Reasons to think Coach Josh Heupel will move us forward

[rdk4121]

There are plenty of things to like about him in comparison to the last 3 coaches. He's been a head coach (unlike Pruitt), and actually had a winning record as a head coach (unlike Dooley, and in a harder conference). He's also a strong football mind (unlike Butch), and has shown that his offenses can produce without having elite talent (unlike Pruitt). He's actually played the sport at a high level (unlike all of them). He also seems like he's not going to involve himself on things he doesn't need to involve himself in like the defense (unlike Pruitt and Butch). He can let someone whose job it is to coach defense actually coach the defense.

He's not the big name splashy hire, but he seems to have a lot of the best elements of the last three coaches, and not as many flaws as the last three as well. He also seems like a fairly down to earth guy and not some egotistical maniac. Reminds me a lot of a guy like Lincoln Riley at OU honestly.

 

[OffTackleVol]

Well since the dislike Pruitt thread was an active thread let's try this one.

1. Can coach up a QB, having played the position and rather good at it, so he knows how to prepare a QB.
2. His offense scores a lot of points
3. I'm lost after that unless you factor in he's not Butch or Pruitt.

Thoughts?

I like the road he traveled to become the player he did. Similar coaching path, no silver spoon, just hard work and commitment. I've yet to hear anything negative come out of his mouth, very positive. As someone else alluded to, have not heard any "first year excuses." Seems to genuinely want to build a culture based upon accountability.

 

[OffTackleVol]

CJH will not bring us back... build a roster. That’s his job. Winning games doesn’t matter tbh.. He’s gone in 4 years. Hopefully the roster is deep when he leaves

Why's he gone in 4 years?

 

[TNnative]

Just curious, why does it bother you that he refers to his players as "kids?" And why does cause you to have "less faith?" Not being argumentative, again just curious........

Because back in the day? And I am talking the 60s 70s and 80s? We referred to Tennessee players as men. And most had the maturity of men. Once they turn 18, if they do something criminal, and get tried for it? They ain't kids no more. If we have a war, and a draft goes into effect to fight it? Uncle Sam won't see them as kids. And there was a helluva lot less negative publicity surrounding the team back then.

Back when I was in school, and our principal referred to boys football or boys basketball? All the players corrected him by saying in unison, "Men's" Soon enough, when he referred to Girls sports, they said, "Women". It was sort of a joke, but it showed as we neared the age of being accountable for our actions, we were tired of being kids.

I truly feel that after all these years of Tennessee football underperforming? I need to respect our players by not calling them kids. I remember being 18, 19, and 20. When somebody called me kid? I hated that. And I assume that deep down. A good amount of them hate it too. The others? They are the ones who act like kids and play like kids. And screw up like kids.

I want them to act and play like men. To stand tall like men. Kind of hard to cultivate with 5h1theads everywhere calling them kids. And to strive for greatness and contend for championships like men. So I don't call them kids. All who refer to them as kids? Well maybe they don't want greatness and championships. Maybe they want what we have gotten year after year after year. Does that satisfy your curiosity, pal?

I can't do nothing about those of you here doing that crap, and a mostly past worrying about it. WTH do you think I got a monkey flipping a bird at the program? This is probably the biggest reason. At the very least, I just wish our coach would stop doing that.

 

[volroadwarrior]

Counterpoints:

1. Outside of the QB position, his recruiting was "meh" at best at UC, with his teams decreasing in production the more Scott Frost's recruits exited the program.
2. His offense scores a lot of points, on bad and mediocre teams, and is relatively average against good teams with winning records.
3. He might be Butch, depending on whether or not he is capable of seeing the flaws in his system and adjusting it or not.

He was recruiting at UCF, for goodness sakes. That level of teams rarely get the top recruits. He can and should turn that around here once the team starts winning.

 

[volroadwarrior]

Why's he gone in 4 years?

Just some negavol and troll garbage. Ignore it.

 

[bpalmer28]

CJH will not bring us back... build a roster. That’s his job. Winning games doesn’t matter tbh.. He’s gone in 4 years. Hopefully the roster is deep when he leaves

If this were true we'd of given it to Tee Martin.

 

[butchna]

Obligatory have to wait to see during the season, but his modus operandi seems to be get his offensive think tank together on the same page and hire his DC and allow him to be the HC of the defense. I’m sure plenty of constructive input but a general autonomy on that side of the ball. Allows for egos to air out imo. Would be the first such dynamic since Kiffin and his dad and we had success with Fulmer allowing Chavis to do his thing.

 

[butchna]

Because back in the day? And I am talking the 60s 70s and 80s? We referred to Tennessee players as men. And most had the maturity of men. Once they turn 18, if they do something criminal, and get tried for it? They ain't kids no more. If we have a war, and a draft goes into effect to fight it? Uncle Sam won't see them as kids. And there was a helluva lot less negative publicity surrounding the team back then.

Back when I was in school, and our principal referred to boys football or boys basketball? All the players corrected him by saying in unison, "Men's" Soon enough, when he referred to Girls sports, they said, "Women". It was sort of a joke, but it showed as we neared the age of being accountable for our actions, we were tired of being kids.

I truly feel that after all these years of Tennessee football underperforming? I need to respect our players by not calling them kids. I remember being 18, 19, and 20. When somebody called me kid? I hated that. And I assume that deep down. A good amount of them hate it too. The others? They are the ones who act like kids and play like kids. And screw up like kids.

I want them to act and play like men. To stand tall like men. Kind of hard to cultivate with 5h1theads everywhere calling them kids. And to strive for greatness and contend for championships like men. So I don't call them kids. All who refer to them as kids? Well maybe they don't want greatness and championships. Maybe they want what we have gotten year after year after year. Does that satisfy your curiosity, pal?

I can't do nothing about those of you here doing that crap, and a mostly past worrying about it. WTH do you think I got a monkey flipping a bird at the program? This is probably the biggest reason. At the very least, I just wish our coach would stop doing that.

 

[OffTackleVol]

Because back in the day? And I am talking the 60s 70s and 80s? We referred to Tennessee players as men. And most had the maturity of men. Once they turn 18, if they do something criminal, and get tried for it? They ain't kids no more. If we have a war, and a draft goes into effect to fight it? Uncle Sam won't see them as kids. And there was a helluva lot less negative publicity surrounding the team back then.

Back when I was in school, and our principal referred to boys football or boys basketball? All the players corrected him by saying in unison, "Men's" Soon enough, when he referred to Girls sports, they said, "Women". It was sort of a joke, but it showed as we neared the age of being accountable for our actions, we were tired of being kids.

I truly feel that after all these years of Tennessee football underperforming? I need to respect our players by not calling them kids. I remember being 18, 19, and 20. When somebody called me kid? I hated that. And I assume that deep down. A good amount of them hate it too. The others? They are the ones who act like kids and play like kids. And screw up like kids.

I want them to act and play like men. To stand tall like men. Kind of hard to cultivate with 5h1theads everywhere calling them kids. And to strive for greatness and contend for championships like men. So I don't call them kids. All who refer to them as kids? Well maybe they don't want greatness and championships. Maybe they want what we have gotten year after year after year. Does that satisfy your curiosity, pal?

I can't do nothing about those of you here doing that crap, and a mostly past worrying about it. WTH do you think I got a monkey flipping a bird at the program? This is probably the biggest reason. At the very least, I just wish our coach would stop doing that.

Sure Leroy, ole buddy ole pal. Hope you didn't have a stroke typing that.

 

[OffTackleVol]

View attachment 369995

Freaking hilarious...........can't stop laughing.

 

[RockyTopTexas]

Why's he gone in 4 years?

Just the standard of the job

 

[lifeisdeep]

But can he recruit well enough to stay within shouting distance of Florida, Bama and Georgia? So far it appears he can’t

But don't you remember that team a few years ago that won the playoff with one- and two-star recruits? You know, the...Oh, wait, that never happened.

But there was that team that almost made the playoff with mostly three-star recruits...Oh, sorry, that didn't happen either.

If I believe hard enough that a pig will fly, won't that make it fly?

 

[butchna]

But don't you remember that team a few years ago that won the playoff with one- and two-star recruits? You know, the...Oh, wait, that never happened.

But there was that team that almost made the playoff with mostly three-star recruits...Oh, sorry, that didn't happen either.

If I believe hard enough that a pig will fly, won't that make it fly?

Something’s flying all right.

 

[ru4real-really?]

he does have a history in the SEC

 

[Volle]

Heupel has great pedigree-- won a NC and coached at a top-5 program which itself brings knowledge of what it takes to succeed. I think of him like a Spurrier without the attitude. He will put together some 10-win seasons before he leaves, and I think in the end, it will be him leaving to a Midwest school as opposed to UT firing him because of the negative fanbase here.

 

[OrangeTsar]

The further we slip in relevance, the easier it becomes for a new coach to bring “improvement”. When we are having three win seasons, we are nearly at the point where up is the only direction possible. We are the lowest as a program I can ever remember. And I can remember a looong way back

 

[BeardedVol]

Frost was HC at UCF for 2 seasons........it’s not like he built a freakin dynasty........it’s also “not” like Frost had 7 years of “his” recruits in the program.

Frost had the magical undefeated season, in all fairness and reality where is production going to go from there? Especially with a new coach.

UCF was not nor is Bama or Clemson.

It’s never apples to apples. But Frost went 19-7 in his two years at UCF. Heupel went 22-4 his first two years.

I don’t know what Heupel is going to do......however he did very well where he has previously been.

Heupel went undefeated in the regular season with Frosts' recruits, you can try to deny that reality, but it won't change it. UCF plays a garbage schedule that is chocked full of bad teams. In Heupel's final season, he didn't manage to beat a single team on the schedule that ended the season with a winning record.

That's not some guarantee that he's going to fail here, but running up the score on bad teams in the AAC, is no guarantee that he's going to find success in the SEC either.

 

[BeardedVol]

He was recruiting at UCF, for goodness sakes. That level of teams rarely get the top recruits. He can and should turn that around here once the team starts winning.

Have you looked at UCF's schedule? It's hot garbage. If you aren't recruiting well enough to beat the 3 decent teams on your schedule in the AAC, how do you expect him to do so in the SEC?

 

[sjt18]

Look at his offense's production over time against teams with winning records vs those without winning records. UCF's schedule is rife with bad teams, and those offensive numbers are well-padded by it.

In truth you only have a sample set of 2 years.

Dealing only with statistical averages... I don't see your point. In '18, his O produced 43.4 ppg vs conf, 41.2 ppg vs FBS (winning record), and 46.2 ppg (losing record). In '19, it was 40.9 vs conf, 41.8 vs FBS (winning), and 41.8 ppg vs FBS (losing). That's really pretty remarkable consistency vs good/bad teams over two years. In '18, UCF had 7 games under 40 points. In '19, they had 5. They did have under 30 once in '19- a 24-27 loss to Cincinatti.

The real unknowns with Huepel is whether or not he is going to be able to adapt his offensive system to consistently work in the SEC, and can his defensive staff put together an actual defense which doesn't give up ~500 YPG.

What do you mean by adapt? His playbook is very much like other O's today. What makes him unique is the speed he wants to play at. I guess anything is possible but I don't see how that can be made into a disadvantage.

I think part of the proof you are looking for was his time at Mizzou. The D might have been overworked due to his O... but they were pretty awful of their own accord too. Again, he doesn't appear to do anything novel when it comes to play design. He just tries to do it really fast.

His system puts a lot of pressure on the QB pre-snap. I think it is still an unknown as to whether the current guys can handle the extra load. I suspect that someone can. Still need to see it.

 

[Hank Bukowski]

Well since the dislike Pruitt thread was an active thread let's try this one.

1. Can coach up a QB, having played the position and rather good at it, so he knows how to prepare a QB.
2. His offense scores a lot of points
3. I'm lost after that unless you factor in he's not Butch or Pruitt.

Thoughts?

Well, it would take a stupendous amount of effort to not move this program forward considering where we are after last season.

Orange hope springs eternal.

 

[keenobserver]

Seems to be a player friendly coach while still holding kids accountable for their actions.

It looks like he is trying to create an atmosphere in the mold of Pete Carroll. Play hard and win, but have fun during the process. I'm glad he's not trying to be Nick Saban. We've already tried that.

 

[sjt18]

CJH will not bring us back... build a roster. That’s his job. Winning games doesn’t matter tbh.. He’s gone in 4 years. Hopefully the roster is deep when he leaves

Well... it is dumb to make definitive statements over future events that you do not personally control. Sometimes context is obvious that a person isn't making that kind of declaration. It isn't in your statement.

Winning matters 100% of the time. If he is at UT for 4 years losing... then he won't build a roster. Players don't sign with losers as a rule. They don't sign with coaches who will be "gone in 4 years".

So if your idea is that he can be a subpar coach on gameday that builds a launching pad for some top shelf coach to launch from... you aren't being realistic.

And... if he's wins 7, 8, or 9 games in each of years 2-4 then he's very likely to continue with UT to see if he can complete the rebuild.

So if he's a loser... then you very likely don't get a better roster. If he's a winner then he very likely isn't fired.

 

[Pacer92]

I think Heup will be successful here...may take a year or two...may not. How successful? I don’t think it’ll take too long to see if he’s capable or not of pushing us back into the same conversation with the big boys of the league. I believe with the departure of Pruitt and his program culture/pulse...we immediately got better. There was cancer growing out of control. Coaches didn’t look invested...players didn’t look invested. Add that to a outdated style of moving the football and a defense that was slow... thin on talent and quality depth....equals we suck!

Anytime an offense puts pressure on the defense to defend as much field and as many times a game as JH’s does....I just think we will be in a lot of games. Some wont go our way...some will. I think this staff will develop talent already there. Closing the recruiting talent gap won’t take long if both of these happen...and I believe it will. We shall see...

 

[basspond]

If he can put up points on virtually everyone we play, the players will trust that he's the real deal. I never gave my best to a supervisor whom I thought was a joke. I gave my best to supervisors who clearly knew their job and how to treat his/her workers. That's respect! It goes both ways and makes all the difference.
I'm seeing that respect already developing. If the defense can hold their own, I think we'll be better than many think.