Tennessee football: Watch Josh Heupel introductory press conference

In just over a week, Rocky Top has made a series of moves to once again go in a different direction. A new athletic director was introduced last Friday in former UCF Knights AD Danny White, and now a new Tennessee football head coach, hired by White, is being introduced.

UT announced that Josh Heupel, who was hired by White to coach UCF, where he has spent the past three years, will be its new head coach. Heupel is the program’s 27th head coach overall and its 25th full-time head coach. He is also the the Vols’ eighth head coach since 2008, their sixth full-time head coach since then and their fifth new full-time hire.

Simply put, Heupel will be tasked with bringing stability to Tennessee football that is lacking. His introductory press conference was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Jan. 27, just a few hours after the hire of him was confirmed. You can watch the press conference by clicking on the video above at the top of this post or tuning into SEC Network.

Over the past three years at UCF, Heupel has gone 28-8 and won an American Athletic Conference Championship, earned two top 25 finishes, made three bowl appearances and had an undefeated regular season his first year on the job back in 2018. His offenses averaged over 40 points a game all three years there.

However, Heupel took over UCF after it had already gone undefeated the previous year under Scott Frost. The program has slightly regressed each year under him, going 12-1, 10-3 and 6-4 this past year.

Before UCF, Heupel was the Missouri Tigers’ offensive coordinator in 2016 and 2017, where he coached Drew Lock and averaged over 31 and 37 points a game respectively. His first year as the sole offensive play-caller at a school was with the Utah State Aggies in 2015, where he averaged 29 points a game.

As a player, Heupel won Bob Stoops his only national championship, playing quarterback with the Oklahoma Sooners back in 2000. He then spent one year with the Miami Dolphins and another with the Green Bay Packers before beginning his coaching career.

Other stops include the Arizona Wildcats in 2005 as a tight ends coach and then the Oklahoma Sooners from 2006 to 2014, coaching quarterbacks the first five years and then serving as co-offensive coordinator the next four. Notable quarterbacks coached by him included Lock, Sam Bradford and McKenzie Milton.

It’s unclear exactly how Heupel will work out with Tennessee football, and there are valid concerns. However, there are also valid reasons for excitement too. As a result, everybody should take a deep breath and give him a chance.