‘I’m surprised Josh Heupel’s name has not come up more’ – Will other programs try to steal Tennessee’s head coach?
Will programs in need of a new head coach come after Tennessee Vols football coach Josh Heupel?
There’s still a month of the 2025 college football regular season left, but the coaching carousel is already in full motion.
Numerous high profile programs, including Penn State, LSU, and Florida, have already fired their head coaches. More programs will follow suit in the coming weeks.
No one knows how this year’s coaching cycle will play out, but it’s expected to be one of the wildest ever. And given the unpredictable nature of college football, nearly every coach in the sport — including Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel — will be mentioned for some of these job openings.
Josh Heupel’s name has popped up on hot boards, but he’s not viewed as a serious candidate anywhere at this time
Heupel’s name has popped up on a couple of hot boards, but that’s not nearly enough to consider the fifth year Tennessee head coach as a serious candidate anywhere.
On3’s Ari Wasserman said this week that he’s actually surprised that Heupel’s name isn’t coming up more for some of these openings.
“You’ve (Tennessee) got a really good, attractive coach that people should want,” said Wasserman. “Which I hope that you would want for yourself. And then I’m also just having the good faith discussion about the hierarchy of jobs, and LSU probably ranks higher on that hierarchy.”
“I’m not saying he should go (to LSU),” continued Wasserman. “I’m not saying he will go. I’m not even saying that they’ll offer him the job. All I am saying is I’m surprised that Josh Heupel’s name has not come up more.”
It’s going to be fascinating to see how this year’s coaching cycle plays out. The landscape of the sport has changed so much over the last five years that coaching searches are approached much differently than they were when Tennessee was seemingly searching for a new coach every other year.
When it comes to Heupel, though, I’m not surprised that his name isn’t getting tossed around more. For starters, Heupel isn’t a media favorite. He’s not a guy who does a ton of podcast interviews or pals around with national media folks on the regular. So it’s not shocking that most national media members have hesitated to float Heupel’s name for some of these jobs (even though he’s one of just three SEC coaches, along with Kirby Smart and Steve Sarkisian, who has guided an SEC team to a College Football Playoff appearance).
Ultimately, I don’t think Heupel’s name gets seriously connected to any of these jobs. You never say never — I certainly didn’t think two months ago that Tony Vitello would leave Tennessee before Halloween — but there are just too many factors that suggest Heupel is locked in with the Vols.
Heupel seems very happy at Tennessee, he has a great relationship with athletic director Danny White (which dates back to late 2017), he’s established a strong culture on Rocky Top, and he has a great resources and an athletic department that fully supports him. It’s hard to see Heupel leaving what he’s built at Tennessee to completely start over at another program.
I get what Wasserman is saying about the LSU job — I understand the argument that it’s probably the best job in the sport. But the silly job rankings that folks in the national media love to do are completely pointless (can we just stop ranking everything…there’s really no need). The job that’s the “best” for one person may not be what’s best for another person (just ask Brian Kelly about that). So while the LSU job is undoubtedly a great job, it’s not necessarily the best job for Heupel — he already has the job that suits him the best.
Tennessee Volunteers News
College football program reportedly recently showed interest in hiring former Tennessee Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt
Jeremy Pruitt hasn’t coached in college football since he was fired by the Tennessee Vols in early 2021
