We can pick Heupel apart all day—and yes, getting competitive with Georgia again has to happen, and we need to win in Gainesville this weekend—but look around the conference. Florida, LSU, and Arkansas are searching for coaches yet again, and Ole Miss might be next. Kentucky fans are tired of Stoops, Beamer’s on shaky ground at South Carolina, and who even knows what’s happening at Texas. And honestly, it’s not just Heupel—everyone in the country has a problem beating Kirby right now.
And if Josh Heupel wins out the regular season and the bowl game, he’ll be sitting at roughly 54–18 at Tennessee, with six of those losses coming on the road. The Vols also have 11 wins over Top-25 teams during his tenure, and he holds the second-highest winning percentage of any Tennessee head coach in the last 50 years. That’s not exactly the profile of a program in crisis.