Josh Heupel faces criticism for late timeout, called out for loss at Florida

Josh Heupel and the No. 11 Tennessee Volunteers went into The Swamp on Saturday night and got embarrassed by Florida, 29-16.

Even the 13-point loss doesn’t do the game justice, as it felt like the Gators dominated from start to finish.

After the contest went final, there was a ton of reaction on social media, much of it centered on Josh Heupel. The Tennessee coach came under fire for a late timeout and a lackluster performance overall.

Here’s some of the social media reaction to Tennessee’s big loss on Saturday night:

https://twitter.com/VernFunquist/status/1703235531599921586

Josh Heupel after that time out with 9 seconds left down 13.. pic.twitter.com/K6jskyg2BE

— Michael Moscater (@Mmoscater) September 17, 2023

Josh Heupel is an absolute clown. Fits right in at Tennessee

— Not 1985 (@l985) September 17, 2023

I’ll say it.

Josh Heupel is not at UT to score 16 points against Florida.

Joe Milton III has not been mentioned in the national QB talk the past several weeks because of this.

9-3 at best this year.

— Erik Gray (@ErikGray) September 17, 2023

Classless move by Josh Heupel. What possible reason could he have had besides being a bad loser? https://t.co/SyjpytPAOT

— Sidelines Sports Network™ (@Sidelines_SN) September 17, 2023

Josh Heupel should be fired after allowing his team to do that, stay classy Tennessee. Whole team is trash ?@coachjoshheupel @Vol_Football @GatorsFB

— EPiK207 (@pokerdude207) September 17, 2023

Josh Heupel coached teams have scored 16 point or less in 3 games in his HC career.

Twice losses in Gainesville and once in Georgia.

Tons of penalties in all those games.

— Sean Reed (@Sean__Reed) September 17, 2023

Taking a timeout down 13 with 4 seconds left is a joke & directly led to an on field fight between @FloridaGators & @Vol_Football that’s on Josh Heupel both teams need to be held accountable for their players & Heupel the most. Refs did the right thing ending the game.

— John McGuigan (@JohnDMcGuigan) September 17, 2023

That Tennessee timeout at the end of the game was something….why take a shot at the QB, why put your players at risk for a suspension when you just dropped a conference game. Josh Heupel will pay for that one from the league office

— The Two Average Jim’s Podcast (@TwoAverageJims) September 17, 2023

Time for Josh Heupel to clean things up with this year’s team! Must start with better coaching because this team lacked any leadership tonight!

— Nick Morgan (@nickmowest) September 17, 2023

This is a bad SEC East loss for the Vols. There’s no denying that. It’s a great win for Billy Napier and the Gators.

What does this mean moving forward? Can the Vols recover? Can the Gators use this to improve in a hurry? We’ll see how things unfold as an increasingly interesting SEC East race unfolds the rest of the 2023 college football season.

Adam Spencer

Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.