Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, for whatever reason, doesn’t get much love from the national media.

Despite leading the Vols out of the wilderness and completely turning the program around (including a College Football Playoff appearance in 2024), it seems like Heupel is always an afterthought for most of the national talking heads.

Heupel is always in the tier two or tier three conversation when it comes to coach rankings (which are completely pointless, by the way).

But it seems like some folks are starting to come around on Heupel after Tennessee knocked off an Alabama team on Saturday that much of the national media crowned as one of the best two or three teams in the nation a week ago.

That includes ESPN’s Greg McElroy, a former Alabama quarterback who gave Heupel his flowers near the end of the Vols’ 26-10 win over the Crimson Tide on Saturday in Knoxville.

McElroy was particularly impressed by a drive from Tennessee in the fourth quarter that took 9:30 off the clock.

“It’s probably time Josh Heupel gets more recognition nationally,” said ESPN’s Sean McDonough with 57 seconds left in the game.

“I think what Heupel deserves the most credit for, too, is how he’s evolved,” added McElroy. “For his entire career, it was, ‘We’re going to throw it down the field 100 times and spread you out,’ and run the system that you’ve seen mostly in the Big 12. To see his evolution into becoming a terrific coach, and for his team to put together a nine-and-a-half-minute drive shows you just how far he’s come from an offensive philosophy standpoint. He deserves immense credit for that.”

It doesn’t matter how it looks, it just matters if you’re on the right side of the scoreboard at the end of the night.

And Heupel is continuing to find a way to be on the right side of the scoreboard more often than not.

He is without a doubt one of the top coaches in the sport right now.