Barrett Sallee of CBS Sports is continuing an annual tradition of power ranking the coaches in the Southeastern Conference heading into the 2023 football season.
Specifically in regard to the SEC coaches, not much has changed since the end of the previous season to the summer of 2023. Mississippi State promoted and kept Zach Arnett after the tragic passing of head coach Mike Leach, while Auburn has been on the coaching hunt ever since firing former head coach Bryan Harsin back in late October. The Tigers replaced Harsin with a name that is familiar to the SEC in Hugh Freeze.
From a Tennessee standpoint, head coach Josh Heupel received a significant jump after leading the Vols to an 11-2 record with an Orange Bowl victory last season.
After being ranked at No. 10 during the 2022 offseason, Heupel jumped all the way up to No. 5 in the latest rankings from Sallee and CBS Sports. Heupel was ranked at No. 12 during the 2021 offseason.
Heupel only sits behind Nick Saban (No. 1), Kirby Smart (No. 2), Brian Kelly (No. 3), and Lane Kiffin (No. 4).
“Heupel led the Volunteers back into the national conversation in 2022 — so much so that they were ranked No. 1 in the first set of College Football Playoff Rankings,” Sallee wrote for CBS. “He polished off an 11-2 record with a win in the Orange Bowl, pushing his overall record to 18-8 in two seasons in Knoxville.”
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Climbing past and surpassing the top three names in the list is going to be difficult. Nick Saban is Nick Saban with the track record of Nick Saban, while Smart is flaunting back-to-back National Championships along the recruiting trail. LSU, meanwhile, won the SEC West in Kelly’s first season in Baton Rouge.
Getting past Kiffin is a more manageable task. Tennessee, obviously, would need to keep winning against good teams at a high level first and foremost. But Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels did slow down in the back half of the 2022 season with five losses in their final six games. The Rebels are expected to be turned around and in the race this coming season, but the door is open for Heupel to establish his name as a Top 4 coach in the conference.
Other notable names from Sallee’s list for CBS Sports include Kentucky’s Mark Stoops at No. 6, Auburn’s Hugh Freeze at No. 8, South Carolina’s Shane Beamer at No. 9, and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea at No. 13.
Tennessee will kick off its 2023 college football season on Saturday, Sept. 2. The Vols will take on Virginia in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium.
