Tennessee has a fan problem and, yes, I’m speaking to you. What is your issue with the Vols?
To far too many fans, Tennessee’s run in 2024 to the College Football Playoff is just seen as a run-of-the mill season, despite winning 10 games and losing to the eventual national champions. That should be considered a successful year, no matter the preseason expectations, which have fueled the fire of discontent in Knoxville.
Had I told you that fourth-year head coach Josh Heupel would lead his team to a 12-team playoff berth when he was hired before the 2021 season, you would have been jumping for joy. Now, Tennessee fans are down in the dumps after still having a chance to win a national championship in December. What gives?
Perhaps Tennessee’s fan base got too enamored with the debut of quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who became a first-year starter last season. Maybe Tennessee underwhelmed last season after looking like all-time football legends when they stomped early season opponents into submission. That, however, is the wrong takeaway.
Tennessee’s football program took a step in the right direction. It seems the fan base is concerned that the last step may be the best step, that Heupel has reached his peak as a Vol. I’m not sure why that would be the case.
Iamaleava was a fantastic prospect, but he was still a first-year starter last season. Yes, the Vols had other roster issues that could have been addressed by Year Four under Heupel, but the one thing that we learned is that every team is fallible. Even Ohio State lost to its long-time nemesis and border rival, Michigan, in the final game of the regular season before the Buckeyes won it all earlier this month. No team in national championship contention finished the year undefeated.
The Vols are one of a handful of teams that were in contention until the postseason and could have made a run had they gotten a different draw and were peaking at the right time. That didn’t happen, but it doesn’t mean that all is lost.
Oddsmakers seem to think Tennessee has a pretty good shot at making the College Football Playoff again this season. The over/under win total for the Vols according to most sports books is 9.5 in 2025. That’s the same win total as Georgia and Texas and would put Tennessee in the hunt for a national championship. If the Vols win 10 games with an SEC schedule, they’ll be in the CFP once again. Then, anything can happen. Just ask Ohio State.
What Tennessee doesn’t need right now is a fan base that is on the fence. I’m not telling you how to spend your hard-earned dollars, but the Vols don’t want to lose momentum in donations or, perhaps more importantly nowadays, NIL spending. Tennessee also would like a positive space in social media, an area in which the Vol fans have struggled with at times, to create an environment in which prospects want to come to Knoxville.
If there’s one overall concern about Heupel and his program that I can’t defend, it’s oddly his choices and development of quarterbacks, which we thought would be one of his strengths. Former Vol Joe Milton obviously wan’t the answer but was selected at the beginning of the 2021 season to start over former Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker, who should have won the job all along in retrospect.
Hooker’s play in 2022 was thought to just be routine with a Heupel offense installed. Now, it’s natural to wonder if Hooker or former Tennessee receiver Jalin Hyatt were as much a part of the Vols’ success that season as Heupel’s offensive philosophy. That leads to Tennessee starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who didn’t live up to preseason expectations and wasn’t utilized in 2023 as he should have been. However, those expectations were much too high in hindsight, and fans don’t like hearing about other issues that led to Iamaleava’s struggles, such as offensive tackle play, which was a consistent problem last season.
Perhaps the way the season ended, a 42-17 loss to Ohio State, is why Tennessee fans aren’t more gung ho about the future. However, that’s the wrong takeaway from 2024. The Vols took a step in the right direction, and that shouldn’t be lost among a fan base that seems to be waiting for the next negative shoe to drop. And yes, I’m speaking to you.
