Josh Heupel and The Vols will not be overlooking Kent State

While Tennessee recorded a big statement win against a ranked NC State over the weekend, many teams across the country struggled with lesser competition. Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois at home, USF gave Alabama all they wanted before the Crimson Tide pulled away in the 4th quarter, Penn State beat Bowling Green by a mere 3 points, and Oklahoma looked abysmal on offense as they squeaked by Houston by a score of 16-12. These teams were heavy favorites and looked unprepared and unfocused while facing teams they should have blown out.

This shows that no college football win is guaranteed and must be earned. Josh Heupel alluded to this fact in his Monday presser.

“You can go back and look at the scores from across America each week and there’s examples of guys that didn’t prepare, didn’t practice right, didn’t have the right competitive spirit to go take advantage of the next opportunity. There’s a lot of work that goes into it. We started in mid-January. You better have the right mindset. There’s very few opportunities, this is our next one. Gotta be ready to go take advantage of it. Our players, our coaches this morning, were able to show them areas that we have to get better in and you know, that started today for us.”

Tennessee is only 5 years removed from the infamous game against Georgia State where the brilliant Jeremy Pruitt led the Vols to a 38-30 loss while being a double-digit favorite. It showed the cracks in the Pruitt program that finally came crashing down in late 2020, but thankfully it led to a coach in Josh Heupel that won’t let his team be unprepared for any opponent.

With Tennessee now being the 7th-ranked team in the country and the hype train gaining momentum, expectations now change. If Tennessee were to go out Saturday night and struggle with Kent State at all it would be extremely disappointing. However, I highly doubt that happens and it’s because of the culture in Heupel’s program. In all likelihood, this will turn into a tune-up game for Oklahoma on the 21st, but I guarantee that is not the way Heupel is approaching it. His main goal will be to pound the Golden Flashes into submission, and I would bet my mortgage that is exactly what will happen Saturday night.