Tennessee football: Could Josh Heupel raise, extension be about Nebraska?

When did Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel receive his raise? That seems to be a question that’s up in the air, and the answer means everything. On Friday, Brent Hubbs of On3 initially reported that Heupel’s annual salary went from $4 million to $5 million.

In addition to the raise, his contract was extended through January of 2028 with an $8 million buyout if he leaves before the end of next year. However, while the story came out Friday, details of when the extension actually happened are up in the air.

Hubbs and Chris Low of ESPN both reported the news, but neither provided a timeframe. Patrick Brown of GoVols247 reports that the contract was extended before the season began. This is relevant because of one school: The Nebraska Cornhuskers.

On paper, Heupel earned an increase in the offseason after what he did his first year. He shocked the world by going 7-6 with a team that was 3-7 the year before, lost what seemed like half the roster to transfer and played the whole year under the cloud of an NCAA investigation.

Add in Heupel’s new schemes on both sides of the ball and the players who left for the pros, and the Vols should have had a major drop-off. Finishing with a winning record and reaching a bowl game may have been the biggest overachievement of the year.

However, if Tennessee football didn’t increase his contract until this past week, it wasn’t about him beating a top 25 team on the road in the Pittsburgh Panthers. At that point, it was clearly to keep him from going to Nebraska.

You might think Heupel would never leave for there since he coached the Oklahoma Sooners. However, Nebraska is still a powerhouse program, despite its lack of recent success, and will now have an opening at the end of the year after firing Scott Frost.

Heupel is from South Dakota. His roots are original Big Eight and Big 12 country. Moving over to Nebraska would keep him in a prestigious conference with a prestigious program and much closer to home. As a result, you can’t underestimate that possibility.

Of course, if the extension was made in the offseason, particularly that buyout through 2023, it could still be about Nebraska. After all, we knew that Frost was on the hot seat heading into this year with no winning season before then, and the writing may have been on the wall.

Maybe that’s why the buyout was through the end of next year. It could have been possible that, although the writing was on the wall, Frost was going to buy himself another year with this season. People on the inside had to know he was in trouble, though.

Heupel followed Frost once, as he took over the UCF Knights when Frost went to Nebraska. This time, following Frost would have meant following a fired head coach at a program that’s in rebuilding mode. However, Nebraska isn’t a totally lost cause.

Although Tennessee football seems like a better job, Nebraska is in an easier division in the Big Ten West. That should make it easier to turn the program around with the right guy, and Heupel, as mentioned, would be closer to home. He could also avoid facing his alma mater, now joining the SEC. As a result, they may have been a threat, and that may be why UT extended him.