Tennessee football: How will Josh Heupel balance tempo and scheme?
As he spoke to the media Thursday after his first spring practice with Tennessee football, head coach Josh Heupel was pretty vague on how the staff was going about installing everything. There was clearly a balance of trying to keep the pace up while making sure they learn the new systems.
Heupel noted that the reason for the delayed start to spring ball was so the players could learn more of the system and, as he said, be more familiar with the “terminology” and “verbiage.” Communication and tempo were common phrases.
All of this begs one major question, though. How will Heupel balance the need for Tennessee football to play fast with the need for the players to learn more of his system, particularly on the offensive side of the ball?
Switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3 base with a focus on nickel packages is complicated enough on defense. When you go from Jim Chaney’s pro-style, which focuses on plays that develop, to Heupel’s quick-tempo spread, it’s even more complicated.
Monte Kiffin said over a decade ago, the one year he was UT’s defensive coordinator, that it’s more important to play fast than to spend time picking up schemes, which is why he was careful installing his Cover 2 defense. The defense was actually solid in Lane Kiffin’s one year at UT.
Three years later, though, Derek Dooley was faced with a defensive coordinator hire. He brought in Sal Sunseri to replace Justin Wilcox, and Sunseri installed Nick Saban’s 3-4 scheme. However, he said at the time he was throwing the whole new playbook at the team in the preseason. That resulted in probably the worst defensive year in school history, which cost Dooley his job.
Simply put, finding the balance between scheme and tempo is tough for any coach, but it’s particularly tough when a coach is installing a brand new system both ways. That’s the major test for Heupel in the spring.
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Doing this with Tennessee football will test him more than his previous stops did. When Heupel took over the UCF Knights, he was replacing Scott Frost, who was at least running a similar spread offense. He did have to install more of a base 4-3 defense after they played in a 3-4 under Erik Chinander in 2017, and then-defensive coordinator Randy Shannon did a great job of that.
Before UCF, though, Heupel was Barry Odom’s offensive coordinator with the Missouri Tigers. Well, under Gary Pinkel the previous few years, Mizzou was already running the spread and had won two SEC East titles in the process.
Even in his one year as offensive coordinator with the Utah State Aggies on Matt Wells’ staff, he continued the spread that offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven ran in 2014. Looking at these years, Heupel has never had to change as much when running an offense as he will have to change with the Vols.
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Taking that into account, how he manages this balance will be a huge deal. Tennessee football needs a bit of a splash its first year under Heupel to get back to its elite status, as too many things will be working against the program to just recruit its way out of this mess. Having a splash year depends on Heupel finding this balance with his system in the spring.