DALLAS — Omari Thomas adjusted his seat and smiled, salivating during a question centered around Tennessee not being mentioned among conference championship and College Football Playoff contenders at SEC Media Days. As far as he and the rest of the Vols are concerned, the 2024 season can’t get here any faster.
“Our team, we don’t need validation from anyone,” Thomas said Tuesday as his diamond-encrusted “O” chain rested on his chest. “It’s just good to know we come in together and we’ve got each other’s backs. We’re going to be the ones to push ourselves to go to where we want to go and that’s win the national championship.”
Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU and Missouri have all been slotted ahead of Tennessee in most preseason projections across the conference, but only three of those schools have consecutive top-20 finishes like Josh Heupel’s program. The Vols plugged a hole in their offensive line with former LSU offensive tackle Lance Heard and refreshed the back end of the defense with other additions.
James Pearce Jr. returns as college football’s leading edge rusher and the two-deep at wideout as one of the league’s most veteran groups, which means there’s plenty of help to assist Nico Iamaleava in his transition to Tennessee’s starting quarterback role.
Still, the Vols aren’t going to be slotted in the SEC’s elite-tier by media at the end of the week in Dallas, most choosing to go with the glitz and glamour of Lane Kiffin’s portal sweepstakes roster at Ole Miss and the behemoths at the top with Georgia and Texas.
Linebacker Keenan Pili, who said he’s rarely on social media and doesn’t pay attention to narratives and offseason projections, welcomes the lack of respect.
“I don’t care if we’re at the bottom. I kind of hope we’re the underdogs,” Pili told 247Sports. “I hope there’s no hype. We want to earn that every day. I think at the end of the day, that’ll help us on Saturdays, being the underdogs.”
Heupel has 20 wins over the last two seasons and had Tennessee in control of its own playoff destiny in 2022 entering the final stretch prior to losses to Georgia and South Carolina. Last fall, Tennessee was 5-1 and creeping toward the top 10 before a setback at Alabama preceded letdowns against Georgia and Missouri that pushed the Vols out of the conference title hunt.
That’s in the rear view with the 2024 Vols focused on making a playoff appearance for the first time in program history.
“I think we expect to be at the top of anything that we do. Every week we go out there, we expect to win,” Tennessee offensive lineman Cooper Mays said.
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Tennessee will be one of college football’s national talking points if the Vols are able to get through September unscathed, including wins over NC State and Oklahoma. According to the trio of veterans Heupel brought with him to SEC Media Days, that’s the plan.