Mind of Mike: What to think of Vols hiring Josh Heupel
The Mind of Mike is a scary place. We dive into the mind of National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell with his thoughts on the hire of Josh Heupel at Tennessee.
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Before I answer the one question everyone wants answered ...
Will Heupel drag the Vols out of this mess?
First, let me share my thoughts on a few things first. There was a thought that a coach with previous head coaching experience was needed to take this job and dig out from the hole left by Jeremy Pruitt but I disagreed.
Will Heupel’s three seasons at UCF make a world of difference for his efforts to make the Vols a national title contender? No it won’t. It’s a different ballgame in the SEC than the Group of Five and nothing is going to prepare him for the insanely high expectations in Knoxville.
But here’s what does make a difference — his relationship with Danny White. White took the AD job knowing what a challenge he had ahead of him and he went and got his old coach at UCF who he trusts and works well with to help him. That’s huge. Whether they succeed or fail they will be on the same page and I’ll take that over any other factor here.
The other candidates ...
Tony Elliott at Clemson, PJ Fleck at Minnesota, Sonny Dykes at SMU or perhaps the pie in the sky hopes for Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss or Hugh Freeze at Liberty — were all solid coaches. I really liked what Elliott brought to the table from a character standpoint and having learned under Dabo Swinney for a decade how to build a program. But if White wanted his own guy and felt that would make the difference, more power to him.
Let’s break down Heupel as a coach ...
He’s known to work well with quarterbacks as a former elite QB himself, which is great. This is a guy who played and coached on the biggest stage under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma and that’s really good. He won a national title in Norman as the quarterback and finished second in the Heisman voting. Also very good. He was also fired by Stoops as the co-offensive coordinator (he was the play-caller) when Oklahoma went 8-5 in 2014 and was blasted 40-6 by Clemson in a meaningless bowl game. That’s not so good.
Ask Oklahoma fans what they think of Heupel and they will likely say great college player, poor offensive mind. After a season at Utah State and Missouri respectively he was hired to replace Scott Frost at UCF. He went 12-0 the first year, losing to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl. He went 10-3 the next season and fell to 6-4 this year at UCF so he was not trending in the right direction. That’s also not so good.
Can Heupel recruit? ...
The jury is out on that. He landed some studs at Oklahoma and inherited a great roster from Frost at UCF but there’s nothing out there that labels him as an elite recruiter. But it will be the staff he assembles that will be key and there is little doubt he will hire some guys who can kill it in the Southeast.
The problem? What NCAA sanctions are they looking at including scholarship reductions? And will the Vols, in their current shape, be able to win battles over neighbors such as Georgia, Alabama, Auburn and even Ole Miss and others.
The good news is that player development has been the issue for Tennessee and not recruiting talent so perhaps Heupel will use his development skills learned on the job at UCF and turn three-stars into four-stars. Because it’s unlikely any five-stars will be knocking down the door.
The final verdict ...
Can he succeed or not? I like the relationship and trust he has with White and he will be supported at every turn. I’d like to see his staff before I truly give my assessment but if you ask me now, this job is above his head. I don’t feel he’ll be given the time to turn the Vols back into an SEC East contender because of the enormous pressure put on the coaches from a rabid fan base.
The expectations are quite high and should be, but Heupel will need five years and I’m not sure he’ll get that. But there is one thing that is different in college football today and that’s the transfer portal. And perhaps that is the magic wand needed to make such a quick turnaround possible.
Heupel will need to be smart and cunning in recruiting and in the portal. He'll need to coach kids up young and early because I don’t like the current roster talent that much. It’s a long shot to me.