Overlooked play from Tennessee's win against Chattanooga shows how Vols have a championship culture under Josh Heupel

Most of the headlines from the Tennessee Vols' 69-3 blowout win against the Chattanooga Mocs last weekend centered on the play of quarterback Nico Iamaleava and UT's impressive group of wide receivers.

And deservedly so.

Iamaleava looked poised and in total control of Tennessee's offense in his first home start. And the Vols' deep group of wide receivers looked dangerous. There's plenty for Tennessee fans to be excited about this fall.

The offensive explosion, however, wasn't shocking. We assumed all offseason that Tennessee's offense would be prolific with Iamaleava under center. Saturday's performance simply served as confirmation.

Overlooked play from Tennessee's blowout win against Chattanooga shows exactly what kind of culture Josh Heupel has built

There was a play in the fourth quarter of the Vols' win against the Mocs that didn't get replayed on SportsCenter. And it didn't get hyped after the game. But it showed exactly what kind of culture Josh Heupel has built in Knoxville.

In the fourth quarter, with Tennessee leading 55-3, backup quarterback Gaston Moore threw an interception that looked like it was going to be returned for a touchdown.

Redshirt freshman wide receiver Nathan Leacock, however, prevented the score from happening.

Leacock, a former four-star recruit who hasn't seen a lot of playing time for the Vols since arriving at UT, showed tremendous effort by tracking down the defender and tackling him out bounds before he could reach the end zone.

Chattanooga would miss a field goal a few plays later.

If Chattanooga scores there, Tennessee still ends up winning 69-10 and everyone likely forgets that the interception even happened. It would've been easy for Leacock to shrug it off. But instead, he played like the scoreboard said 0-0. That's a championship mindset. And when your backup players who aren't in the starting rotation have that kind of mindset, it means your culture is incredibly strong.

By the way, it wasn't just Leacock who showed great effort on that play. Moore and true freshman running back Peyton Lewis were also in hot pursuit.

I'm sure Heupel didn't like the interception, but he had to love the effort he saw from his players.

Related: Rutgers HC Greg Schiano started the 2024 season off by angering former Tennessee Vols assistant coach