CBS Sports ranks SEC head coaches and they have Tennessee's Josh Heupel too low
CBS Sports recently ranked all the SEC head coaches and they have Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel ranked a bit too low. Barrett Sallee, a national college football writer for CBS Sports, has Heupel ranked as the No. 10 coach in the SEC. Heupel was ranked No. 12 a year ago at this time. […]
CBS Sports recently ranked all the SEC head coaches and they have Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel ranked a bit too low.
Barrett Sallee, a national college football writer for CBS Sports, has Heupel ranked as the No. 10 coach in the SEC. Heupel was ranked No. 12 a year ago at this time.
Tennessee fans have been waiting to get excited about football for more than a decade, and Heupel did just that in his first season on Rocky Top. His 7-6 record doesn't jump off of the page, but he developed quarterback Hendon Hooker into a dark horse Heisman Trophy contender heading into 2022 and has established a hurry-up offense that produces more fireworks than a July 4 party. When you factor in his 28-8 record in three seasons at UCF, it's understandable to be excited about what he can do in the SEC.
Here are the full rankings:
- Nick Saban — Alabama
- Kirby Smart — Georgia
- Jimbo Fisher — Texas A&M
- Brian Kelly — LSU
- Mark Stoops — Kentucky
- Lane Kiffin — Ole Miss
- Sam Pittman — Arkansas
- Mike Leach — Mississippi State
- Billy Napier — Florida
- Josh Heupel — Tennessee
- Shane Beamer — South Carolina
- Eli Drinkwitz — Missouri
- Bryan Harsin — Auburn
- Clark Lea — Vanderbilt
I don't think Heupel should be ranked in the top five or anything like that. I understand that he still has a lot to prove as a head coach in the SEC.
But I have no idea how you can justify putting Florida's Billy Napier ahead of Heupel when Napier has coached zero (0) games in the SEC. That makes absolutely no sense. We have no clue how Napier will fare as a head coach in the SEC.
I get that Napier had a lot of success at Louisiana — going 40-12 across four seasons. But Heupel had success at UCF before coming to the SEC, too. Heupel went 28-8 across three seasons. That's not that big of a difference (Heupel actually had the higher pre-SEC winning percentage, albeit just slightly).
There's something else about Heupel's pre-SEC days that gets overlooked as well. He nearly led UCF to a win against an LSU team that featured future NFL players Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Patrick Queen, JaCoby Stevens, Tyler Shelvin, and Grant Delpit (among others). That wasn't the 2019 LSU team that blew out nearly everyone while going 15-0, but it was the last game of the 2018 season and it was close to the same LSU team as what we saw in 2019.
UCF lost to LSU 40-32 in the Fiesta Bowl (the Tigers finished the 2018 season 10-3). The fact that Heupel went toe to toe with an LSU team full of future NFL stars is something that gets massively overlooked.
Heupel should at least be above Napier on this list. And there's an argument to be made for him to be above Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman, who is 12-11 so far in Fayetteville. But I can at least understand putting Pittman above Heupel after a nine-win season last year.
The media's obsession with Napier is a bit strange. But ultimately it means nothing. Napier, just like every other new SEC head coach, has to prove he belongs. I won't be a believer until I see it happen on Saturdays in the fall.
As for Heupel, if he leads Tennessee to 9 or 10 wins in 2022 after inheriting one of the worst situations in Vols history in early 2021, then I think he has to rocket up this list next summer.
Featured image via Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
