For the first time since arriving on Rocky Top nearly five years ago, Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel is facing some outside noise heading into the offseason.

The Vols ended the 2025 regular season on a sour note with a 45-24 home loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Tennessee finished the regular season with an 8-4 record, with all four losses coming against playoff-caliber teams.

The season certainly could’ve gone better for the Vols. But an eight-win season with the youngest roster in the SEC, plus injuries to a couple of top cornerbacks (Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson), is a pretty solid year.

Still, there was some unrest among Vol nation following the loss to the Commodores.

Heupel and his coaching staff, though, quieted much of that unrest on Wednesday with a massive national signing day.

Josh Heupel made the statement that Tennessee is still on the upswing

Heupel and the Vols quickly got momentum back in their favor this week with a huge first day of the early signing period — Tennessee was named by Rivals/On3 as one of the biggest winners of the day.

Tennessee signed nearly all of its top targets, losing only four-star athlete Salesi Moa to Utah. Moa is from Utah, and his dad played for the Utes.

The Vols made up for losing Moa by landing four-star wide receiver Legend Bey, who was committed to Ohio State. Tennessee also flipped four-star edge rusher Carter Gooden from UCLA, and four-star defensive lineman JJ Finch from Alabama. And the Vols signed four-star edge rusher Jordan Carter, a former Texas A&M commit.

The flips dominated the headlines for the Vols on Wednesday, but Heupel and his staff deserve credit for quietly locking down longtime commits like five-star quarterback Faizon Brandon and five-star wide receiver Tristen Keys without any recruiting drama.

Not even the Georgia Bulldogs were immune from recruiting drama during this cycle, as they lost five-star quarterback Jared Curtis to Vanderbilt this week.

Brandon, however, never wavered in his commitment to Tennessee. He never flirted with other programs, despite committing to Tennessee 16 months before signing day. It was a completely drama-free recruitment. Heupel and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle couldn’t have navigated Brandon’s recruitment any better.

The same goes for Keys, who flipped his commitment from LSU to Tennessee in late August. Keys is the No. 1 wide receiver in the nation, and other schools (such as Ole Miss when Lane Kiffin was still there) kept coming after the five-star recruit after he committed to Tennessee. Vols wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope did a terrific job of continuing to recruit Keys after he committed to LSU and then keeping the talented wide receiver committed after he flipped to the Vols.

Tennessee’s 2025 season may not have delivered the results many fans hoped for, but the future is still extremely bright in Knoxville. Not every season will result in a College Football Playoff appearance.

Building mainly through high school recruiting while supplementing the roster with transfers is still the most sustainable way to build a program. That approach, however, means that some years you’ll have a young team, which can lead to some uneven performances. There will be seasons like that for the Vols (and most other programs) from time to time — and that has to be OK.

But the way Heupel and his staff attacked this recruiting class should quell any concerns about the state of Tennessee’s program.

Tennessee Volunteers News

Former Vol who played for Josh Heupel shares thoughts on the concerns about the way Tennessee practiced in 2025

There have been some reports this season about the way the Tennessee Vols practiced and whether it’s physical enough.

Zach Ragan