It’s official, Josh Heupel is the new Tennessee head coach.
After hiring former UCF AD Danny White, Tennessee’s new AD turned around and hired his former coach to be the new face of Volunteer football.
Heupel comes to Rocky Top after going 28-8 in three seasons at UCF. Heupel also has SEC coaching experience as he served as Missouri’s offensive coordinator before landing the UCF head coaching position.
During his final season at Missouri, Heupel’s offense led the SEC in scoring. Following his first season at UCF, Heupel was named 2018 First Year Coach of the Year by the Football Writers Association of America.
“We looked at a number of potential candidates,” White said in a released statement. “Josh Heupel, who I had the privilege of working with for three years, is everything we were looking for: winning with integrity, a history of championships and the architect of explosive offenses. He is a players’ coach and the kind of person the student-athletes go the extra mile for. I saw that first-hand, and you can see it in his coaching record.”
It will be interesting to see how Heupel goes about building his first staff at Tennessee as the Volunteers have several positions open following the dismissal of two assistant coaches (Brian Niedermeyer and Shelton Felton) and two (Tee Martin and Chris Weinke) more on expiring contracts.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
