IMO if we fire Heupel, he will be right back in the national championship hunt with another school, like vrabel has done since the Titans scapegoated him in 2023.
Before you negavols say he hasn’t gotten us in the championship hunt, we were there in 2024, and certainly in 2022. I believe he’ll have us there again. Both vrabel and Heupel were the best coaches the titans and vols have had in a long time. Let’s not make the same mistake Nashville did. Just my opinion.
Can you blame him?
RE: His biggest jobs are retention, recruiting and development.I think many don't realize how much College Football has changed. However, the fanbase has changed expectations in a very complex way. Every year we want a National Championship and we should but the years of dynasties are long gone.
Now if you want a NC you better out bid the other guy for players, coaches and staff. Even if you do, one or two games will make a difference.
Notre Dame got a gimme which should never have happen. Should not have handed it out.
The CFP selection rests upon the whim of humans and in some cases are just punching a resume' ticket. ESPN caters their needs for viewership and $$$$$ with their bias slants as well.
The NCAA has lost control on monitoring, governing the College Athletics.
Right now we have CJH and he appears to have a long term plan but some put him on a short leash. His biggest jobs are retention, recruiting and development.
Agree I think our talent is in the top 6, and pretty young, and JH has kept most of his recruits that he wanted to keep, so I think we've got a chance to be in the mix w/ changes and additions we've made. The field has leveled, so it really also gets down to coaching and fundamentals and eliminating mistakes....sound, fundamental football...like IU played this year. These are the things that, all else being equal, helps you win a couple close games instead of losing them, which can be the difference between getting in the playoffs or playing in the Music City Bowl.Reading all this I think UT is in the middle of the pack as player talent in this league. I’d put UGA Tx Bama A&M LSU in the top tier. UF UT OU MZ AU VN then bottom tier for rest. We lost to UGA in OT my UGA friend said Kirby coaching malfeasance misused his talent should have blown out UT. Probably true we struggled with ArkMSU & blown out by VU . With extra teams in SEC TX & OU it makes it harder to get to the SECC game I mean A& M has a SECC season but left out. So it’s different than it was in 90s with less teams then & just 3 or 4 top HCs rest terrible HCs. It’s just different world & when Vrabel got better players the results changed. Better players with a top coach or you’re gonna be an also ran. That’s why Kiffen is spending OSU money for a team to buffer his HC skills kind of like Heupel great OC but so so HC.
You got to have the best players. Auburn won the whole thing with a terrible HC as did Miami back in the day those were player led teams.
Also, Vrabel took a full year off maybe a coach in waiting, but he was off limits during that year.It will only work if he goes back Oklahoma. Vrabel is a Patriot through and through.
Also Vrabel walked into a better situation that it looked like. Not taking anything away from the turnaround but he got Drake Maye with a year under his belt and if you look at last year they had 6 games they lost by 1 score. I don't think they were as bad as their 4-13 record.
Also nobody is wanting to fire CJH, nobody with a brain at least.
They probably will be, but you have to give it another year in my opinion no matter how bad next year is. You have one of the best offensive minds, one of the best defensive minds, and a great new s&c coach. They need two years to gel to evaluate, because if you replace them next year, I don't see finding anyone better and you will then reset the clock yet again if you go that route. Really the improvements in my opinion that need be made from here are time management and special teams. I've seen some stupid calls from big time coaches with time management, UT made a few last year, I am guessing when emotional get high and the adrenaline kicks in, they just aren't making the choices everyone sitting at 50000 foot view seems is obvious. Hopefully they can fix that and with the new kicker we some improvement in the other area as well.If we lose 6 games next season the hounds of h*ll will be out for blood.
