While Tennessee’s new defensive staff additions garnered a lot of attention during the offseason, one of UT’s most important hires over the last few months has been head strength coach Derek Owings. The former Indiana assistant helped build the Hoosiers’ national championship roster over the last few seasons, and Tennessee is hoping that Owings can now lay the foundation for the Vols moving forward.
There’s been a lot of talk from the Tennessee media about Owings’ impact this offseason on the training field and in the weight room, and head coach Josh Heupel doesn’t think it’s unwarranted.
“I don’t think it’s overhyped,” Heupel said during an SEC Media Days press conference. “D.O. and his staff, from the moment they arrived after the national championship game, done a great job in building trust and relationships with our players. Our guys are fully bought into the process of what it takes. I think his consistency and accountability- how they have to approach it, winning a single rep, a single set- that consistency will pay dividends during the course of the regular season.”
After just a few workouts under Owings back in January, Tennessee running back DeSean Bishop said that the team had been “put through the fire a little bit.” But Bishop also said that was exactly what the team needed at the start of the offseason.
“As much as anything, him spearheading nutrition, training room, everybody being in sync, the growth that our players have seen from mass, explosive power, speed, and acceleration, the tangible differences that they’ve seen, our players are fully bought into it,” Heupel continued on to say. “Have seen great changes and are excited about what work they’ve put in and the benefit of that.”
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In the days leading up to SEC Media Days, a video of Bishop went viral online for looking significantly bigger and stronger while working at a youth camp. Bishop confirmed on Monday that Owings’ workouts have put him in good shape heading into the season.
“Simple way to put it, he’s putting us to work. Honestly,” Bishop said. “He’s just allowing us to get after it, pushing us to our ultimate limits. Getting us bigger, stronger, and faster, anything you can think of. It’s been a privilege to just get to know him as a whole, being part of a dude that won the national championship last year, to see what he learned, taking notes from what those guys did over there. It’s been good just to be around him and get to know him better as a human.”
When asked if Owings had gotten him bigger, stronger, and faster, Bishop didn’t need to think about his answer.
“I’d like to think he has,” Bishop said with a laugh. “Just putting on a lot of muscle this year. Coming into this year, just continuing to get stronger and faster day by day.”
Owings comes to Tennessee with a proven system, based on stats and data, that he believes in. And from what the Vols’ players said about it during spring camp, it sounds like they believe in it too. His system is designed to put the right muscles on the right players, get certain guys to certain target weights to be most effective during the season, and ultimately have each player performing at their best throughout the course of the rugged season.
It was a big move that Tennessee made this offseason, and looks to be one that’s already paying off for the Vols as the team heads into fall camp next month.
