Despite leading his team to the College Football Playoff last season, Josh Heupel has shockingly become target of a ton of criticism this offseason. The ball started slowly rolling as Ohio State made the Tennessee offense look incompetent. When Nico Iamaleava left for UCLA, everyone slowly started to look at Heupel and raise questions.
The other half of the equation is how Josh Heupel's former players are panning out in the NFL thus far. Hendon Hooker was at the center of Heupel's best team and he was just released by the Detroit Lions after failing to ever emerge. Jalin Hyatt torched defenses at Tennessee and in the NFL he hasn't been able to even make a slight impact. Cedric Tillman has had the most success of the trio and he only has 563 yards in his NFL Career.
The latest to take a massive shot at Josh Heupel and Tennessee, is College Football analyst Joel Klatt. On "The Joel Klatt Show", Klatt called Heupel's offense a glorified High School offense breaking down why it's actually setting Tennessee's quarterbacks up for failure.
Oh boy where do I even begin with this. For starters, I always knew and I’m sure the rest of Vol nation knew that @joelklatt was anti Tennessee and has always spewed anti @Vol_Football narratives, but this one takes the cake…🧵 pic.twitter.com/dAPnKVfxOk
— Hank Powell (@HankPowell6) August 26, 2025
When you look at the point that Joel Klatt's making, it's certainly fair to look at how Heupel's offense is better for trying to win games than it is for actually developing players. Having an offense that relies on only reading half of the field is actually a setback for Heupel's quarterbacks when they go to the NFL and it's part of the reason that Hendon Hooker had a tough time adjusting to the NFL.
The question becomes should Josh Heupel actually change his system if it's not setting his players up for NFL success? At the end of the day, Tennessee pays Josh Heupel not the players and if his offense can help him win games that should remain priority number one. Heupel has quickly helped turn around Tennessee and the sample size may just be too small to fully tell.
The way that keeping his offense the same way could come on the recruiting trail if recruits start to take notice and lean other ways. Quarterbacks have been drawn to Josh Heupel and as long as he continues to recruit at the rate he has, why should he change the way he approaches designing an offense?
More Tennessee Volunteers News: