'I've never seen anything like it' - Josh Heupel says a current Vols player had the craziest recruiting film he's ever seen

Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel said on Thursday during an appearance on The Mike Keith Show that one of his current players had the "craziest film" he's ever seen.

And it's a player that Heupel hopes he doesn't see on the field very often this fall.

Heupel detailed to Mike Keith how crazy of an experience it was to recruit punter Jackson Ross, who is from Melbourne, Australia, a couple of years ago.

“Jackson’s a character that is an infectious energy guy inside of our building," said Heupel. "Has a lot of fun, but highly competitive as well. And really skilled off the field, too. Anything that he does, he’s super talented in.”

“It’s the craziest film that I’ve ever watched. It was live. His ability -- he was hitting bombs in the pocket. Then they had him rugby [kick] right. But they essentially were having guys run like a post pattern at 50 yards and he was able to hit the guys in stride (by punting). Then at the very end, they flipped it over and he went left footed and it was -- I’ve never seen anything like that. Super talented.”

This isn't the first time that Heupel has talked about the unique way that Tennessee recruited Ross.

“We didn’t fly over there (Australia) to watch him actually punt,” explained Heupel in 2023. “So we basically did a Zoom. We were sitting in the staff meeting, me, Coach (Mike) Ekeler and a couple of our young coaches. He’s starting to roll out right and punt the ball and it was pretty impressive. You’re trying to calculate the distance.

"Then he told the guy that was catching the punts, ‘Alright, I want you to run a post route and we’re going to hit you at 50.’ Jackson takes the ball, rolls out right [and] hits him in stride. Like things that I would try to do with my arm, he was doing with his feet. I was like, are we really watching this?’ Then he did a couple of coffin corner kicks as you’re trying to pin them inside the 10. There are about three straight that the guy maybe had to move 12 inches to the right or left to catch on the 5-yard line. Eventually he said let’s flip it and go the other direction and you’re watching the guy do it left-footed, too.”

Jackson Ross once trash talked Josh Heupel

Heupel noted during his conversation with Keith that Ross is "extremely competitive" and "super talented" in anything he does.

Which is why it's not a surprise that Ross talked a little trash to his head coach a couple of years ago.

Back in 2023, then Vols special teams coach Mike Ekeler told reporters that Ross claimed to have the third strongest arm on the team (behind then UT quarterbacks Joe Milton and Nico Iamaleava).

“He claims he has the third-strongest arm on this team behind Joe and Nico,” said Ekeler. “For me, the guy who signs my paychecks, I am going to say the fourth (best arm) behind Heup, also. The guy can sling it.”

Ross didn't back down when asked by reporters about his arm strength claim.

“I think I’m better than Coach Heupel at his age now,” said Ross. “I’m still in my prime I think.”