Tennessee's Josh Heupel needs to call a couple of old friends for inside advice on how to beat 2024 version of Ohio State
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel knows a couple of coaches with experience in beating the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2024. Which is why Heupel should pick up the phone (if he hasn't already) and give those coaches a call for some inside advice on what it will take to leave Columbus with a win […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel knows a couple of coaches with experience in beating the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2024.
Which is why Heupel should pick up the phone (if he hasn't already) and give those coaches a call for some inside advice on what it will take to leave Columbus with a win on December 21 when the Vols and the Buckeyes meet in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore led the Wolverines to an upset win on the road against Ohio State to end the regular season just a few weeks ago.
The Buckeyes were a three score favorite to beat Michigan, but the Wolverines managed to escape the Horseshoe with a 13-10 win.
Moore, who is in his first full season as the head coach at Michigan, was an offensive lineman at Oklahoma in 2006 and 2007. Heupel served as the Sooners' quarterbacks coach during those years. And Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle, a former Oklahoma quarterback, was teammates with Moore.
I'm sure Moore wouldn't mind helping out a couple of his old Oklahoma buddies beat his program's biggest rival. Any loss for Ohio State is a win for Michigan.
Michigan linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary is another coach that knows Heupel and the coaching staff at Tennessee. Jean-Mary spent three seasons on Heupel's staff at UT (2021 to 2023) before leaving for Michigan this past offseason.
Jean-Mary wasn't looking to leave Rocky Top last offseason, but he has a close relationship with Moore and the Wolverines made the former UT assistant an offer he couldn't turn down, so it's not like bad blood drove him away from Knoxville.
Another connection that Tennessee has to Michigan, albeit not quite as strong as the ones mentioned above, is via former Wolverines offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell, who spent three seasons as an analyst at Penn State while current Vols defensive coordinator Tim Banks served as the Nittany Lions' co-defensive coordinator.
Campbell was fired earlier this month by Michigan, but he was part of that win against the Buckeyes in late November.
I'm sure there's some insight that those coaches could share with Heupel and his staff that could be beneficial to Tennessee. Whether it's something they saw on film that they were able to exploit, or tendencies that they noticed from Ohio State, anything that Moore, Jean-Mary, and Campbell have to offer could help Tennessee win what's expected to be a highly-competitive game.
