Josh Heupel Excited To See Where Vols Are At, Headed To

New head coach of the Tennessee Vols Josh Heupel shares a vision with the school, and it's finding a way up the ranks of the SEC East.

A dedicated football program in search of answers, the Vols hired Heupel after bringing on AD Danny White to bring a familiar recipe from UCF to Knoxville. Which we all remember Clay's reaction to:

Also assisting Heupel in the turnaround for Tennessee will be three familiar faces from the UCF days: offensive line coach Glen Elarbee, offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Alex Golesh, and quarterbacks coach Joey Halzale.

As a breath of fresh air for a program with not much to lose, Heupel can't help but get enthusiastic by setting his sights forward and taking in his new home in Tennessee.

“Seeing the growth of our players from the first day that I got here to where we’re at now man, it’s been a great journey. I’m so excited about what they’re doing right now in our summer conditioning and workouts. They’ve had a chance to go through some of our installs and where we’ve gotta chance to progress going through the summer and get ourselves ready to have a great training camp.”

Up for the challenge, Heupel feels the energy in Tennessee that gives the young coach hope for upcoming assignments in the brutal SEC.

“It’s been fantastic having so many kids both official and unofficial visitors on our campus getting a chance to see who they are and them getting to see the energy and culture inside of our building. It’s been awesome just to show them what the new age of Tennessee football is all about.”

As Tennessee looks to Heupel as a beacon for better playing days post-Jeremy Pruitt, a report around SEC coaching circles dropped this week expressing sharp skepticism with the new head coach's ability to recruit talent for his programs.

“My concern with Josh is his ability to recruit in an SEC environment. He has no clue," claimed the anonymous SEC coach. The report went on to challenge Heupel on what he is capable of bringing to the passionate football program. "Hiring (defensive line coach) Rodney Garner helps because he’s one of the founding fathers of SEC recruiting. I don’t know much about (defensive coordinator) Tim Banks from Penn State. It will be interesting to see what he can do with what he has.”

Neyland Stadium is looking forward to hosting a new era under Heupel and will do so with a full capacity stadium after announcing that Knoxville venue will welcome 100% of fans. An early win for Tennessee.