KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Josh Heupel’s former teammates, wide receivers Antwone Savage and Damian Mackey, are not surprised their former quarterback joined the coaching ranks following his playing career. They’re also not surprised he has been able to turn the Tennessee program around as quickly as he has.
"Heupel came from Snow Junior College to Norman my redshirt freshman year and turned things around that soon as well. Heupel is a leader, he's a leader of me and he has high expectations and standards, or he did, of us," Mackey said.
Even though Heupel was an upperclassman as a transfer, he stayed in the freshman dorms with Mackey and Savage. Those high expectations meant wanting to get to work, no matter the time or the weather.
"Heupel would be like, 'Hey D-Mac let's go catch balls,'" Mackey said. "I'm like, 'Bro, it's February. It's 2 p.m.,' and he's like, 'Let's go catch balls.' So you go out there in the cold, 9 a.m., 6 p.m."
"He was a real stickler about how to run the offense," Savage said. "He taught me the game to the point where before the ball was snapped, we knew where the ball was supposed to go. He just made the game fun for me because it wasn't about me just making plays, it was about learning the x's and o's at the same time."
And Heupel's work ethic and belief in his team were contagious, especially coming from someone as genuine as he is.
"Heupel is who he is," Mackey said. "I think he would have a bad poker face if he was trying to finesse something. It just works well for people knowing what you see is what you're going to get."
