‘People that want to continue to recruit against Josh Heupel want to make that claim’ – Tennessee is trying to leave tired narrative behind
The Tennessee Vols are trying to leave the narrative about their offense in the past.
Over the last several years, the Tennessee Vols have dealt with negative recruiting from rival programs due to the offense that Josh Heupel runs.
Heupel’s offense has changed over the years, using more condensed formations and slowing the tempo in 2025, but the leading narrative is still that Tennessee is an up-tempo offense with wide splits that create advantages that don’t translate to the next level.
ESPN’s Field Yates, for example, recently questioned Tennessee’s offense while discussing Vols wide receiver Chris Brazzell’s outlook for the 2026 NFL Draft.
“You just watch Tennessee tape, and he pops,” said Yates of Brazzell. “He can find ways to generate some separation at the top of his routes. It’s pretty much all on the perimeter. And Tennessee, to their success and credit during the college seasons — not as much during the pro development stage — has had a few of these guys come out as super long, fast, twitchy, athletic perimeter receivers that, at least to this point, haven’t really panned out that much at the NFL level.
“So I do think that will be part of the conversation (with Brazzell). A lot of the route tree at Tennessee is run far, run fast, run straight. Or run far, fast, straight, and then come back to the football. Guys like Cedric Tillman and Jalin Hyatt a few years ago. Remember, they were the talk of the town during that breakout year for Tennessee, and they have not become, at least to this point, super consistent contributors for their respective teams. I think Tillman more so for the Browns than Hyatt. But it’s a little bit of swimming upstream here for Chris Brazzell. I think day two, maybe round three, or late round two for me, with this incredibly gifted athlete.”
Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt is another talking head that’s recently questioned Tennessee’s offense.
“They (Tennessee) run an old Big 12 Art Briles style of offense that doesn’t compete at the top level,” said Klatt last fall. “It doesn’t win championships, it doesn’t beat quality opponents…Tennessee refuses to allow their team to work as a complementary unit. They just want to go score 50 points and everything else be damned, and you get beat because of it.”
Tennessee’s “new offense” under Josh Heupel shouldn’t have question marks
Tennessee’s offense evolved significantly in 2025. The Volunteers didn’t go up-tempo nearly as often, used more condensed formations, and lined up wide receivers inside the numbers more often than in previous seasons.
“The old offense had questions, the new offense has more NFL traits to it,” explained VolQuest’s Austin Price Tuesday on 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will. “They rehauled and did everything different after two years ago. So, this past year, it’s why the route concepts, the route trees, the route combinations, all the things they do, had much more of an NFL twist to it.
“Before, Bru McCoy lines up at wide out and is split almost to the out of bounds line. And then stays in that same spot the whole game. Now, they move around. And so Brazzell was split out wide right, split out wide left, in the slot, in the slot left. The routes were different. And so I think the people that want to continue to recruit against Josh Heupel want to make that claim that it’s same offense, but it’s not. And they’ll be the first to tell you that. What Dont’e Thornton ran, or what Bru McCoy ran, and what Chris Brazzell ran this past year, are two totally different offenses.”
The only way to bust this narrative for good, outside of winning a national championship, is if a player like Brazzell becomes a star in the NFL.
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