Josh Heupel is off to a great start as the Tennessee Vols head coach.

Tennessee's offense is among the most prolific in the nation. And the Vols are coming off a massive road win against Pittsburgh. And they have one of the top recruits in the nation committed to their 2023 recruiting class in five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

Seemingly everything is going right for Heupel and the Vols.

But Tennessee fans have been down this road before. Derek Dooley offered hope via strange, close losses and a high-scoring offense. Butch Jones delivered Tennessee's only win against Florida since 2004. And Jeremy Pruitt rallied the team from a woeful 0-2 start in 2019 to finish 8-5.

What makes us so sure that Heupel is going to finally be "the guy"?

Well, we don't know for sure. That's impossible to know. But we can compare what Heupel has done so far at Tennessee to what his predecessors had accomplished through the same number of games.

I've always said that when Tennessee has a good coach, the results will be drastically different than what Vols fans have experienced under previous coaches.

Here's how Heupel compares to the three coaches that preceded him at Tennessee through 15 games.

Josh Heupel

• Record: 9-6 (4-4 SEC)
• Road wins: 3 (Missouri, Kentucky, Pittsburgh)
• Wins vs ranked opponents: 2 (at No. 18 Kentucky, at No. 17 Pittsburgh)
• Losses by 20 points or more: 3 (Florida, Alabama, Georgia)
• Games scoring more than 40 points: 8

Jeremy Pruitt

• Record: 6-9 (2-6 SEC)
• Road wins: 1 (Auburn)
• Wins vs ranked opponents: 2 (at No. 21 Auburn and vs No. 12 Kentucky)
• Losses by 20 points or more: 6 (West Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Vanderbilt)
• Games scoring more than 40 points: 2

Butch Jones

• Record: 7-8 (2-6 SEC)
• Road wins: 1 (Kentucky)
• Wins vs ranked opponents: 1 (vs No. 11 South Carolina)
• Losses by 20 points or more: 5 (Oregon, Alabama, Missouri, Auburn, Oklahoma)
• Games scoring more than 40 points: 2

Derek Dooley

• Record: 7-8 (3-5 SEC)
• Road wins: 2 (Memphis, Kentucky)
• Wins vs ranked opponents: 0
• Losses by 20 points or more: 3 (Oregon, Georgia, Alabama)
• Games scoring more than 40 points: 5

It's very obvious that Heupel has been by far the best of the four coaches (it was a bit surprising that Dooley arguably had the best start of the other three coaches).

What can we glean from this? Probably not much to be honest. Heupel could still crash and burn (not that I expect him to, but it's still very early). The main takeaway is that he's ahead of where his predecessors were at this point and that's a great sign for his future. He'll have to continue to improve, but it should be encouraging to fans that he's doing better than past coaches who eventually failed.

Just for fun, here's how Nick Saban and Kirby Smart did in their first 15 games at their current jobs.

Nick Saban — Alabama

• Record: 9-6 (4-4 SEC)
• Road wins: 2 (Vanderbilt, Ole Miss) — Saban also won two neutral site games (Colorado and Clemson)
• Wins vs ranked opponents: 3 (vs No. 16 Arkansas, vs No. 20 Tennessee, vs No. 9 Clemson)
• Losses by 20 points or more: 0
• Games scoring more than 40 points: 4

Kirby Smart — Georgia

• Record: 10-5
• Road wins: 1 (Kentucky)
• Wins vs ranked opponents: 4 (Missouri, South Carolina, Kentucky, Notre Dame) — Kirby also won two neutral site games (TCU and North Carolina)
• Losses by 20 points or more: 1 (Ole Miss)
• Games scoring more than 40 points: 1 (against FCS Samford)

A couple of things about comparing Heupel to Saban and Smart:

1. Smart took over a fantastic situation at Georgia from Marck Richt. The program was in great shape and had plenty of talent.
2. Saban, Heupel, and Dooley are the only three of these coaches that didn't lose to Vanderbilt in their first 15 games (Dooley would lose to Vanderbilt in 2012).
3. Heupel could've easily been 12-3 in his first 15 games if Hendon Hooker would've started against Pittsburgh in 2021, if the right call is made against Purdue at the goal line (Jaylen Wright's non-TD due to forward progress), and if the game was called correctly against Ole Miss (and if Hooker doesn't get hurt near the end of the game). I'm sure you can say the same of some games that Saban and Smart coached as well, but this really just illustrates how close Heupel was to winning a few of those games.

If you're a Tennessee fan you have to like the direction of the program. The next 15 games, however, will tell the true tale.

Featured image via Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports