KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee football has begun its preparations for the Music City Bowl against Purdue on Dec. 30 at Nissan Stadium n Nashville.
Head coach Josh Heupel spoke on Saturday for the first time since the bowl game was announced, and the team seems ready for this upcoming challenge.
"Our guys in this program are extremely excited," he said. "We were looking forward to and somewhat hoping that would be the destination we were going to be in."
Heupel said he's hoping to see a lot of orange in the stands with the game being so close to Knoxville.
The team has been on the recruiting trail hard since the end of the regular season, which Heupel said has gone well. He hopes his bowl game will help lay a foundation for more recruiting ties in the future.
He said he hopes it will be a good chance to meet some Vols for Life in the area and also donors.
The team has had a couple of practices since their last game against Vanderbilt, but now things will ramp up more less than three weeks away until game day.
He hopes to get guys fresh going into the final game of the season.
"We'll reset, get some guys healthy, get them as healthy as you possibly can as we get into the meat and potatoes of our bowl preparation," he said.
The Vols will work on getting back to the tempo they're accustomed to as well in the coming weeks.
Game time for the Music City Bowl is at 3 p.m. and the game will be broadcasted on ESPN.