Why not Tennessee? Why a salty defense and winning coach make the Vols a threat in 2025
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You don’t have to look far to get a sense of the doubt surrounding Tennessee football in 2025.
Less than a year removed from earning the 9th overall seed in the College Football Playoff, the Volunteers were picked to finish 9th in their own conference by the gathered SEC media earlier this month, the lowest placement for the program since head coach Josh Heupel’s debut season in 2021. Adding salt to the disrespect wound, Vanderbilt received 2 first-place votes (no word on whether Diego Pavia’s agent or parents were given ballots). Tennessee received just 1.
It isn’t just team recognition that’s lacking for Tennessee this summer. Only 3 Volunteers were tapped for the media’s 2025 preseason All-SEC team, with junior corner Jermod McCoy the lone first-team selection. That’s the fewest preseason All-SEC selections for the Volunteers since 2020, Jeremy Pruitt’s final failed season in Knoxville.
The doubt isn’t necessarily without foundation.
Tennessee lost 9 starters from last year’s Playoff team, including SEC Player of the Year Dylan Sampson and All-SEC edge James Pearce Jr., one of the best pass rushers in the sport. Throw in the loud and ugly departure of former 5-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava and the ensuing questions at quarterback, and it’s easy to understand why the perception is Tennessee will drop off a bit this autumn.
In other words, Josh Heupel has folks right where he wants them.
“If there’s a coach in the country who can get his players to lock in on a perception that they can’t win, it’s Josh Heupel,” Heupel’s former coach and boss, Bob Stoops told SDS this summer. “In 2000, we wanted to convince our players that we could win, and when we went game by game, team by team, and pointed out that (the Sooners) could go unbeaten, Josh stood up at the end and said ‘Why not us?’ I think that just set the tone for everyone. As a leader, he had the mentality necessary to instill belief.”
Heupel has spent 4-plus seasons defying expectations amid a sea of doubt.
A sampling of media takes:
- You can’t win anymore at Tennessee. It’s SEC Nebraska. The Volunteers are a former power from a bygone era that won’t return
- Heupel runs a gimmick offense that may not translate in the mighty SEC
- Even if Heupel is a great hire, the last few coaches have dug such a deep hole it will be a steep climb back
An Orange Bowl win and a College Football Playoff appearance later, Heupel is 37-15 at Tennessee in 4 seasons, with at least 9 wins in each of the last 3 seasons. That record is the best 4-year stretch at Tennessee since the Fulmer era, and it includes 2 wins each over bitter rivals Florida and Alabama which, if you are scoring at home, is 3 more than Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones, and Jeremy Pruitt managed combined.
Heupel believes he’s just getting started.
“We want to get back to Atlanta, which we haven’t done in a long time, and play for and win an SEC Championship,” the fifth-year head coach told SDS at SEC Media Days. “We want to not only get into the Playoff but to go win the thing.”
To do it, Heupel will ride the staff continuity and defense built by Tim Banks, the fifth-year defensive coordinator who returns 8 starters from one of the nation’s best units a season ago. McCoy, recovering from a torn ACL suffered in January, should anchor one of the best secondaries in the country, alongside fellow corner Rickey Gibson, one of the most underrated cover guys in America. Arion Carter and Joshua Josephs are menaces who add a scare factor to a front 7 that will field players with Power 4 starting experience at every position. The Vols finished 6th in SP+ defensive efficiency a season ago, their highest finish under Banks’ steady tutelage, and only Texas surrendered fewer yards per play in SEC play in 2024. When you return 8 starters from that type of group, expecting a substantial drop-off seems like a stretch.
The steady defense should give Heupel time to sort the quarterback situation out in the 2 weeks prior to Tennessee’s SEC home opener against Georgia.
There’s also the argument, perhaps underappreciated in national media circles, that Iamaleava’s exit is addition by subtraction.
Iamaleava was one of the nation’s most hyped quarterbacks entering 2024, but he ranged from decidedly average to woeful in Tennessee’s biggest games. Iamaleava completed just 14 of 31 passes for a dismal 104 yards against Ohio State and was only slightly better in a loss to Georgia (5.1 yards per attempt, 0 TD, 7.2 yards per target) and a win over Florida (6.5 yards per attempt, 0 TD, 1 INT, 7.8 yards per target). Set aside all the stories, rumor or fact, of Iamaleava’s brusque and entitled personality, and look solely at Iamaleava’s numbers. At the most important position in sports, is the departure of that type of middling production really worth fretting about?
Perhaps not.
The reality for the Vols is that Heupel’s quarterback room is more talented than most in America, even if each option has questions.
Heupel is high on Joey Aguilar, who has thrown for over 6,000 yards at the Division I level, despite not playing a snap as a Power 5 starter. Jake Merklinger, another option, was a highly touted prep quarterback, but he’s thrown just 9 passes in college. True freshman George MacIntyre may be the most talented quarterback in the room, but even the best true freshmen need time to develop.
But Heupel has won with quarterbacks of multiple styles since arriving at Tennessee, from the spectacular dual-threat ability of Hendon Hooker to the gunslinging Joe Milton to Iamaleava, who managed to help the Vols reach the Playoff despite underperforming relative to individual expectations. If Aguilar, who was good enough at Appalachian State to make a move to UCLA before trading places with Iamaleava, performs a high level, the defense should be good enough to lift the Vols into the Playoff hunt yet again.
There’s also the hunger factor from a team that took 20,000 fans to the Shoe for Playoff football a season ago and remembers what falling short looks like.
“We have a bad taste in our mouth after last December,” Heupel reminded folks at SEC Media Days. “We emphasized the outcome (a 42-17 loss to eventual national champion Ohio State) a lot this offseason. We wanted to make sure everyone understands making the Playoff is not the goal. You can’t win if you aren’t in, but we want to be in the Playoffs and win at Tennessee. Losing challenged us every single day through the winter, through spring ball, and certainly through the course of the summer. We remember.”
A hungry, talented team that remembers.
Why not Josh Heupel and Tennessee?
Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
