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Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols at 2022 SEC Media Days

By Caleb Calhoun

Jul 21, 2022; Atlanta, GA, USA; The Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel talks to the media on the stage during SEC Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 21, 2022; Atlanta, GA, USA; The Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel talks to the media on the stage during SEC Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports /
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Finally, Tennessee football took the podium on the final day of SEC Media Days. They arrived with cautious optimism surrounding them but presented a humble swagger. Josh Heupel went first, and then Trevon Flowers, Hendon Hooker and Cedric Tillman all followed suit. You can see all the quotes from each of them on stage by clicking here.

Sure, the event is usually just an exciting way to kick off the season, and lots of the details given are generic. However, that wasn’t the case with the Vols here. If you combine the press conferences with the media rounds they did before and after, a good bit was revealed.

From how they feel about national issues to what they are working on for the season to what their personnel looked like, this year’s event told us a decent bit about Rocky Top that we honestly didn’t expect to learn from here. Here are five revelations from Tennessee football’s appearance at 2022 SEC Media Days in Atlanta.

Here’s what we learned from Josh Heupel and the Tennessee football Volunteers at the Southeastern Conference event.

Jul 21, 2022; Atlanta, GA, USA; Tennessee Volunteers player Trevon Flowers speaks to the media during SEC Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 21, 2022; Atlanta, GA, USA; Tennessee Volunteers player Trevon Flowers speaks to the media during SEC Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports /

5. Safeties becoming leaders

When Flowers, who returned for a fifth year to take advantage of the NCAA’s COVID eligibility ruling from the 2020-21 season, was tabbed as the third member to accompany Heupel and the Vols to SEC Media Days, it was clear what’s now becoming expected of him. Quotes from the event made that more clear.

Cedric Tillman noted that Flowers and Jaylen McCollough, technically another senior, are the ones truly leading the defense right now and who everybody is feeding off of. Heupel also said that he’s grown into being a leader in his opening statement. Flowers himself addressed this. Here’s a bit of what he said on the matter.

"“We have a huge role. A lot of the young guys look up to us now, and we just had to bring guys along with us. There are already guys on that side of the ball that understand the standard.”"

This may not be a big deal, but Tennessee football brings with it a lot of questions on defense, particularly pass defense, as it lost Alontae Taylor and Theo Jackson from last year. The leadership of guys like Flowers is crucial, and him appearing to grow into that role with people taking notice does matter.

A huge part of this is Heupel’s focus on finishing. He mentioned that a few times and particularly brought up the defense in situational plays, like third and long, while speaking more in a macro sense like finishing games. All of that falls back on the secondary, so Flowers’ leadership is crucial.

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