CBS Sports says there’s ‘real concern’ that Josh Heupel’s offense at Tennessee has ‘already peaked’
CBS Sports thinks the Tennessee Vols are a preseason AP Top 25 team that could finish the season unranked. They cited Tennessee’s lack of a true No. 1 wide receiver, a new look offensive line, and concern that Josh Heupel’s offense has “already peaked” as reasons they believe “an unranked finish feels very possible” for […]
CBS Sports thinks the Tennessee Vols are a preseason AP Top 25 team that could finish the season unranked.
They cited Tennessee’s lack of a true No. 1 wide receiver, a new look offensive line, and concern that Josh Heupel’s offense has “already peaked” as reasons they believe “an unranked finish feels very possible” for the Volunteers this fall.
From CBS Sports: This isn’t the same Tennessee offense that lit up the scoreboard on the way to No. 1 a couple years ago. The Vols lack a true No. 1 receiver, are breaking in new backs and an offensive line, and there’s real concern Josh Heupel’s veer-and-shoot has already peaked. A favorable SEC slate could mask issues for a while, but an unranked finish feels very possible.
On the surface, the concerns from CBS Sports are legitimate. Tennessee has a lot of talent at wide receiver, but it’s mostly unproven talent. The Vols are also replacing four starters on the offensive line, and they lost the 2024 SEC Offensive Player of the Year in running back Dylan Sampson.
Concerns about Heupel’s offense have been echoed over the past year, but I’m not sure they should be a major worry. It’s true that Tennessee’s offense hasn’t been as prolific the last two seasons as it was during the first two seasons of the Heupel era, but that’s mostly due to lackluster play from the quarterback and wide receiver positions.
Tennessee’s coaching staff worked hard during the offseason to make sure the offense can generate more explosive plays in the passing game in 2025.
“That’s been the entire focus of the offseason, is when people are playing really soft [coverages] and dropping eight in coverage, how do we keep being explosive in the passing game,” said Vols offensive coordinator Joey Halzle at the start of fall camp. “And that’s why, once again, we ran the ball the way we did last year. But it’s not going to be that we just say that’s par for the course now. The entire focus of this offseason has been how do we get our playmakers the ball in space with the ball in their hand where they can run and do what we’ve recruited them here to do.
“I feel like we’ve made some changes. We’ve done some things differently, but we’re never going to lose sight of who we are, which is to be extremely aggressive with how we call it, and to push the tempo, to make people play in space. But what are the one or two different little things we can do that help free people up. And when people are playing really soft and saying, “Ok, you’re not going over the top today’, what are we doing to do to attack that and not let them set the directive of the game.”
We’ll find out in the coming months whether CBS Sports was spot on with their take about the Vols finishing unranked or if they severely missed the mark.
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