3 main concerns with Josh Heupel right now
Tennessee football laid an egg last night on the road. The Vols could only muster 14 points in a losing effort to the Arkansas Razorbacks and multiple dumb mistakes and undisciplined plays led to their eventual defeat in Fayetteville. Tennessee fans have a right to be pissed off after this one. The performance last night was an all-systems failure, and what makes it even more inexcusable is that it came off bye week. The season is by no means a dud yet when you consider the new era of CFB with the 12-team playoff, but if Josh Heupel can’t fix the issues plaguing the team right now it could get ugly. Josh Heupel has done tons of good things for the Tennessee Football program over the last 4 years, but right now these are my 3 main gripes with the head coach of the Volunteers.
Lack of offensive identity.
For the first two years of Heupel’s tenure at Tennessee, he ran up-tempo offense no matter what. However, since Hendon Hooker graduated in 2022 the offense has slowed way down. Last year you could blame it on Joe Milton being average or Alex Golesh’s departure, but now it falls squarely on the shoulders of the head coach. Heupel’s offense is at its best when they are going fast, but for whatever reason, especially in road games, the tempo is inconsistent. The only thing you know for sure about Tennessee’s offense is that Dylan Sampson is good and will get his yards. Other than that it’s a shot in the dark. Josh Heupel has turned into a conservative coach which flies in the face of his philosophy. Did someone replace him with a doppelganger? Is the real Josh Heupel locked in a closet somewhere on Chapman Highway? At any rate, whatever his reasoning is for slowing down his offense is costing his team games that they should win and my advice would be to let Nico loose and trust that he can live up to the 2022 standard on offense.
No development on the Offensive line
Heupel has yet to start an offensive lineman he has recruited and developed. That is an insane thing to type. Pruitt's leftovers and transfers have accounted for his offensive lines at Tennessee and after this year he will have no choice but to abandon the crutch he has been leaning on in that room. What makes it even worse is that right now the offensive line is playing poorly. Lance Heard graded out as Tennessee’s worst player on offense according to PFF, and John Campbell graded out as the second worst. Yes, you read that correctly, Heupel’s two bookend tackles were the worst players on offense last night. That is inexcusable when you haven't developed a homegrown prospect in that room yet. Is Heupel too loyal to his veterans? Is Glen Elarbee being paid to not develop a single guy they’ve recruited in that room yet? How is Nico supposed to get anything done when he is constantly running for his life? Heupel needs to find a way to work around the offensive line for the rest of the season as far as playcalling goes or Nico will get killed. Furthermore, he needs to do some serious soul-searching to determine if his buddy Glen deserves to be the coach of that group moving forward if the offensive line doesn’t get better.
Penalties…
Ever since Josh Heupel has been the head coach at Tennessee his teams have been among the most penalized in the country. That’s fine when you’re scoring 45 points a game like they were in 2022, but when you, for some reason, decide you want to be a conservative coach now and want to grind out wins, it’s going to cost you games. The Vols committed 10 penalties for 60 yards last night, and most came in horrible moments. The worst was a dumbfounding running into the kicker by Jordan Ross that was entirely unnecessary and extended an Arkansas drive that ended in 3 points. Other lowlights included multiple false starts that killed drives before they got started, and an ineligible man downfield on the first play for Tennessee’s offense that took away a big gain. Heupel needs to start chewing out his players when they do dumb b.s. that puts them behind the 8-ball. If he doesn’t this problem will continue to be a part of his identity as a coach.
I’m not calling for Josh Heupel to be fired, but these concerns are trends. If Heupel wants Tennessee to be elite he needs to address these issues soon or he will be a perennial 8-4/9-3 head coach.