Josh Heupel and his 12th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers have their sights set high for his third season.
The NCAA investigation that hung over the program since January 2021 has been resolved, leaving the Vols ready to build on the program's best season since 2001.
"We’ve done a good job of resetting," sixth-year senior tight end Jacob Warren said. "But now the focus is on winning the SEC East and doing everything we can to get ourselves in that position.
Heupel and the Vols are coming off an 11-2 season and a rout of Clemson in the Orange Bowl. Heupel also has more players available after Tennessee voluntarily reduced scholarships the past two seasons, anticipating NCAA punishment.
The Vols haven't won the SEC East since 2007. But Tennessee has sold more than 70,000 season tickets for this season, and Heupel said the best is yet to come.
“(I) don’t know that there’s ever been a better time to be a Vol," Heupel said.
REPLACING HOOKER
A big reason why the Vols believe they can push two-time reigning national champ Georgia in the SEC East can be found at quarterback. They lost Hendon Hooker, now in the NFL with Detroit after tearing his left ACL last November, and replaced him with Joe Milton III.
This is Milton's third season with Heupel, and he is poised to keep the nation's top offense on track after averaging 525.5 yards per game last season. The transfer from Michigan has thrown for 1,346 yards, 12 touchdowns and no interceptions while at Tennessee.
WIDE RECEIVER U
Jaylen Hyatt and Cedric Tillman were among five Vols taken in the NFL draft. Losing two receivers to the NFL might leave a program struggling, but Milton has plenty of targets for an offense that averaged 326.1 yards passing last year.
Redshirt senior Bru McCoy has size at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds. There's also senior Ramel Keyton at 6-3 and 197 pounds. There's also Squirrel White, who Milton says seems to have gotten faster, and Dont'e Thompson, a transfer from Oregon.
New offensive coordinator Joey Halzle can't wait to see what these receivers do with the ball in their hands.
TRANSFER PORTAL
Heupel found lots of help in the portal, including bringing in Thompson and graduate transfer tight end McCallan Castles, who went through Orange Bowl practices before enrolling in January. Castles joins Warren with lots of experience, having started 28 games at UC Davis with 68 catches for 928 yards.
John Campbell Jr. has a sixth year available after five seasons at Miami where he started 16 games at left tackle, one at right tackle and one at left guard.
Linebacker Keenan Pili and defensive back Gabe Jeudy-Lally transferred from BYU. Jeudy-Lally is a graduate student with 23 career combined starts after starting at Vanderbilt. Lineman Omarr Norman-Lott transferred this spring from Arizona State.
Kicker Charles Campbell is back at Tennessee after graduating from Indiana where he made five 50-yard field goals.
DEFENSIVE ISSUES
Tennessee spends so much time on the field playing defense the Vols ranked 91st nationally last year allowing 405.3 yards a game. But the Vols ranked 36th giving up just 22.7 points a game.
Defensive coordinator Tim Banks sees going against the Vols' offense as the best prep possible, noting nobody can win 11 games without playing great defense.
SCHEDULE
The Vols open Sept. 2 in Nashville hosting Virginia. Their toughest road games include trips to Florida on Sept. 16 and to No. 4 Alabama on Oct. 21. They host South Carolina on Sept. 30, No. 23 Texas A&M on Oct. 14 and No. 1 Georgia in what they hope is a showdown for the SEC East on Nov. 18.
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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll
