Tennessee Football: Can Josh Heupel turn around the Volunteers?
By Dante Pryor
There are problems on and off the field that need to be solved to turn the Volunteers football program around.
When Josh Heupel won his National Championship at Oklahoma, David Boren was university president. Boren hired Joe Castiglione in 1998, and Castiglione hired Bob Stoops in 1999. That trio worked in Norman from 1999 until Stoops retired in 2016.
That continuity contributed to much of the success Stoops, and the Sooners program had during Stoops’ 18 seasons in Norman. Tennessee football is the opposite.
The Volunteers are on their sixth AD in 17 years, and their fourth coach since Phillip Fulmer stepped down in 2008. There is so much discord in the Tennessee administration; couple that with donors who want to be Alabama, and you have a mess.
Tennessee football has always had a culture of volatility in its athletics program. Continuity at the top and fewer cooks in the pot will go along way to stabilizing the football program.
Heupel must go about building a roster that has been depleted by a rash of transfers. Heupel can build the roster in his image because of the transfers, however.