As We Wrap Up Fall Training Camp 🎁

Ellie Williamson
Aug 18, 2024
3 min read

.Week 4 of Fall Camp will have no further highlights on film. All the hype and the looks are under wraps, except for what I have seen with my own eyes. So what’s on paper? What do the Vols have cooking as fans of the game head into the longest FBS college football season to date. It will run 149 days from August 24th to January 20th.

Here are 3 things, as we close out fall training camp, that you need to know from my eyes and ears only:

The coaches are establishing themselves as a main character role during fall camp.
10 practices in and the secondary coach, Willie Martinez joined the long list of assistants speaking the same word: Competition.

Coaches don’t get paid enough for what they do to teach this generation how to properly earn and compete, as well as how to prepare their bodies and minds for a game of football. The post football benefits have always been the joy for what happens when a man learns to endure and continue to compete. The clicks and support online is nothing compared to the feeling of winning that battle on the field this fall against your opponent. What is happening now is shaping this team and its healing Tennessee as a University for a better future.

It is what you don’t know that counts. Fall camp started off with lots of looks and excitement. In true Coach Heupel fashion, he locked it down after the second scrimmage for availability at practice, once he saw the outside invasion of this recipe. The rush to get it first is giving coach the last word. We will all see it soon, but it’s important to remember that this offense is shaped in part by former legendary coach Mike Leach. We all know Leach for his candid truths. Coach is standing on his, and has established a small circle headed into this season. Only people in the meeting rooms will help evaluate and prepare. This is never about one person. It’s about the Power T and Coach Heupel is locking it down so that one thing can surface on game day. This team. This offense. This legacy. Just the vibe for me so far in training camp. Don’t expect to see inside that facility for this next week as training camp concludes. Despite preseason camp being in the rearview mirror, competition for playing time and roles in a variety of position groups is at an all-time high. It’s ball season.

His exact quote to the media room yesterday:

"No depth chart being handed out yet," Heupel said on Monday. "As we head into this week, there is still a lot of competition. I have said it to our team since January, our coaches included, I think I have mentioned it to you guys too, we need to have multiple guys ready to play (at every position)."

There is still a sense of urgency. I can only explain it with the speed at which the players come in and out of sessions. They seem to be locked into sharing the best of these times together with urgency. That’s a new speed. One that makes Coach Josh Heupel turn his hat backwards. As the last 5 days of fall camp enter the schedule, there is the same urgency as the first week. The guys in the building are here for a reason. The reason ain’t outside of Anderson. The need for approval is gone and I can tell they are looking inward and not outward for growth during this fall camp. Let’s be real, Vols fans have always been on the outside with a line of support that is unprecedented across college football. That can not be said enough. But being on the inside is just click bait as this team prepares to share the best of their hard work with the fans very soon where it counts most. The passion of a Vol fan leads to many wonderful things. Lately around Rocky Top, the fan support is leading us to expansion and growth like never before. As quickly as you can win, you can also lose. ‘Any Given Sunday’ is a movie that reminds us all, it can be taken away. We don’t have to go too far back to remember those days where urgency led to disappointment. The culture of support for these players and coaches is leading the way for the rest of the work to be done on the inside. Now for the fans to add the “upper deck” of support and allow this season to arrive as one to remember. Because good or bad, we will all remember it.