Josh Heupel got big news last week when Tennessee learned that Southern Cal transfer wide receiver Bru McCoy would be eligible to start the season.

At his Monday press conference, Heupel reacted to the news.

“Certainly a small sense of relief, more than anything just excitement,” Heupel said. “When I got the news, man, it sent chills down my spine, so excited for him. A young man who’s done it the right way since he’s been here, has gone through a long, windy journey to get to this point. Now he has an opportunity to move forward with his future and go compete with his teammates, his brothers. And having a chance to tell him and hear him tell his dad was one of the great moments in my career. Could just tell the sense of excitement and some relief from them that they’re able to just move on and go compete, so really special for him and his family.”

Heupel was asked about the progress McCoy made over fall camp.

“The beginning portion of practice, we were kind of methodical in ramping him up,” Heupel said. “As he came off of not quite being 100 percent at the beginning of summer. We built him up. He’s got a good understanding of what we’re doing. He’s operated fairly efficiently in what we’re doing offensively. For all of our guys that are out there playing on the offensive side of the ball with our tempo the first time … so there will be some things we’ll be able to grow through and clean up. But really good understanding of what we’re doing. He’s continued to get stronger physically, been fundamentally more technically sound in what we’re asking him to do. So there’s a lot of positive things as we’ve gone through this training camp with him.”