Tennessee has broken all sorts of offensive program records in Josh Heupel’s first two seasons in Knoxville. Many of those records belonged to offenses coached by former Vols’ offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe.
Cutcliffe served two stints as Phillip Fulmer’s offensive coordinator (1993-98, 2006-07) as well as a head coaching stint at both Ole Miss and Duke. On “Off The Hook Sports” last week at SEC Media Days, Cutcliffe discussed Heupel and specifically the first time he knew he was going to be a successful head coach.
“Coach Heupel impressed me. I went down and watched him practice when he was at Central Florida and his spring practice was extremely impressive,” Cutcliffe told Dave Hooker. “Knew in my heart there that this was a special coach. An extremely special coach.”
Cutcliffe parted ways with Duke after the 2021 season and now serves as a Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Football Relations in the Southeastern Conference.
In the interview, the former Tennessee coordinator discussed the schemes in Heupel’s offense and why it is so effective attacking opposing defenses. But Cutcliffe says it’s not only Heupel’s offensive mind that makes him a special coach— it’s his leadership and feel for his team.
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In his new role with the SEC, Cutcliffe can travel around the conference and watch league members practice. He’s watched Tennessee practices often during the past year and has seen Heupel’s understanding of his team up close and personal.
“Coach Heupel is a really all around really good football coach,” Cutcliffe said. “The other thing I think he does really well is he reads his teams and the people around him really well. Maybe that’s the quarterback in him, I don’t know. He gets a sense of what his team needs and how they’re going to respond. I was over there last August for their preseason practices. He hit them with a surprise, basically a night off. I’ve never heard an eruption like I heard from that team. But he knew that the team and coaches had hit maybe a zero return or a negative return on time. That can happen. That’s a sixth sense that the great ones have.”
Heupel enters his third season in Knoxville with a 18-8 (10-6 SEC) record and led the Vols to their first wins over Florida and Alabama and years.
After inheriting a program in disarray coming off a 3-7 season and in the midst of a NCAA investigation, Heupel led Tennessee to an Orange Bowl win and the program’s best season in over two decades in 2022. Cutcliffe says that’s no accident and is a reason to believe last season was more than a flash in the pan for Tennessee.
“There’s more to it (coaching) than just saying line up, have a scheme and call a play,” Cutcliffe said. “You got to build a program and I certainly believe he’s doing that at Tennessee.”
One Response
It is supposed to say “Florida and Alabama in years”. Not and years