When Josh Heupel was hired in January 2021, he was not expected to be the guy who would bring this storied program back to the mecca of college football. He had one job: get us out of the basement. After Danny White brought Heupel with him from UCF, it was a popular opinion among Vol fans that White had “settled” on the former UCF head coach. White pushed back on those rumors, insisting that Heupel was the right guy for the job and that he had no doubt about his decision. Nearly six years later, Tennessee is no longer in the basement. But that also means the expectations have changed. The question is no longer whether Josh Heupel can make Tennessee relevant again. The question is whether he can take Tennessee from relevant to elite.
During Heupel’s first season at the helm in 2021, the Vols posted a 7-6 record, including a blowout win over SEC East rival Missouri in Columbia and a controversial overtime loss to Purdue in the Music City Bowl. For a program that had been wandering through the wilderness for years, 7-6 felt like progress. More importantly, Heupel’s offense immediately caught the attention of Tennessee fans. The Vols played fast, scored points and looked completely different from the stagnant offenses fans had grown accustomed to watching. There was finally some excitement surrounding Tennessee football again, and Heupel’s offense became one of the biggest talking points heading into the 2022 offseason.
Then came 2022, and for many Tennessee fans, that season remains the peak of the Heupel era. The Vols defeated rival Alabama 52-49 in one of the most memorable games in program history. Jalin Hyatt put together a historic performance, catching six passes for 207 yards and five touchdowns as Tennessee defeated the then-No. 3 Crimson Tide for the first time in over a decade. The Vols started the season 8-0, and for the first time in years, the entire college football world was paying attention to Tennessee. Then came Athens. Georgia handed Tennessee its first loss of the season, and the Vols followed that up with a disastrous upset loss at South Carolina. To make matters worse, star quarterback Hendon Hooker suffered a season-ending ACL injury in that game. Despite the disappointing finish, Tennessee still ended the season 11-2 and capped it off with a dominant 31-14 win over Clemson in the Orange Bowl. For the first time in a long time, Tennessee looked like Tennessee again. More importantly, the rest of the country was starting to notice.
Coming off an 11-win season, expectations were understandably high in 2023. Tennessee entered the season ranked in the top 25 and opened the year 2-0 before traveling to Gainesville to take on Florida. That game exposed a problem that would become increasingly familiar during the Heupel era: Tennessee struggled to win on the road against SEC opponents it was expected to beat. The Vols were dominated in the trenches by a Florida team that ultimately finished 5-7. Tennessee eventually finished the regular season 8-4 behind Joe Milton before defeating Iowa in the bowl game to finish 9-4. It wasn’t a disastrous season by any means, but it was the first season that left some fans wondering whether 2022 was the beginning of something bigger or simply the high point of the Heupel era.
Then came 2024: the playoff appearance. If you even want to call it that. Tennessee continued its frustrating trend of dropping a game it wasn’t supposed to lose, this time falling 19-14 to Arkansas and dropping out of the top five. The difference in 2024 was that the defense carried the team. Tennessee finished the regular season 10-2 despite an offense that struggled for long stretches, particularly behind what may have been the worst offensive line of the Heupel era up to that point. Redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava eclipsed 300 passing yards only once during the regular season, throwing for 314 yards in the opener against Chattanooga.
Still, the Vols made the College Football Playoff. Tennessee entered the postseason ranked No. 9 and traveled to Columbus to face the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round. Tennessee fans braved the cold and showed up, and many of those same fans were gone by halftime. Ohio State jumped out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and eventually trounced the Vols 42-17. Tennessee had made the playoff, but it never really felt like the program had arrived. The game was essentially over before Tennessee had a chance to make it competitive. But hey, at least we took our shirts off during warm-ups.
Coming into 2025, the problem seemed obvious: the passing offense. So naturally, if Tennessee fixed the passing game, the next step should be a deep playoff run, right? Wrong. Heupel moved on from Nico and brought in Appalachian State transfer Joey Aguilar. The Vols completely turned around their passing attack and led the SEC in offense in 2025. Unfortunately, the defense made a dramatic transformation of its own, and not in a good way. Tennessee found itself among the bottom 15 teams in the country in passing defense. The result was another 8-4 regular season, only this time the Vols couldn’t even finish the season with a bowl victory, falling to Illinois 31-30.
Once again, Tennessee had fixed one side of the football while creating problems on the other. And that’s where the frustration really starts to set in.
Now we arrive at 2026, and this is where the fan base starts turning on itself. Tennessee opened the season with three games against inferior opponents before finally getting a real measuring stick against Texas. Many fans, myself included, believed the offensive line was a major problem entering the game. There were also questions about whether Tennessee should have pursued a more experienced transfer quarterback. Then came Texas.
The Longhorns dominated Tennessee up front for all four quarters, recording an inexcusable 10 sacks in a tightly contested 20-17 victory. But the final score wasn’t necessarily the biggest concern. The bigger problem was that the offense never got going. Tennessee managed just 221 total yards, including a measly 70 rushing yards. Against an elite opponent, the Vols simply couldn’t protect the quarterback or establish the run. Once again, the offensive line became the story.
The Glenn Elarbee experience continues to haunt Tennessee.
At some point, you have to stop calling these problems bad luck and start asking whether there is a larger issue with development, recruiting, roster construction or coaching. Heupel and Co. still have eight games remaining in the 2026 season, so there is plenty of football left to play. But that doesn’t mean the questions are going away.
If Heupel continues to stick with coaches he has personal relationships with despite persistent problems on the field, and if Tennessee continues to struggle to build a truly complementary football team, then the Vols’ head coach could be riding a piping-hot seat into 2027.
There is no question that Josh Heupel has accomplished the first part of his mission. He brought Tennessee out of the basement. He put out the metaphorical dumpster fire that had engulfed the program. He restored excitement. He won 11 games. He beat Alabama. He reached the College Football Playoff. He made Tennessee football relevant again.
But that’s precisely why the expectations have changed.
Nobody is asking Josh Heupel to save Tennessee anymore. Tennessee fans want him to make Tennessee a contender. And that’s a completely different challenge.
The uncomfortable truth is that Heupel has shown an ability to fix problems, but there have been far too many instances where fixing one problem has seemingly created another. The offense was electric, and then the defense had to carry the team. The defense improved, and then the offense became the problem. The passing game improved, and then the defense regressed. And through all of it, the offensive line has remained a recurring concern.
Eventually, the head coach has to put all the pieces together.
That’s what separates a good program from an elite one.
So here we are. Josh Heupel has proven that he can rebuild Tennessee. But can he reinvent Tennessee?
Can he build a team that doesn’t simply win when everything goes right, but can beat elite opponents when the game gets ugly? Can he consistently win the games Tennessee is supposed to win? Can he fix the offensive line? Can he build a defense that complements his offense? And perhaps most importantly, is he willing to make the difficult personnel and staff decisions necessary to get there?
I don’t believe he can.
Maybe 2026 will prove me wrong. He still has eight games left to change the conversation. But after six seasons, I think it’s fair for Tennessee fans to ask whether we’ve already seen the best version of the Josh Heupel era.
He got us out of the basement.
Now the question is whether he’s the guy who can take us to the penthouse.
God Bless and GO VOLS!
