Tennessee Vols: Josh Heupel has a lot to prove at UT, but he's already way ahead of Jeremy Pruitt
Josh Heupel might win a national championship as the Tennessee Vols' head coach. Or he may never have a winning season. No one knows right now how things will turn out for Heupel — even if we've spent much of the offseason speculating how successful he will be in Knoxville. But while we don't know […]
Josh Heupel might win a national championship as the Tennessee Vols' head coach.
Or he may never have a winning season.
No one knows right now how things will turn out for Heupel — even if we've spent much of the offseason speculating how successful he will be in Knoxville.
But while we don't know how the Heupel era will play out, we at least know that he's already way ahead of his predecessor Jeremy Pruitt in at least one area.
Quarterback experience.
Heupel obviously has head coaching experience that Pruitt didn't have. But it's more than just head coaching experience. Heupel has spent more time in major college football than Pruitt. And all of Heupel's experience has been on the offensive side of the ball, with the majority of it focusing on quarterbacks.
Managing quarterbacks is an area where Pruitt failed miserably. He never seemed to have a solid plan. He would mix and match quarterbacks with seemingly no idea what his next move would be. It was a disaster for the program and for the quarterbacks playing for Pruitt.
That's not going to be a problem with Heupel. That's because he's either been a quarterback or been managing quarterbacks for over 20 years.
Managing the quarterback situation at Tennessee is going to be business as usual for Heupel because it's what he's done for most of his adult life. That means no more randomly seeing a quarterback get yanked at halftime in favor of the third-string quarterback. No more silly games with quarterback reps.
It's hard to have success in college football without a great quarterback situation. And there aren't many coaches better at developing quarterbacks than Heupel.
Pruitt was always going to struggle in that area. The fact that it's a strength for Heupel, means he's already lightyears ahead of Pruitt as a head coach.
Featured image via Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports
