On Wednesday, Tennessee football got to work for the first time under new director of football sports performance, Derek Owings. The hire was made official on Tuesday, and he quickly went to meet with the team and staff. Now, he’s holding workouts.
Afterward, Tennessee’s social media team released a look-in on what went down in the practice facility. This included a portion of his addressing the team.
“You cannot be soft when you’re going to war,” Owings said. “We’ve got a long way to go. This is day one. We’ll get there, we’ll get there. We got to stack them up, we’ve got to collect ourselves right now and go inside and attack this lift.”
day one in the lab 🧪#GBO 🍊 pic.twitter.com/KS8Ze4vCcc
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) January 21, 2026
putting in work 😤#GBO 🍊 pic.twitter.com/Krg5v2k0Gf
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) January 22, 2026
More From RTI: New Tennessee Strength Coach Derek Owings Pens Letter to Indiana After Championship Season
While it was reported that the deal was in place before the title game, the announcement of the hiring of Owings came just hours after he helped Indiana win the national championship.
Now, he will also be the highest-paid strength and conditioning coach in college football history, according to Matt Zenitz. USC also went after Owings, a 32-year-old, last season, but he turned down the opportunity. The pitch and pay day from Josh Heupel and the Vols was enough to leave the reigning national champions, though.
“Tennessee is one of the most iconic brands in college football,” Owings said when he was hired. “I’m thankful to Coach Heupel for believing in me, and I can’t wait to serve this program, this staff and most importantly, these players on Rocky Top.”
Owings only joined Indiana two years ago when Curt Cignetti got the job, but he’s been with Cignetti for quite some time now. He initially joined his staff in 2020 at James Madison. He previously worked for one season with Heupel at UCF, as well.
