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Josh Heupel Shares Reaction to Vols Moving Season Opener

Tennessee Volunteer Head Coach Josh Heupel shares his reaction to the season-opener being moved to a Thursday night.
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The Josh Heupel era was originally slated to start on Saturday, September 4th, at Neyland Stadium against Bowling Green. The venue and the opposing team remain the same, although the date will now be two days earlier.

Yesterday, Tennessee announced the game will now be played on Thursday, September 2nd at 8:00 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. Following the news, Heupel joined local radio hosts Jimmy Hyam and John Wilkerson to discuss the news.

"Absolutely. Really excited," Heupel said during an interview with "SportsTalk" on 99.1 The Sports Animal. "Our players, I just text-messaged with some of those guys (about it), some of our players are back home right now (because) we've got a couple of weeks off before we start our summer workouts, and those guys are super excited about being able to open up on Thursday night. Hadn't happened much here.

"Obviously national exposure for our program. Going to be great for our fan base to be able to watch us. I think we're the only SEC team playing that night. Just a great opportunity to welcome our fans back into Neyland and an opportunity for us to showcase who we are moving forward as a football program."

The news received mixed reviews from the Tennessee fan base, but the opportunity to grab the spotlight on a Thursday night was too much for Tennessee to too away. There are not many opportunities like this one, where a program can hold the attention of recruits from across the country.

"Any time you consider moving football games to a weekday—which is rare—you want to be sensitive to out-of-town fans who have to make plans to travel to Knoxville," athletic director Danny White said in Tennessee's press release announcing the decision. "In this case, the Labor Day holiday and four-month lead time should help in that regard. Sliding our opener to this Thursday primetime window gave us a wonderful opportunity for our football student-athletes to kick off their season in the national spotlight. This should be a fun way to begin celebrating 100 years of Neyland Stadium while also beginning an exciting new era of Tennessee football under Josh Heupel. I cannot wait to feel the electricity as the Vols come bursting through that T on Thursday night."