DALLAS — Josh Heupel is not one for showmanship or hype. As a substitute of his highly-touted quarterback Nico Iamaleava and potential No. 1 DE James Pearce, the Tennessee coach introduced a senior offensive lineman and linebacker to SEC Media Days.
Coming into his fourth season, maybe the best praise one pays to Heupel is that he is made Tennessee… boring?
“After I took this job three years in the past, all people can return and sort of analysis what we have been launched into so far as challenges and the way we needed to navigate these,” Heupel mentioned. “We’re on the level now the place we’re virtually free and away from navigating all these issues. Our roster is the deepest that it has been by far.”
With years of calm, it is easy to neglect the last decade of turmoil Tennessee soccer as soon as endured. This system fired earlier coach Jeremy Pruitt amid alleged Degree I NCAA violations. Quite a few coaches turned the Vols job down after they fired Pruitt’s predecessor Butch Jones. Lane Kiffin deserted this system after one 12 months. These messes ended not solely with new soccer coaches however with new athletic administrators, too.
Heupel was seen by many as a bridge coach after becoming a member of his UCF athletic director Danny White within the transfer to Tennessee. Already, he is properly overperformed expectations. In 2022, the Vols beat Alabama and gained 11 video games. Maybe most spectacular, he adopted it up with one other nine-win marketing campaign, giving Tennessee its most constant two-year run since 2004.
It comes by way of in interviews that Heupel is a quiet man. He has seen the highs and lows of faculty soccer, from quarterbacking Oklahoma’s 2000 championship group to getting run off from his alma mater as an offensive coordinator in 2014. However greater than something, that calm consistency stands out to his gamers.
“When you will have somebody like Coach Heup who’s very constant in what he does and may be very constant day by day, it provides you no choice however to be constant as a group,” defensive lineman Omari Thomas mentioned. “He is simply chill, goofy virtually. He is actual laid again. What you see is what you get.”
That consistency has lifted Tennessee again into the nationwide highlight. Final 12 months, the Vols landed No. 2 general recruit Iamaleava to headline a high 10 nationwide highschool class. This 12 months, Heupel satisfied a number of gamers –– like linebacker Keenan Pili, who suffered a season-ending damage final 12 months –- to return and lead the following nice Tennessee group.
“Individuals need to play for him,” linebacker Keenan Pili mentioned. “He is constructed these relationships with the coaches in a manner that they are keen to sacrifice their very own private desires and wishes for a group aim.”
Tennessee enters the 2024 season as a darkish horse contender to compete for the expanded School Soccer Playoff. The Volunteers are properly throughout the CBS Sports activities Blue Chip Ratio wanted to compete for a nationwide championship. That was as soon as framed as a downfall for Heupel, who had not fared properly within the SEC recruiting footprint earlier than touchdown in Knoxville. However maybe most significantly, his quiet calm units the tone for a novel era of Tennessee participant management who need to take this system to new heights.
“The largest factor is that he would not ask you to do something that he would not do,” offensive lineman Cooper Mays mentioned. “When your gamers see that, they’re going to combat exhausting for you. He is accomplished an excellent job of doing issues the proper manner.”
