Tennessee Vols: Josh Heupel's first season compared to the first-year of prominent SEC head coaches
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel exceeded expectations during his first season in Knoxville by going 7-5 during the regular season. Numerous national analysts — including 18 college football writers from The Athletic — predicted that Tennesse would win fewer than six games in 2021. It's been a while since a new Vols head coach exceeded expectations […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel exceeded expectations during his first season in Knoxville by going 7-5 during the regular season.
Numerous national analysts — including 18 college football writers from The Athletic — predicted that Tennesse would win fewer than six games in 2021.
It's been a while since a new Vols head coach exceeded expectations in year one. Both of Heupel's predecessors — Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt — went 5-7 during their first seasons in Knoxville.
Tennessee's 7-5 record in 2021 is even more impressive when you consider the roadblocks that Heupel faced. A multitude of key UT players hit the transfer portal after the 2020 season. An extreme loss of talent combined with installing a completely new offensive system is likely what led to the low expectations for the Vols this season (and there's that lingering NCAA investigation, too).
The fact that Heupel managed to overcome those obstacles and lead his team to a 7-5 record shows that the program is on the right track.
Heupel's impressive first season, which included a 4-4 conference record and a win against No. 18 Kentucky, got me thinking about how his first year at UT compares to the first seasons of other prominent SEC head coaches.
Here's what I learned from looking at how coaches like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart fared in their first seasons* with a new program in the SEC.
*The record indicated is their record during the regular season before a bowl game appearance
Nick Saban — LSU (2000) — 7-4
Nick Saban came from Michigan State to LSU in 2000 and immediately turned the Tigers' program around. LSU went 3-8 the year before Saban's arrival.
In 2000, LSU lost to No. 24 Auburn, unranked UAB, and No. 12 Florida.
The loss to Florida was a 41-9 blowout.
LSU's biggest win in 2000 was against No. 11 Tennessee.
Saban went 10-3 the next season.
Nick Saban — Alabama (2007) — 6-6
Saban's first year at Alabama included a four-game losing streak to close the regular season. It also included an embarrassing home loss to Louisiana-Monroe.
Alabama's best win in Saban's first year in Tuscaloosa was against No. 16 Arkansas.
The Crimson Tide also lost games to unranked Florida State and unranked Mississippi State.
Alabama went 12-2 the following season.
Steve Spurrier — South Carolina (2005) — 7-4
I included Spurrier only because I feel like the South Carolina job has been similar to the Tennessee job in recent years.
Spurrier took over a decent situation at South Carolina (Lou Holtz went 6-5 the year before), but this was still an impressive first season for the head ball coach.
South Carolina's four losses came against No. 9 Georgia, unranked Alabama, unranked Auburn (a blowout 48-7 loss), and unranked Clemson. The Gamecocks also lost their bowl game matchup to Missouri.
The Gamecocks' best win in 2005 was against No. 12 Florida.
Spurrier went 8-5 the next season.
Mark Stoops — Kentucky (2013) — 2-10
Stoops is worth including here because he's proved to be one of the better coaches in the SEC. And he's about to lead Kentucky in their sixth straight bowl game.
It took Stoops a while to get things moving in the right direction. The 2013 season was disastrous for the Wildcats. Kentucky went 2-10 in 2012, so there was no improvement from the won/loss record standpoint in 2013.
Kentucky, however, stayed the course and the program is in the best shape it's ever been in (I'm sure some random Kentucky football historian will debate this, but it's Kentucky football….I think that says it all).
The Wildcats won 10 games in 2018 under Stoops.
Kirby Smart — Georgia (2016) — 7-5
Georgia actually took a step back under Smart in 2016. The Bulldogs went 10-3 in 2015 during Mark Richt's final season.
In Smart's first year, Georgia lost games to Tennessee, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt (!), Florida, and Georgia Tech.
Georgia's best win was against No. 8 Auburn, a team that ended up finishing 8-5 (Georgia's same record after a bowl game win against TCU).
The following season, Georgia went 13-2 and lost in overtime to Alabama in the National Championship game.
It would be easy to look at Smart's situation and expect the Vols to compete for a College Football Playoff spot next year, based on the similar year one results. But it's important to remember that the cupboard was stacked with talent when Smart arrived in Athens. He was essentially handed the keys to a Porsche.
Heupel, however, was handed the keys to a rusted-out vintage Camaro. The potential is there, but it's up to Heupel to do the work. So far, he's done good work.
The future is bright for Tennessee. Heupel is achieving similar results as some great coaches while dealing with a difficult situation. There's been a lot of optimism at Tennessee surrounding first-year head coaches in recent years, but this time I think the optimism might finally be for a legitimate reason.
Featured image via USA TODAY Sports
