The NFL's newest star QB got his chance in college because of Josh Heupel

Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel is largely responsible for the NFL's newest star quarterback getting a chance at the collegiate level.  On Sunday afternoon, quarterback Jordan Love solidified his status as a star player after leading the Green Bay Packers to a shocking road upset of the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of […]

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
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Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel is largely responsible for the NFL's newest star quarterback getting a chance at the collegiate level. 

On Sunday afternoon, quarterback Jordan Love solidified his status as a star player after leading the Green Bay Packers to a shocking road upset of the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs. 

Love, who took over as Green Bay's starting quarterback this season after sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for three seasons, completed 16-of-21 passes for 272 yards and three touchdowns in the Packers' 48-32 win. 

Green Bay selected Love in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft after his standout career at Utah State. 

The reason that Love, a Bakersfield, CA native, ended up at Utah State is because of Heupel. 

Heupel spent one season at Utah State in 2015 as the program's offensive coordinator after he was fired at Oklahoma by Bob Stoops. During his lone season with the Aggies, Heupel recruited Love to Utah State. 

According to Yahoo Sports, Utah State was the only FBS program that recruited Love. 

Heupel fell in love with the quarterback due to his athleticism and fierce competitiveness. 

“The toughest thing in recruiting is to be able to project and understand what guys are going to be like three, four years down the road,” said Heupel to Yahoo Sports in 2021. "But we felt like he had the potential to really grow and mature inside our program. We felt that he had a really high ceiling.”

Heupel left Utah State for Missouri after the 2015 season, so he never got a chance to coach Love. But he nailed the evaluation when many others passed on the future first round pick. 

I'm not sure there's a coach in college football that's better at evaluating young quarterback talent than Heupel. Of course, that shouldn't come as a surprise. Heupel himself was an under-recruited quarterback that ended up accomplishing more than anyone expected at the collegiate level, including finishing as a runner-up in the Heisman voting and winning a national championship. 

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