I completely agree with everything said. Josh took a dumpster fire and turned it into a legit contender. 30 wins in the last 3 seasons. Beating Bama and Florida 2 out of the last 3 seasons. Getting us to the Playoff last season. We may take a step back this season but the future is brighter than it's been in decades. I truly believe he will get us back to the Natty in the next few seasons.
GBO
Like the leaders of anything, people at the helm get most of the credit and most of the blame. The HC responsibility typically is assembling the right people, directing them and adding value to the recruiting efforts. Until last year, Heupel hadn’t called plays since 2021, and he doesn’t run the defense.
There is no question that the initial staff that Heupel brought to Tennessee is top-to-bottom the best staff Tennessee has seen since the Fulmsr era. His ability to keep most of that staff together, and replace key roles with sometimes even better talent is above par. The questions I have right now are at OC, WR and OL.
It is interesting to note that Huepel has been the play caller during each of our OCs’ first seasons at Tennessee. I was unaware that Golesh was given the reigns in 2022 and 2023. Even though Halzel was promoted upon Golesh’s departure last year, Heupel reassumed play calling duties last year. I am reading he will most likely continue to call plays this year, but intended to open up the playbook at least before Nico left. I would imagine that would be more difficult to do with a QB who just began learning the offense this summer. Apparently, Aguilar and his receivers were connecting on some long balls towards the end of the summer, and Aguilar looks to possess some qualities the young Nico lacked. So, the inability to open up the playbook may bot be detrimental if Aguilar can hit the receivers Nico missed and make more plays with his feet than Nico produced.
Regardless, it is apparent that Hueoel’s intention is to develop Halsey much like he did Giles’s and will call plays for the foreseeable future. We will see how that particular situation shakes out over the next couple of seasons most likely. Josh is a proven OC, so my belief is that the play calling is what it is because of the cards he has been dealing with. (Young WB, struggling OL and average receiver play).
I think our OL coach can coach up talent. We saw that with Wright. Recruiting has been our biggest issue there, and they seem to be shoring that up. Based on what I am hearing, I am becoming less concerned about our OL. Unless we are horrendous this year, I have enough optimism at that position to give it until 2026 where we should have zero excuse for average to below average OL play.
When Burns took over the WR room in 2021, we saw 3 stars become stars and other guys who were supposed to good, got better. The difference was obvious.
Burns left after his first season, and Pope became the guy in 2022. That is when we saw all of our receivers take the next step. I still remember Kelton’s amazing diving catch at the end of the first half of the FL game in 2022 which set up an important score before the half, and we all remember Hyatt’s performances Even Squirrel White was playing strong as a Freshman that year. However, we began to watch our receivers take a nosedive in 2023 and that continued in 2024. One might argue that it could be the line not giving them tine to get open, or they might argue that Milton and Nico were not that good of QBs, and there is probably some truth to that, but make no mistake. Our receivers have not been pulling down balls like they were in 2021-2022. That leads me to believe that the improvements we saw in 2022 were benefits from a full year of coaching by Burns’ the previous year.
It’s hard to know entirely what the problem is, but we have been on a downward trend at that position and we have had the talent on our roster.
This could end up being another head scratching year due to all three of the areas mentioned above (OC, OL, QB, WR), but if our receivers are dropping balls again (as they were all preseason), Huepel may need to make a change there.
Historically, the best coaches have had to let some guys go, and he has yet to do that. So far, that has worked out on defense as many were calling for Banks’ and Martinez’s names. For the record, I was not one of them. But I was watching the DBs closely and will be watching these receivers as closely this year.
All that said, some coaches have walked into programs in disarray and turned them into contenders virtually overnight. That trend has slowed down—especially in the SEC. Heupel has been above par thus far, but I think the statement that he has produced a contender is inaccurate. We have been one level below that—twice. That is still an accomplishment.
Whether or not Huepel holds onto everyone or makes some changes and whether or not those moves get him to that prowess, remains to be seen. While I’m not going to get ahead of myself, I still think we should all be excited about what he’s been able to do here and maintain optimism toward what he’s might be able to accomplish here at our University.
