should lead to consistency.

“Every single day, on the practice field during spring ball, in the weight room, just the consistency of it, and that’s where success lies," he explained.

That said, even though Tennessee has lofty goals for 2024, neither he nor Iamaleava nor any of the other players on the team can get ahead of themselves.

'You have long-term goals, dreams, visions. Where you want to get to comes down to being where your feet are, and winning that moment.”

For Tennessee, "that moment" starts on Aug. 31 with a matchup against Chattanooga.