Skip to main content
Tennessee
Join Now

Tennessee football touts muscle gained, fat lost under new strength coach Derek Owings

IMG_3593by: Grant Ramey05/06/26GrantRamey

Tennessee football has quickly seen big changes under new strength coach Derek Owings. The Vols showed off the numbers on social media on Wednesday. 

During a 14-week training program between January and May, Tennessee football players gained a total of 867.3 pounds of muscle. The Vols lost a combined 218.1 pounds of fat. 

A total of 33 players added 11 pounds or more of muscle mass, according to numbers measured by DEXA Scan. 

Tennessee hired Derek Owings away from Indiana

Josh Heupel hired Owings away from Indiana in January, after Owings helped lead the Hoosiers to a perfect 16-0 season and the College Football Playoff national championship.

Indiana beat Miami in the national championship game on January 19 and the Vols had Owings on a flight to Knoxville the next morning. Owings signed his contract with Tennessee six days before the national title game.

“Physical and mental toughness is paramount in everything we do year-round as a program,” Heupel said in a press release announcing the hiring. “No one understands this better at a championship level than Derek. He will elevate our strength and conditioning program with a relentless mindset and forge strong relationships with our players.”

Owings is signed through 2029, with the three-year deal paying $1.2 million annually and making Owings highest strength coach salary in the history of college football. 

“Tennessee is one of the most iconic brands in college football,” Owings said. “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.”  

The title for Owings is director of football sports performance. He brought Josh Huff and Carl Miller with him from Indiana. Huff is the director of applied performance science and Miller is the associate director of football sports performance.

Tennessee also hired Katie O’Connor as director of football nutrition. 

Josh Heupel, Derek Owings were at UCF in 2018

Owings was on staff at Central Florida 2018 as the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the football program when Heupel was in his first season as UCF’s head coach.

He was associate director of strength and conditioning at Texas Tech and director of strength and conditioning at James Madison.

Owings played wide receiver at Eastern Michigan and tight end at Mercer before starting his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Utah State. 

“He has a proven track record of utilizing modern training methods to maximize speed and strength,” Heupel said in January, “while specializing in injury prevention. He also understands what it takes to build an elite nutrition program to ensure our players are set up for on-field success and durability.”