Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel is reportedly “intriguing” to some athletic directors who are searching for a new head coach.

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman mentioned the interest in Heupel on Friday (Oct. 31).

“Industry sources tell us an SEC head coach with an explosive offense is intriguing some ADs looking for a new coach,” wrote Feldman. “Well, besides Lane Kiffin and Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz. That’s Josh Heupel, the 47-year-old Tennessee head coach who has done a terrific job in dragging the Vols out of the ditch they were in for a decade-plus. Under Heupel, Tennessee went to the Playoff last year and has finished in the top 10 in two of the last three seasons after going 20 years without being there.”

Numerous high-profile job openings have already emerged this fall. And several high-profile coaches, such as Matt Rhule at Nebraska and Curt Cignetti at Indiana, have recently signed extensions, seemingly taking themselves off the market.

Heupel seems locked in at Tennessee. But with guys like Rhule and Cignetti off the table, plus the success the Vols have enjoyed the last four years, it’s no surprise that Heupel is on the radar of some athletic directors.

Would Josh Heupel leave Tennessee for another job?

It’s hard to see Heupel leaving Tennessee for another job, but you never say never in this increasingly wild and crazy environment. No one thought Tony Vitello would leave for MLB in the middle of football season.

Ultimately, if Heupel were to leave Tennessee, it would only happen after extensive personal conversations with family and close friends. These kinds of moves aren’t made on paper — they’re made after thoughtful consideration with loved ones. That’s why it’s impossible to predict what Heupel would do if another program approached him about an opening.

I do believe, though, that there are numerous reasons why Heupel would be inclined to stay at Tennessee.

For starters, there’s the stability he’s helped bring to Tennessee’s football program. We’ve seen in the last several weeks how quickly a program can go off the rails.

LSU and Penn State went from preseason national champion favorites to firing their prominent head coaches before Halloween. Stability might be the most valuable currency in college football in this current era. And Tennessee is as stable as any program in the country right now.

Then there’s the culture that Heupel has worked hard to create over the last four-plus years. Heupel and his staff brought a program out of the ashes and created a sustainable culture that’s extremely attractive to recruits and transfers. Leaving Tennessee to start that process over at another program would be an odd challenge to take on.

But the biggest reason — aside from the fact that I believe Heupel genuinely loves Knoxville and being the head coach at Tennessee — is the Danny White factor.

White, whose first move as Tennessee’s athletic director in 2021 was to hire Heupel, has a relationship with Heupel that dates back to late 2017, when he hired the then-Missouri offensive coordinator to take over as UCF’s head coach.

That relationship is important for Heupel.

“I think for Danny and I, for me, and I don’t want to speak for him, there’s great comfort in coming here and knowing exactly what you’re getting out of the leader that you deal with the most,” said Heupel when he was hired at Tennessee in 2021. “There’s a clear vision of what he wants for the student-athlete experience, which is extremely important, and a clear vision of what he wants in an athletic department as a whole.”

I believe all of the above factors are why Heupel most likely isn’t going anywhere. But again, you never say never. All it takes is one phone call to change everything.

For now, the only way I see Heupel leaving Tennessee is if another program hires White and Heupel as a package deal. Some programs are in a position to make a move like that (LSU, for example), but I still think it’s an unlikely scenario.

This article was originally published on A to Z Sports Tennessee Vols as Tennessee’s Josh Heupel is reportedly ‘intriguing’ to some athletic directors who are searching for a new head coach.

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