One of the most detrimental things that can happen to a college football program is the head coach becoming complacent.

Complacency is the enemy of greatness. Once complacency enters the picture, championship aspirations quickly die.

Fortunately for the Tennessee Vols, head football coach Josh Heupel has shown this offseason that complacency isn’t in his vocabulary.

After coming up short of the College Football Playoff in 2025 — thanks in part to a blowout loss at home to Vanderbilt — Heupel made some massive changes this offseason, including hiring a new defensive coordinator in Jim Knowles and a new strength coach in Derek Owings.

Heupel knew the status quo wasn’t good enough after going 8-5 this past season, and he didn’t hesitate to make the necessary changes.

Josh Heupel badly wants to win a national championship at Tennessee

A big reason why Heupel didn’t hesitate to make some tough moves this offseason (such as firing defensive coordinator Tim Banks) is because he badly wants to win a national championship at Tennessee.

“My goal is to go win the championship too, and that’s why I want to be here. I know you can do it here,” said Heupel to On3’s Chris Low. “We’re in a race to get it done as fast as possible. I love the people that we have here, and that’s our staff and our players…We’re going to go compete for that thing every day.”

Heupel understands that Tennessee fans have high expectations. That doesn’t bother him. Heupel, in fact, embraces those high expectations.

“Their expectations are certainly high and that’s the way you want it,” said Heupel to On3 of the expectations from Vols fans. “Our expectations inside of this building are high too….This fan base has been a big part of the growth of this program since we arrived. Recruits feel that energy and that passion, and we do inside of this building every day too.”

There is no easy button Heupel can push that will guarantee a national championship for Tennessee. Nearly every Power-4 program has the same goals as the Vols — the competition to win a natty is as fierce as ever. Heupel, however, is certainly doing everything he can, within reason, to make sure that Tennessee has all of the necessary ingredients to bring a championship back to Rocky Top — he’s not falling into the complacency trap.

Whether or not Tennessee eventually wins a national championship under Heupel is anyone’s guess. But hey, the unpredictability is what makes college football so compelling. If we knew everything that was going to happen, we wouldn’t spend hours in front of our TVs on Saturdays in the fall.

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