Media Perception of Heupel Question

#1
I

IfDickeyStayed

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#1
This offseason, Josh Heupel has consistently ranked near the bottom of every major college football coaching list I've seen. I know these rankings ultimately don't mean much, but I don't understand the reasoning behind them.

Examples:
  • CBS Sports: 19
  • ON3: 19
  • The Athletic: 17
  • A to Z Sports: 22
  • Josh Pate (SEC only): 9
  • Crain & Cone (SEC only): 9
Personally, I think Heupel is a top-15 head coach nationally and somewhere around the 4th-6th best coach in the SEC. I can understand leaving him out of the top 10 nationally, but seeing him consistently land in the high teens or low 20s feels off.

Before anyone says "the media just hates Tennessee," that's not really the discussion I'm trying to have. While these rankings don't directly affect wins and losses, national perception does matter. It influences preseason narratives, recruiting, postseason conversations, and the overall prestige of a program.

I have made it known around here that I do have some issues with Heupel's program, like clock management, offseason personnel turnover, and loyalty to bad assistant coaches, but we are still the 14th-winningest program since Heupel took over in a hard conference, and his career winning percentage as a HC is (0.723). Also, few coaches took over worse situations than Heupel.

What are these reporters collectively seeing that TN fans, or just I, are missing?
 
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#5
#5
It’s hard to have a productive discussion without talking about the elephant in the room. The media also devalues every 5 star freshman recruit who signs with Tennessee.

Other than that, I don’t know what their problem is. Heupel took over the joke of college football and has turned it into a perennial playoffs contender (not to be confused with national championship contender).

Heupel has defeated the two most successful coaches (when he took the job in 2021) - Sweeney and Saban. He is also hot on Kirby’s heels, showing the rest of college football how to confuse Georgia’s defense last season.
 
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#6
#6
VolatileVol said:
Heupel wins about 60% of his SEC games. For better and worse, he's a modern day Johnny Majors.
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That’s probably a really good comparison. What we are seeing here is Johnny Majors in the Information Age where the good and the bad get amplified. But let’s be honest… after 2008-2020, Tennessee fans would’ve crawled over glass to get a “Johnny Majors” level coach.
 
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#8
#8
There’s a lot of recency bias in those. After 2022 and 2024 he was higher. I think one list came out with him above Kirby in the SEC while never beating UGA. Another factor is access. I listen to a lot of national podcasts and the schools that give those guys access get viewed differently bc you get to see the cool stuff they are doing and working on behind the scenes. Those national guys need content but who they get access to allows them to get to know them personally which skews how they think about coaches. It’s hard to eliminate the human element. Heupel just doesn’t do much of that type of stuff.
 
#10
#10
Mountvol said:
There’s a lot of recency bias in those. After 2022 and 2024 he was higher. I think one list came out with him above Kirby in the SEC while never beating UGA. Another factor is access. I listen to a lot of national podcasts and the schools that give those guys access get viewed differently bc you get to see the cool stuff they are doing and working on behind the scenes. Those national guys need content but who they get access to allows them to get to know them personally which skews how they think about coaches. It’s hard to eliminate the human element. Heupel just doesn’t do much of that type of stuff.
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Agree with you. Heuples distain for giving interviews and then basically saying nothing when he does, makes him not a media favorite. So they have no inside info to base anything on for rankings other than he has not won any championships that matter.
 
#12
#12
I think Heupel's history follows him a little.

He started strong at UCF, then plateaued a bit lower.

He started strong at UT, and seems to be following the UCF trend in W/L.

It's up to Heupel to change that perception with results.
 
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#13
#13
If the defense is good this year, and if we "play more physical" (especially the offensive line), Heupel will get credit by the end of this season for having made those staff changes.

But before next season, the new line will be, "But can he turn good decisions and good player development and good recruiting and a good culture into a successful playoff run?"

If you looked at college football like a board game, all the recent changes--NIL, portal, the playoffs--have only made more of the game subject to chance. Luck, injuries, crazy things no one can foresee or control, have more negative impact on success when you can't build and develop players for four years into your system.

Heupel is a builder and a players' coach. He maintains staff congruity by creating a family-welcoming work environment, and looks to promote from within his staff. All of these were major plusses in the old system. How he has rolled with the new "rules" and resultant chaos is, to me, maybe the most impressive thing about Heupel--as a coach and as a man.
 
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#15
#15
Just speculating. Heup has made the right moves, and will motivate this season's team to achieve 10 feet beyond expectations.
This is his hour, and he knows it. HAIL VOLS!!
 
#16
#16
Honestly, I think the perception of CJH is spot on right now.

He coached a team last year that didn't beat anyone with a record better than .500, so his team was average at best.
He's in year six (and yes, I know and realize the situation he waled into here) and has no SOLID plan at QB other than a RS Fr and a true Fr.
All 3 units of his squads have been roller coaster rides - up one year, down the next, and only had one year of the six where they seemed to align.
However, despite all that he has consistently won 8-10 game a year...so that puts him somewhere around mid-pack SEC and Top 15 or so nationally.

In my opinion, overachieve slightly with this year's squad (turn in 9 wins when most are saying 7 to 8), beat at least one team with a winning record, be better on defense than last year, and his perception will head back in the right direction.
Right now, his perception is kind of like a ship at sea...it was headed the right direction and has slowed to possibly make a turn.
Up to him if the ship makes the turn for the bad or puts on more steam and gains momentum in the right direction.
 
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#17
#17
RDU VOL#14 said:
A to Z being on this list is a joke. Also anyone putting Lea, Drink and Venables is flat out wrong IMO. CJH is 9-3 against all of them combined. Hes outscored Lea and Drink by over 100 points combined .
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It’s odd that Missouri has been to two SEC championships more recently than we have, yet our coach gets points taken away because he’s made Tennessee more successful since he left Missouri.
 
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#18
#18
Unconditional Surrender said:
Heupel has everything you need at Tennessee to win big. He needs to marshall the resources and get it done.
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This is the take that matters. Results.

Beat Kirby, beat Sark, beat DeBoer at least half the time when you play them. Nothing else will work to increase Heupel's ranking except beating all of those in front of him, at least once, but hopefully consistently.

Just Win..... is an old cliche but it's true. Beat the guys in front of you.
 
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#19
#19
Regardless, if we aren't in the playoffs NEXT year, he needs to go. I'll give him a pass this year because of the QB situation (unless we just completely tank) but not next year and not any year after! We are Tennessee! Our aspirations aren't 8 or 9 win seasons. It's to compete for conference and national championships! It makes zero sense to hold onto a coach that we KNOW isn't going to get us to that level.

And before anyone says it, the whole "well who are you going to replace him with" argument is stupid! Not EVERY successful coach was a known quantity that everyone knew would win! Nobody knew who Dabo was. Nobody knew who Cignetti was. Kirby Smart was an unproven head coach. Who knew who Clark Lea was? Stop it with the whole "Well there's nobody out there better" argument. You don't KNOW that and we can't be too scared to try to find him!
 
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#20
#20
Brave Volunteer said:
Regardless, if we aren't in the playoffs NEXT year, he needs to go. I'll give him a pass this year because of the QB situation (unless we just completely tank) but not next year and not any year after! We are Tennessee! Our aspirations aren't 8 or 9 win seasons. It's to compete for conference and national championships! It makes zero sense to hold onto a coach that we KNOW isn't going to get us to that level.

And before anyone says it, the whole "well who are you going to replace him with" argument is stupid! Not EVERY successful coach was a known quantity that everyone knew would win! Nobody knew who Dabo was. Nobody knew who Cignetti was. Kirby Smart was an unproven head coach. Who knew who Clark Leigh was? Stop it with the whole "Well there's nobody out there better" argument. You don't KNOW that and we can't be too scared to try to find him!
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And the man who has forgotten the years wandering in the wilderness after Phil left is here.......
 
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#21
#21
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
And the man who has forgotten the years wandering in the wilderness after Phil left is here.......
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So you're fine with meandering in mediocrity over risking terrible in the hopes of finding greatness? I hate this mentality!

I tell you one thing. While Florida has definitely been going through the wilderness since Urban Myer, I guarantee you they will win the SEC and/or a natty before we do again, because they're not afraid to keep looking for the right guy until they find him, even if that means risking more terrible seasons to do it.
 
#22
#22
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
I think Heupel's history follows him a little.

He started strong at UCF, then plateaued a bit lower.

He started strong at UT, and seems to be following the UCF trend in W/L.

It's up to Heupel to change that perception with results.
Click to expand...
UcF “plateaued” is a myth. He was hugely successful then covid year happened where he lost half his team and his top two QBs and still fielded a competitive team
 
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#23
#23
Brave Volunteer said:
So you're fine with meandering in mediocrity over risking terrible in the hopes of finding greatness?
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I'm aware that great coaches aren't necessarily even out there all the time to be hired. You act like the next Saban is just right there.

What IS right there is the next Butch, for sure. There's far far far far far far far far more Butch's out there than Cignettis.
 
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#24
#24
Rickyvol77 said:
UcF “plateaued” is a myth. He was hugely successful then covid year happened where he lost half his team and his top two QBs and still fielded a competitive team
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Somewhat true, but the perception is that Heupel comes in hot, builds a program up, but cannot put the star on top.

Making that go away means beating the guys on top. He's gotten Bama a couple of times, hasn't gotten GA, needs to get TX this year, and needs to get OU.

What his record says is: starts strong but.....
 
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