Tennessee legend Peyton Manning spoke to the Vols inside the locker room named after him on Wednesday before the Vols scrimmage at Neyland Stadium.
The scrimmage was closed to the media, but Tennessee football tweeted a video of a portion of Manning's talk:
"That's how you win -- you stick together." - Peyton pic.twitter.com/sfvWofLRJm
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) August 17, 2017
Here's what Peyton said to the Vols:
"Don't rush anything. Enjoy the journey, not the destination. You guys have a great opportunity, right? This is an important season, a lot of people looking to see how you're going to respond. A lot of people have already made their assumptions, hey this is what they're going to do. Nobody knows anything. Only you guys know what this team is going to be about. Block out all the noise, put those headphones on that block the noise and stay in-house together. The best teams I was on were the guys that stayed together. We didn't blame each other, we didn't call press conferences, we didn't say, 'I did my part, he didn't do his job,' we stuck together. That's how you win, that's how you get yourself out of a hole if you're in one, you stick together. Coach Jones, I promise you, has your backs, y'all need to have his back. You stick together at all times. That's what being Tennessee's all about. I promise you, I got your back, I'm pulling for you, a lot of guys are. Best of luck, y'all have fun tonight. I'll see ya in Atlanta for Georgia Tech."
Tennessee opens the season on September 4 at 8 p.m. against the Yellow Jackets in the brand new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.