The Tennessee Volunteers will likely not return to the College Football Playoff in 2025. The Vols lost at home to Oklahoma on Saturday night, 33-27, picking up loss No. 3 in the process.

It’s a game that’s particularly frustrating for Tennessee fans because the Vols likely should have won, if not for a number of self-inflicted wounds, which have become a bit of a staple under Josh Heupel. That frustration was evident in the reactions of several fans on social media after the loss, with some questioning whether Heupel should be on the hot seat after Saturday.

The topic about who Heupel is and whether he’s on any kind of hot seat came up on the Big Orange Podcast postgame show with Charlie Burris and former Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton. The latter had an interesting comparison as to who Heupel is similar to, and it’s former Penn State head coach James Franklin.

Former Vols QB says that Josh Heupel is Tennessee’s James Franklin

“I’m not the one to call for a coach to get fired, that’s not my thing,” Crompton said. “What I’m saying is I do think Heupel is our James Franklin. He’s going to win us nine to ten ball games a year. The odd year, we’ll get eleven. And that’s about our ceiling.”

Through five seasons, it’s a pretty fair comparison. Franklin spent 12 seasons at Penn State, and he hit 11+ wins five times, but he also had some seven- and nine-win seasons mixed in. He never beat Ohio State after 2016, and he could never quite turn Penn State into a true title contender.

Heupel has proven he can do what it takes to win most of the games that Tennessee is supposed to win, especially at home. That’s what Franklin did at Penn State. And Heupel has gotten Tennessee to 11 wins and a New Year’s Six Bowl win once thus far, something Franklin also topped out at until reaching the College Football Playoff semifinals last season.

But Franklin’s teams shrank from the moment in marquee games, and his inability to win the big one was his primary bugaboo until the midseason collapse cost him his job this season.

To his credit, Heupel has won some big games for Tennessee, including Florida and Alabama in 2022 and 2024, which were huge for the program and the fan base. But there have been struggles that are impossible to ignore elsewhere.

More particularly, it has been characterized by deflating and undisciplined performances in big games, especially on the road. The 2022 South Carolina and 2023 Missouri games were flat, uncompetitive stinkers. Tennessee’s struggles at Alabama and Florida, and their annual losses to Georgia, have kept Tennessee outside of being a true title contender, but still a solid upper-tier bowl team.

And that’s not a bad spot to be in after almost 15 years of futility before Heupel was hired. Tennessee is in a much better place than before. I am in no way calling for Heupel’s job, nor do I think he’s on the hot seat at this point.

However, one does have to wonder if Heupel can take Tennessee to that next level, like Kirby Smart did for Georgia, and like Penn State’s fans hope Franklin’s successor can do in 2026 and beyond. Through almost five full seasons, Heupel’s body of work has spoken for itself – good, but not true contender good – and it’s fair to wonder if that day is going to come.