Tennessee football: Josh Heupel has shortest leash of new hires, analyst says
You would think that Tennessee football would give its new head coach plenty of time to rebuild the program. After all, he is inheriting one that went 3-7 last year, hasn’t had a top 25 finish since 2016, suffered a wave of transfers in the offseason and is in the midst of an NCAA investigation.
However, that’s not enough for Josh Heupel to have a lot of room to fail, according to one analyst. Chip Patterson of CBS Sports named Heupel as the coach with the shortest leash among new hires this offseason.
Ironically, Patterson’s longest leash also rested with two new hires in the SEC East, Clark Lea of the Vanderbilt Commodores and Shane Beamer of the South Carolina Gamecocks. Here’s his reasoning for Tennessee football having Heupel on the shortest leash.
"Unlike fellow new arrivals Beamer and Lea, this is not Heupel’s first time as a head coach. If the early on-field results are more in line with South Carolina and Vanderbilt than, say, Missouri and Kentucky, then it’s going to get tense in Knoxville."
Now, to be fair, fans may be restless with Heupel. Vol fans are restless with everybody, but Heupel being hired away from the UCF Knights by Danny White a week after White was hired away from UCF would make anybody less willing to give him lots of leeway.
It’s also fair to point out that Heupel’s first year on Rocky Top comes with a very favorable schedule. UT plays all four non-conference games at home, and its one Power Five non-conference opponent are the Pittsburgh Panthers. Vandy and South Carolina are also at home.
That’s six games off the bat the Vols will be favored in, and they will still have chances to steal wins at the Missouri Tigers, Kentucky Wildcats and at home against the Ole Miss Rebels. Simply put, Heupel is in great position to make a strong first impression.
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Still, even with all that taken into account, Heupel deserves a lot of time to get this program going. Tennessee football was in a really bad place when he took over, and he’s got a lot of work to do to build it back up. As a result, his leash can’t be too short.