Does Heupel have the killer instinct as a coach?

[VolCalls]

Gotta say, I’m tired of the “dumpster fire“ talk now. He’s 5 years in. Basically more scholarships than a team needs, has unlimited portal guys, excellent recruiter. It’s his players on the roster. I love what he’s accomplished, but he’s young and should get better. This is not the college football ear of 5-7 years ago.
P.S. Check out what Majors walked into in 1977 and then only 2 or 3 schools really cared about football

I often see “ he’s young” used as a factor when this topic comes up. Heupel is 47 and has been a head coach for 8 seasons.

Ryan Day is 46 and is in his 7th full season.
Kirby Smart is 50 and in his 10th season.
Marcus Freeman is 39 and in his 5th season.
Dan Lanning is 39 and in his 4th season.
Kalen DeBoer is 50 and in his 11th season (6th at the FBS level).

I don’t see much of a difference,

 

[UTFranklinVol]

You nor anyone else on this board expected Heupel to make it to the SEC title game in his first 5 years here. Especially with what he walked into. Some of you need a little reality check. Heupel walked into the worst situation BY FAR of any head coach in TN football history and it’s not close. What he has done here is nothing short of incredible.

Ok he hasn’t beaten Kirby Smart. Not many coaches have. He won in Norman last year. He smoked LSU in their house. Your lame attempt at constructive criticism falls flat when context is applied.

Yes the defense is nowhere close to what it was last year. That’s what happens when you lose your two starting CBs one of which is a borderline AA. But this defense makes big stops when it needs to. This team showed a killer instinct against UGA. Is Heupel a perfect coach? No. Does he make mistakes almost every game? Yes. But this narrative that you are trying to push is ridiculous.

wow does heupel pay you to lick his balls or did you line up to do it for free? never mind I know the answer.

you start out with a loud throated rebuke and then proceed to walk back your own argument with yes but, yes but, yes but.

it's a good damn thing that I don't need anyone's validation to know that my assessment is spot on correct after a 5 year tenure no matter what the situation was.

nobody said huepel was a poor coach but the data and the eye test both speak for themselves. he has work to do if Tennessee is going to become elite again and nobody can refute that and nobody can use "the situation he walked into" as an excuse after 5 years.

 

[Iravolfan]

It may have already been said , but injuries and the fact we’ve got over 40 freshmen on this roster contributes as well! This is a relatively young team !

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

.

Truth

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

I often see “ he’s young” used as a factor when this topic comes up. Heupel is 47 and has been a head coach for 8 seasons.

Ryan Day is 46 and is in his 7th full season.
Kirby Smart is 50 and in his 10th season.
Marcus Freeman is 39 and in his 5th season.
Dan Lanning is 39 and in his 4th season.
Kalen DeBoer is 50 and in his 11th season (6th at the FBS level).

I don’t see much of a difference,

Two of those guys have NCs. How many of them walked into a shat storm like Heupel? I agree though, the idea Heupel is "young" is silly.

Would you rather have Freeman? Lanning?Deboer?

 

[OrangeTsar]

I often see “ he’s young” used as a factor when this topic comes up. Heupel is 47 and has been a head coach for 8 seasons.

Ryan Day is 46 and is in his 7th full season.
Kirby Smart is 50 and in his 10th season.
Marcus Freeman is 39 and in his 5th season.
Dan Lanning is 39 and in his 4th season.
Kalen DeBoer is 50 and in his 11th season (6th at the FBS level).

I don’t see much of a difference,

Also, as coaches age; they tend to get even more conservative. If they don’t already have a killer instinct; they are unlikely to develop one later.

 

[chuckiepoo]

So, when will we have our full allotment of scholarship players?

2030

 

[VolCalls]

Two of those guys have NCs. How many of them walked into a shat storm like Heupel? I agree though, the idea Heupel is "young" is silly.

Would you rather have Freeman? Lanning?Deboer?

I'd have to give that some serious thought. All of them have had a team ranked #1 and/or played for a national title in the last three years. Heupel inherited a dumpster fire but is also five years in, now.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

I'd have to give that some serious thought. All of them have had a team ranked #1 and/or played for a national title in the last three years. Heupel inherited a dumpster fire but is also five years in, now.

Playing for one isn't winning one. If Heupel lost to a MAC school, you would want him fired immediately. Lanning made it after a season in the PAC. No SEC school could lose to a MAC school and still get into the playoffs like Notre Dame did last year. Not sure you fully understand how hard it is to win a national title

 

[Volador]

Well, one thing is for certain about our offense and that is not one volunteer fan can predict Who is going to stampede through the power T on any given Saturday. Will we be quick? Will be deliberate? Will we be a combination??

Stay tuned. Same Bat Station. Same Bat Channel.

 

[LWSVOL]

What has happened to the offense the last two games? It seems the play calling has changed from the first 4 games to the last two against State ahd Arkansas. It seems we have been less aggressive and more hesitant with play calling and more conservative in general. It’s like Heupel has morphed into Butch Jones getting ultra conservative and trying to sit on a lead. I noticed he started doing that last year as well now last season we had a good enough defense that we could do that and trust our defense to win the game. However we cannot do that this season the defense cannot be trusted to win the game we need our offense to score as much as we can and keep the throttle down. We left at least 10 points on the board against Arkansas and that game got way too nerve wracking at the end cause of Heupel’s conservative play calling and trying to milk the clock. We were fortunate we didn’t lose to Miss.St and Arkansas but a win is still a win but it don’t have to be so damn stress inducing. And if Heupel stays aggressive and goes for the kill shot against Georgia we win that game. Maybe he was saving some stuff for Bama and not showing much against State and Arky i don’t know. . Always play to win not too lose!! I watched A&M deliver the knockout punch to Florida last night and thought man it would be nice if we could close out a game like that and not sweat out another close game.

Conservative play calling keeps a bad defense off the field. You are playing the clock trying to protect and win the game. Aggressive play can lead to turnover and getting bad D back out there.

That is another thought process to conservative thoughts

 

[Nico ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va]

I think Heupel has stepped a little far into the "take the ball out of the air" side and needs to shuffle back towards the "all gas no breaks" side.

However, I do think he is trying to strike the balance and make a complete team. He knows we can't go back to what we had in '22, where we had to score 50+ to win simply because the defense was your neighbors old Chevy with an oil leak sitting in the driveway while the offense was your other neighbor with the new Corvette. We need balance in order to attract top end talent to the defense, which we have.

This goes in line with how we are seeing much more pro style condensed sets in our offense instead of wide gaps.

 

[VolCalls]

Playing for one isn't winning one. If Heupel lost to a MAC school, you would want him fired immediately. Lanning made it after a season in the PAC. No SEC school could lose to a MAC school and still get into the playoffs like Notre Dame did last year. Not sure you fully understand how hard it is to win a national title

That team who lost to a MAC School also won every other game on their schedule leading up to the national title game, went 7-0 vs. Top 25 teams in the process (4 of the wins away from home) and played for a national championship.

I don't think you understand that one game does not make a season. If Heupel lost to a MAC school, we would all be pissed. Freeman, however, has offset that by going 13-7 vs. Top 25 opponents, 5-4 vs. Top 10 teams, and taking little old Notre Dame to the national championship game despite not playing in the SEC - he simply beat the SEC Champion on a neutral field to get there. Heupel is 9-11 vs. Top 25 teams, 3-6 vs. the Top 10, and 3-7 vs. Top 25 teams on the road in five seasons.

And if an SEC team lost to a MAC school but still went 7-1 or 8-0 in the league, they absolutely would get into the CFP. You either have a major case of BVS or are envious of other leagues that are softer than the - I can't figure out which but am betting on the former.

You can make up whatever you like to fit your narrative, but facts are facts. We're done here.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

I predicted he would have a top 15 finish and we’d be an annual contender on the national scene within his first three seasons. After 2022 I expected to be in the national title hunt almost every year. That’s essentially where we are.

We have to start winning road games in hostile environments vs. top ten teams to prove we can take this show on the road and take the next step - just as Indiana did on Saturday.

lol. You are being completely unrealistic then. You honestly thought after what we lost after 2022 that we would be in the national title hunt? Again I call bull crap. So you expected 2023 for us to finish in the top 5 with Milton? Yeah right.

Indiana has won nothing. They play a cheesecake schedule. They beat Oregon. So what? So would we. To you and anyone else who keeps lying and saying you expected more post 2022 than actually 2022 need to start living in reality.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Wr built a 17 point lead WITH all of those injuries. But then; with the same players on the field, we took our foot off the gas. Injuries don’t explain that happening within a game.

Who won the game?

 

[OrangeTsar]

Who won the game?

I am more concerned about the next game than the previous one. Bama is a whole different beast than Arkansas. And we won’t be playing in Neyland.
Beating Arkansas was great. But man I saw a lot of very concerning trends.
Hopefully we will improve in those areas before this Saturday

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

That team who lost to a MAC School also won every other game on their schedule leading up to the national title game, went 7-0 vs. Top 25 teams in the process (4 of the wins away from home) and played for a national championship.

I don't think you understand that one game does not make a season. If Heupel lost to a MAC school, we would all be pissed. Freeman, however, has offset that by going 13-7 vs. Top 25 opponents, 5-4 vs. Top 10 teams, and taking little old Notre Dame to the national championship game despite not playing in the SEC - he simply beat the SEC Champion on a neutral field to get there. Heupel is 9-11 vs. Top 25 teams, 3-6 vs. the Top 10, and 3-7 vs. Top 25 teams on the road in five seasons.

And if an SEC team lost to a MAC school but still went 7-1 or 8-0 in the league, they absolutely would get into the CFP. You either have a major case of BVS or are envious of other leagues that are softer than the - I can't figure out which but am betting on the former.

You can make up whatever you like to fit your narrative, but facts are facts. We're done here.

Love the made up but dumbed downed acronyms. I'm not the one constantly criticizing Heupel. I'm happy with the direction of our program under Heupel. That ain't BVS , Son

 

[a vol n tears]

You can be tired of it all you want. Facts don’t care about your feelings. Majors walked into a goldmine compared to Heupel. Majors didn’t have 30 players leave on him. The ones trying to bring up Majors as a defense are silly.

Heupel has exceeded all expectations by a long shot. If you disagree then show me where you predicted his record would be what it is when he got hired. I seem to remember many in this board, myself included, who thought White cheaped out and we were looking at maybe a 7-8 win coach.

You can be tired of it all you want. Facts don’t care about your feelings. Majors walked into a goldmine compared to Heupel. Majors didn’t have 30 players leave on him. The ones trying to bring up Majors as a defense are silly.

Heupel has exceeded all expectations by a long shot. If you disagree then show me where you predicted his record would be what it is when he got hired. I seem to remember many in this board, myself included, who thought White cheaped out and we were looking at maybe a 7-8 win coach.

You can be tired of it all you want. Facts don’t care about your feelings. Majors walked into a goldmine compared to Heupel. Majors didn’t have 30 players leave on him. The ones trying to bring up Majors as a defense are silly.

Heupel has exceeded all expectations by a long shot. If you disagree then show me where you predicted his record would be what it is when he got hired. I seem to remember many in this board, myself included, who thought White cheaped out and we were looking at maybe a 7-8 win coach.

I was basically replying to the OP question about a killer instinct.
He knows more about coaching than any fan, but it’s obvious when he gets a double digit lead against good teams, he draws in the offense. Against the weak teams he lets the backups continue firing downfield (I agree) but against good competition he throttles back hoping to run out the clock.
If he continued his wide open offense until a few minutes remained, this team would be averaging close to 50 pts per game. Against Ark he started running basic runs up the middle. The 1 time he passed, he hit Kitselman over the middle for a first down. Then never ran a pass play downfield. Went from a 17 pt lead to just three. Tenn should have easily scored in the 40s but he backed off. Put 40 some on Ga but that last drive he ran straight into the middle. Never tried to advance the ball.
SHOW me I’m wrong and I’ll change my mind.

 

[Delmar]

Looks like somebody started a “Negavols R Us” thread and all the Eeyore’s showed up for the meeting. As someone said, one would think we are 0 and 6 with all the whining going on.