Tennessee Volunteers tight ends Jacob Warren and McCallan Castles took the podium to recap their careers in orange.
Two senior tight ends put together some of their best performances on senior day as the Volunteers bested the Commodores in a 48-24 win inside Neyland Stadium. Afterward, tight ends Jacob Warren and McCallan Castles took to the podium to express their love for the program and what this game meant to them.
Warren spoke about his emotions coming into the game and how he felt. He responded by saying, “Yeah, I think I did a pretty good job kind of holding it together. I think pre-game, I saw my mom, and she was emotional; she was crying, so that kind of got me, but you know. Held it in for the most part, and then we just got done with the alma mater and started walking back towards the field or towards the locker room to see all of the people.
That just means a lot to me. Walking by him (McCallan Castles), walking by Joe [Milton], just walking by a lot of people that have had a pretty big part in my development, but also just my enjoyment of this process and this whole last year. So that’s kind of definitely what got me, but you know, it’s good to be emotional, I think. Let it out a little bit; it just shows that you care and that this really meant something to me and a lot of people around me, so yeah, it was great.”
The transfer senior tight end Castles also compared his experiences with Tennessee to those of his past teams. He goes on to say, “Obviously, I wasn’t here for the whole time, but I came here for the football, but I always remember the people. This has been the best college football experience I’ve ever been a part of. I mean, this is my best friend right here (Jacob Warren). I spend every day with him just growing, but you know, I’ve never felt like I belonged more in the college football space than I have here, and I’ve made multiple stops, so I just think that speaks to the culture that these guys have built here with Heupel, and it’s a great place. Like, Tennessee is where you want to be to play football.”
Warren then talks about his decision to return for his final year of eligibility and how it was different during this senior day compared to last season. He also advises the seniors who do have the option to return to Tennessee by saying, “I think last year, at the same time, senior night was the moment that I realized that I wasn’t done and that I wanted to come back.
I think that was big for me because the emotions I felt tonight were a lot different than the emotions I felt last year, just understanding that I could have come back and ended up in which I did come back. I would just encourage them to listen to themselves. You know, if they have a feeling or have emotions about it, listen to yourself. Listen to your heart. It was really hard for me to come to terms with what I felt and what I was thinking I needed to do, and man, I just paved my way through it and truthfully found so much peace and so much comfort in the decision, so I hope and pray that those guys will be able to do the same.”
Tennessee coaches drew up a perfect play call, which resulted in a touchdown for Castles. When asked about this specific play, Castles responded, “I mean, it’s a play we’ve had in for a couple of weeks, and we’ve kind of been keeping it on the back end, kind of holding on to it, just selling out and getting open, and the whole time we practiced, it’s going to be down like the guy is going to be right on you throw it right on his head, so he put a perfect ball, and I just had to make the catch, and the rest is history. Touchdown.”
