NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee football tight end Jacob Warren grew up a Tennessee fan. His dad wore No. 78 at Tennessee.
The Farragut alum represented the Vols at SEC Media Days on Thursday in Nashville.
“It’s huge,” Warren said. “I guess no better person than representing the hometown guy. The legacy guy, super senior. I like to call it the guy that leads the team and don’t give myself that credit a lot. I do think I really deserve to be here. I’m super happy that I have the opportunity.”
Warren is going into his sixth year as a tight end at Tennessee and his first year with a new tight end coach Alec Albeln. Warren, himself, has turned into a secondary coach behind Abeln in the tight end room.
“t’s cool to be able to be in that spot where I’ve seen enough and I’ve played enough, had enough coaches and all these things where I can help the younger guys out a little bit,” Warren said. “I can have this understanding of the playbook that it’s a little bit deeper than maybe some others. But at the same time, there’s so many things that I don’t know that I need to learn that I love hearing from Abe’s, just his perspective of the new things that we’re putting in and how to do this or how this footwork or whatever it may be.”
Warren takes over the role of starting tight end in Tennessee’s offense in 2023. After being in Heupel’s offense for several seasons, he is now even more comfortable with the season.
Teaching the younger players the offense and running in it himself has allowed Warren to thrive in the tight end role.
“I think that you just naturally build it over time, maybe a few months,” Warren said of his understanding in the offense. “It took me a few months for sure. And then you get into the first season and you kind of work some things out and watch film and you’re like, ‘That’s not really what it’s supposed to look like.’ And then trying to figure out what that means for you. Like, how do I play the game versus (Princeton Fant)? It’s a lot different, right? We have different bodies, different styles, different things that we’re good at. So, being able to take things that he does and kind of implement it in my game and then being able to learn from my own mistakes has definitely built a lot of comfortability and confidence.”
