Lane Kiffin has shaken one part of his offensive reputation, now Josh Heupel needs to find a way to do the same at Tennessee
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel could learn a lesson from new LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin.
When Lane Kiffin took over as the head coach at Florida Atlantic in 2017, he hired Kendal Briles to serve as his offensive coordinator.
Briles, who is the son of former Baylor head coach Art Briles, brought the old Big 12 style veer-n-shoot offense along with him to FAU (up-tempo with wide splits, choice routes, and, at times, half field reads).
When Kiffin, who was introduced on Monday as the new head coach of the LSU Tigers, left FAU for Ole Miss following the 2019 season, he hired Jeff Lebby, who was UCF’s offensive coordinator at the time, away from Josh Heupel, now the head coach of the Tennessee Vols.
Lebby and Heupel, of course, were running the veer-n-shoot at UCF (oddly enough, Lebby going to Ole Miss led to Heupel hiring Alex Golesh, now the head coach at Auburn, at UCF ahead of the 2020 season). Lebby stayed at Ole Miss for two seasons before leaving for Oklahoma.
A lot of folks around college football seem to look down on the Briles-inspired veer-n-shoot offense, especially when evaluating offensive players for the NFL draft. Running that style of offense is almost like wearing a scarlet letter.
Kiffin, though, has managed to shake the veer-n-shoot reputation — despite still utilizing elements of the Briles offense — thanks to the way his offense evolved at Ole Miss.
“I think that we have the most unique offense in the country,” said Kiffin on Monday when asked about evolving away from the Briles offense. “And because of learning from so many people along the way — we hired Art’s son, Kendall, at FAU, and then learned a ton from the Briles family about offense and that whole system. And then really combined that with what we had done over the years at USC, at Alabama and then said what if we combine these two and take this up-tempo, spread system, but then really still do it with problem plays and problem formations.
“Remember, I really grew up really under three people — my dad for my whole life, Monte Kiffin, then Pete Carroll, then Nick Saban. So really, I basically spent the majority of my life with those three defensive minds. Over time, always listening to them, what gave them problems, as three of the best defensive minds to ever coach this game.”
Josh Heupel needs to find a way to shake the veer-n-shoot reputation at Tennessee
The problem with getting portrayed as being married to the veer-n-shoot offense is that it’s viewed as a system that doesn’t properly prepare players for the NFL.
And it hasn’t helped that offensive players that have come from Tennessee under Heupel have mostly struggled in the NFL (wide receiver Velus Jones, wide receiver Jalin Hyatt, quarterback Hendon Hooker, running back Jaylen Wright, for example).
“Teams are skeptical of Tennessee’s college-friendly Air Raid system that coaches and scouts say allows quarterbacks to read half the field on on-read plays while stationary, which isn’t life in the NFL,” noted ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler in early 2024.
The Vols are still doing a great job on the recruiting trail, but the veer-n-shoot reputation is absolutely being used against Tennessee by opposing programs. And eventually — if it hasn’t already — it’s going to cost the Vols a key recruit.
To Heupel’s credit, his offense showed some major signs of evolution in 2025. Tennessee mixed up the tempo, not always going at warp speed. The Vols also started using more condensed formations, including looks with multiple tight ends and fullbacks. As a result, Tennessee finished with the No. 7 scoring offense in the nation.
I thought Heupel and his offensive staff did a great job of mixing up looks, and adding new formations to Tennessee’s arsenal during the 2025 season.
Many folks in the national media, though, still chose to point out the tempo and the wide splits as Heupel’s bread and butter.
“They don’t have a lot of oddball formations,” said ESPN’s Greg McElroy in October of Tennessee’s offense. “It’s pretty simple. I mean, they do get in some condensed stuff. They do build some bunches, but it’s mostly on third down. You can kind of see it coming. They don’t have a ton of options. They basically create a lot of picks and rubs. It’s a very simple system.”
To be clear, I believe Heupel has Tennessee’s offense evolving in the right direction. I think we saw Heupel make some necessary changes in 2025, and I’d expect that to continue into 2026 — he understands that you can’t get stagnant on offense in the SEC.
But perception is important in college football. And I think Heupel needs to do a better job of controlling the narrative around his offense. Instead of being defensive when someone questions the offense, Heupel should be more proactive about selling his offense as innovative, versatile, and NFL-adjacent.
Heupel, in general, probably needs to be a bit more of a politician as a head coach. That’s not something that seems to come natural to him (and I get it). But if you look at the rest of the head coaches in the SEC, the ability to sell your program — instead of letting the national media shape your narrative — is something the rest of the conference, for the most part, seems to excel at. And it legitimately seems to make a difference when it comes to how teams are portrayed nationally.
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