It has been four years since Josh Heupel was hired as Tennessee’s head football coach. There’s no question that his time as a Vol has been a success and couldn’t have gone much better, even if I do have some questions about him.
Perhaps you might need a reminder of just where the Vols were when he was hired on Jan. 27, 2021. There is one overriding factor in the Heupel hire that absolutely must be considered before judging athletic director Danny White’s decision to name him the Vols 27th head football coach: The Tennessee job was not a good one when Heupel took it.
If you remember, the Vols were facing serious NCAA allegations that came under former coach Jeremy Pruitt, who managed Tennessee’s program as if it were the 1960s when police were on board with the local team, the media played ball to a fault when it covered a program and Pruitt had never even heard that there was a governing body over college football.
If you remember, Pruitt paid players in fast-food containers and lobbied the police to simply release former Tennessee linebacker Jeremy Banks, who had been arrested for a culmination of simple traffic charges.
In video footage of the arrest released shortly after the incident, Banks said, “where I’m from, we shoot at cops.” At another point, Banks said he should have run and tested “you all’s speed.”
That’s not what you want out of one of your best players. It’s, in fact, a downright shameful response. Threatening police offers isn’t the way to go through life. Pruitt’s response was almost as distasteful.
“This is the silliest (thing) I’ve ever seen in my life.” Pruitt said about the arrest to the police at the scene. “I’ve worked at four places and never had no crap like this except for here.”
Grammar aside, this is a pretty pathetic response and one that clearly shows that Pruitt didn’t think he was doing anything wrong by lobbying the police to let Banks go. Pruitt would have kept skirting the rules, which included all of those payments made by his wife and even his babysitter.
To say that Pruitt was a complete embarrassment and a very average football coach would be an understatement. It’s worth nothing that his record at Tennessee was 5-19. Pruitt was the worst sort of coach. He couldn’t coach, and he wouldn’t follow the rules. Heupel is an obvious upgrade.
There haven’t been off-field issues under Heupel, who is 37-15 as Tennessee’s head coach, while the 46-year-old has managed NIL payments, which have been ruled legal by the NCAA under his watch. Maybe Pruitt could have handled payments better in the NIL era, but he still couldn’t have coached nor managed an entire program. That would have never changed no matter how much cash he could throw at people in a Chik-fil-A bag.
There were plenty of questions about Heupel. The first was whether or not he could recruit against SEC big boys. Well, the Vols have hovered around the top 10 in recruiting. That’s competent, but not elite, so that question is still hanging around, but not a major concern.
The second question about Heupel was whether or not his high-flying offense at Central Florida, which he led to a 28-8 record, would soar in the SEC. We’ve seen that it can, as in 2022, but we’ve also seen another side of Heupel, which is an offensive coach that is willing to adjust his style to his personnel, which led to the offense he fielded with two tight ends from time to time last season. I’d say he answered both questions with an affirmative, but probably not as definitive as some fans would want.
The question with Heupel now is whether or not he can take Tennessee from a championship-contending level to a true championship level. That’s up for debate after the Vols made the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff this season but were thumped 42-17 to Ohio State.
That certainly isn’t a fond memory for the Vols, but it is also a reminder that things take time. Ryan Day is similar to Heupel. Both coaches prefer an up-tempo, high-scoring offense. Both coaches are under 50-years-old. Day just won his first national championship. It took him six seasons. Can Heupel do it in six? That’s tough to say, but he deserves a chance.
Heupel trusted Tennessee and athletic director Danny White to support his football program with the proper support. The Vols have done that. Now, it’s time to trust Heupel, who deserves time to finish the job at Tennessee or prove that his hire was in vain. Either way, he deserves a shot.
I’m not sure if getting a “shot” means two more seasons at UT or more, but I’d lean towards more. I don’t think there is any doubt that Heupel is more like Day than Pruitt. In other words, he’s closer to being a champion than a cheater. That may not sound like a ringing endorsement, but given where the Vols were back four years ago, Tennessee fans should be taking that to the bank like a Pruitt pay check.
