Hayden Receives Max-Prep Honors, Hears From Tennessee's Head Coach Josh Heupel

Dallan Hayden has continued to wrack up honors this off-season following a junior campaign where he rushed for 2,010 yards and 24 touchdowns. Hayden won Mr. Football at the state of Tennessee's highest level, and he has now racked up another prestigious honor. 

Today, Hayden was honored as a second-team MaxPreps All-American, adding to an already impressive off-season of honors, including being honored as the MaxPreps Player of the Year in Tennessee.

Hayden tweeted about the honor saying: "Blessed to be a MaxPreps All American."

That was not the only highlight of the last 24 hours for Hayden, as he also heard from Tennessee's new head coach, Josh Heupel. 

Hayden said, "He just said he wants to keep guys like me in-state." This is something Heupel put an emphasis on during his introductory press conference. 

"We have to keep kids in our state here. That is for multiple reasons. They are going to come play championship caliber football, they are going to be developed, and they are going to have a chance to move onto the NFL. They are going to get a great degree and they are going to be empowered to live in this state once they are done with that degree," Heupel said during his first public statements as Tennessee's Head Coach. "We have to do that inside of our own borders. That is going to come from me, it has to transcend through our assistant coaching staff, and it has to reside in every Vol fan here inside the state of Tennessee. Everybody has to bring energy and passion."

Following the hire, Hayden shared his thoughts with VR2 saying, "I think it was a good hire. I know a little bit about him. He recruited Chase when he was the OC at Missouri and when he went to UCF, they scored a lot of points and had a lot of production."

Hayden said Heupel shared his thoughts with him about that and how he could fit. "He said that his offense is going to be electric and they are going to put up points," Hayden said of Heupel's message.

Hayden is down to a top-four of Oregon, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Tennessee. He is a Volunteer legacy, and you can see his thoughts about each school in the video above from a recent interview earlier this month.