KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee football began fall practices on Wednesday ahead of the 2023 season.
The Vols are a month away from their season opener against Virginia, which will take place on Sept. 2 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
The players didn't wear pads as per usual in week one of fall camp. Head coach Josh Heupel said the goal was for his team to stay healthy and see guys have developed since they last hit the field. He was pleased with how both went.
"Great first day, tons of energy as you would anticipate," he said. "We need to keep that energy up as we go through training camp. "
Heupel said the spirit of competition has been at a good level through summer workouts and also on the first day of fall practices.
"That's in how they are preparing their bodies and in the meeting room too," Heupel said. "There is a heightened sense of competitiveness. There are a lot of guys in the building that look like them and have the athletic traits they do, too. Felt that all offseason and felt that today too."
Heupel said that practice was clean in retaining information from spring football and summer workouts.
"My expectations were when we got out there today that they were dramatically different players than what they were in spring ball, in particular our young guys," he said. "I thought today you could see them retain and execute at a higher level fundamentally offensively, defensively and in our special teams as well."
