Prominent college football analyst ranks Colorado's Deion Sanders as a better head coach than Tennessee's Josh Heupel
Is Colorado's Deion Sanders a better head coach than Tennessee's Josh Heupel? At least one prominent college football analyst seems to think so. On3's Ari Wasserman revealed his list of the top 25 coaches in college football for the 2025 season on Monday and he has Sanders ranked at No. 7 and Heupel at No. […]
Is Colorado's Deion Sanders a better head coach than Tennessee's Josh Heupel?
At least one prominent college football analyst seems to think so.
On3's Ari Wasserman revealed his list of the top 25 coaches in college football for the 2025 season on Monday and he has Sanders ranked at No. 7 and Heupel at No. 10.
From On3: In order to properly appreciate the job Heupel has done at Tennessee, you need to go back in time and remember where the Volunteers program was before he arrived. Knoxville was in a rough spot. And while many Tennessee fans were’t thrilled about the hire at first, Heupel has proven to the be model of consistency the program needed after so many dysfunctional years. Tennessee cracked the 12-team CFP this past season and it has beaten Alabama two of the previous three years. There is no question Tennessee’s program is currently on the rise.
These types of lists are tough to compile because there are just so many different variables that each coach faces.
Heupel, for example, took over what appeared to be a disastrous situation at Tennessee in early 2021 and he quickly led the program to its first 11 win season in two decades.
Sanders, meanwhile, also took over a tough situation at Colorado. The Buffaloes went 1-11 in 2022, the year before Sanders took over. In Sanders' first season, Colorado went 4-8 before going 9-4 in 2024.
Both coaches engineered impressive turnarounds while dealing with tough situations.
Heupel had the benefit of the immense resources at Tennessee. Sanders had the benefit of a couple of potentially generational talents in Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter.
We'll see in the coming years which coach can sustain success for a long period of time. That will be the true marker of which coach is "better".
For now, though, I can't agree with Wasserman's rankings. I think you've gotta rank the coach with a College Football Playoff appearance higher than the coach without one.
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