Everything changed on January 27, 2021.
With an NCAA investigation looming and significant uncertainty inside the football program, Tennessee and newly hired athletic director Danny White brought in UCF’s Josh Heupel as the next head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers.
The task certainly wasn’t easy right away. Heupel and his staff had to deal with transfer portal movement, scholarship reductions, and the investigation as they worked tirelessly to get Tennessee back in the national spotlight.
While some were skeptical of Heupel’s hiring due to the fact that White and Heupel were at UCF together, many in the Tennessee fanbase quickly learned that Heupel was an offense-first type of guy. There had been losing football on Rocky Top before, but few things are as bad as losing football that is boring to watch. If Tennessee was going to lose under Heupel, it was at least going to be an exciting brand of football.
Fortunately for Tennessee, there hasn’t been much losing. But we’ll get back to that soon.
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Heupel and the Vols achieved a 7-6 final record in his first season after a controversial loss to Purdue in the Music City Bowl. The important aspect about Heupel’s first season, though, is that Tennessee found quarterback Hendon Hooker. While he wasn’t the original starter at the beginning of the season, Hooker was rushed into the action and quickly became synched up with Heupel’s offense.
Heupel and Hooker turned a 7-6 first year to an 11-2 second year with a win over Clemson in the Orange Bowl. Tennessee was back in the spotlight with a No. 1 ranking at one point in the season and a generational win over Alabama in Knoxville. Tennessee was dominant thanks to the offensive scheme that Heupel was orchestrating from the sideline.
With Hooker heading to the NFL, Heupel turned to veteran quarterback Joe Milton for year three. Milton lead the Vols to a 9-4 overall record as Tennessee went through a bit of a rebuilding year following the departures of Hooker, Jalin Hyatt, Cedric Tillman, and Byron Young.
All in all, though, Heupel’s first three years on Rocky Top have been filled with success, especially in comparison to where Tennessee was before his hire. Heupel has a record of 27-12 at Tennessee with wins over rivals Florida, Alabama, and Kentucky. Tennessee also rattled off some nice cross-divisional wins over those years with victories over LSU and Texas A&M.
On the third anniversary of Heupel’s hiring at Tennessee, the Vols’ social media team posted a “Heup Video“, if you will, documenting the time passed.
Check it out below:
