Josh Heupel made his first public comments about the infractions announced on Friday by the NCAA, and said he wanted to protect his players as the program moves forward. Former coach Jeremy Pruitt received a 6-year show cause penalty after the NCAA found more than 200 violations, as the Vols will deal with scholarship reductions and a hefty fines.

“Excited that we were able to see a great conclusion, our administration’s work for 2 and a half years to find a resolution to this,” Heupel said to Peter Burns on “The Paul Finebaum Show.” “They found out about what’s going on, reported it, and been transparent and we want to protect our athletes and make sure they have an opportunity to compete for championships and were able to do that and really happy that we get a chance to put this behind us and move forward now.”

Heupel said he shared the news with players and staff during a Zoom meeting on Friday as many people were out of the football building.

Burns recalled conversations with Athletics Director Danny White as Heupel discussed the pending punishment coming out of the infractions.

“This is my kind of brand and such a powerful and rich tradition inside the landscape of college sports,” Heupel said. “And certainly in college football too, you’re talking about a program that’s top 10 in the history of college football wins, first-round draft picks, bowls, bowl wins. And I grew up around the game, watching the game, and just remember the great players and the tradition of what’s going on at Neyland Stadium. For me, the opportunity to take over a program like this, to be able to put your own stamp on it and to be able to compete for championships is something that I certainly wanted to be a part of.”

Having open dialogue with White about the process of the NCAA investigation gave Heupel confidence that it would be a “speed bump” for the program when he took over, and it “wasn’t going to be anything that delayed our progress. People have been able to see that over the last 2 years. We’re certainly are excited about our football team that we have coming back in ’23, and really looking forward to what we’re doing in recruiting and the ability to build a consistent, championship-caliber football program.”