Tennessee Football: 3 Reasons Josh Heupel will succeed as head coach

High-octane offense

The explosive, up-tempo offense is all the rage now in college football and if Heupel’s track record is any indication, he will bring an explosive offense to the Tennessee football program.

Heupel took over a good thing at UCF from former head coach Scott Frost, but he kept the Knights humming like a machine, even after Milton was injured.

Milton was the QB for the first season for Heupel, but after that, Heupel was able to keep the offense producing at a high level and in each of his three seasons with the Knights, they finished in the top 10 in scoring.

Want to know the last time Tennessee even ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA in scoring offense? Tee Martin was the quarterback and it was 1998, when the Vols won the national title.

Since then, the offense has gotten worse and worse. There have been some talented individuals over the years but Tennessee football hasn’t lived up to its potential offensively and that’s why you have to like the hire of Heupel.

He knows how to develop quarterbacks and produce big-time offenses. He also is familiar with the SEC and recruiting in major college football isn’t going to be a shock.

Heupel has a conference championship on his resume and a 28-8 record in three years in the American, which is the strongest Group of Five league by far.

Is Heupel risky? Yes, there are risks with any head coaching hire and with all the issues, Tennessee wasn’t going to get a slam dunk, meaning a big name coach every fan would love.

Tennessee isn’t an elite program right now and frankly, it’s not even a top-5 program in the SEC right now. So it’s time to temper expectations and let Heupel get to work.

It won’t happen overnight, but as long as he makes some quality hires on defense, for the reasons outlined above, Heupel can get this program back to its winning ways and to respectability.