The best really is ahead for Tennessee football under Josh Heupel | Estes
They call it “a bad trip.”
It’s a horse-racing term. It's when a horse gets presented with obstacles in a race that are mostly bad luck. A stumble here. A bump there. Bad positioning. Handicappers know that if a horse finishes better than it should have in spite of a bad trip, that’s a horse to bet on next time.
Tennessee football has had a bad trip under Josh Heupel.
The Vols have also run it better than they should’ve.
On the stage Thursday at 2023 SEC Media Days in Nashville, Heupel detailed “huge hurdles in our first two years," referencing things like recruiting restrictions, fewer scholarship players and the ever-present cloud of an NCAA infractions case inherited from Jeremy Pruitt’s coaching staff.
“I don't recommend anybody going through this,” Heupel said.
His Vols did go through it, though. And had those years been as mediocre on the field as most would have anticipated when Heupel first arrived in Knoxville, all this would have sounded like an excuse when the Vols coach kept looking back and bringing it up Thursday.
Instead, he did so pridefully. Heupel is now the coach of an ascending football program that – for the first time in a long time – can make a very strong argument about where it’s headed. The NCAA monkey is finally off its back.
And just think: If Heupel’s Tennessee was able to win an Orange Bowl and climb to No. 1 in the country while on a bad trip, what might be capable with a good one?
“As much of a plan as we had in the first 24 months,” Heupel said, “the trajectory of where we were and where we're going, I don't think there's ever been a better time to be a Vol.”
Friday’s NCAA committee on infractions verdict was a big win for Tennessee. The committee went light on discipline for the football program while hammering Pruitt and other former staff members.
The school received a slap on the wrist, most notably avoiding a postseason ban when one could have been applied. That, understandably, was received in a celebratory fashion around Tennessee’s program, which might have expected such leniency from the NCAA but couldn’t know for sure.
Heupel said he didn’t find out until the night before the verdict. He was out of town and called a team meeting on Zoom to pass the word along to players.
“A great relief,” said quarterback Joe Milton.
And for a lot of reasons beyond Tennessee’s promising hopes for this 2023 season.
The NCAA’s verdict rewarded the trust that recruits and transfers had shown in Heupel these past two years while “getting hit (in recruiting) by other schools with some things that were probably a little – or a lot – sensationalized,” the Vols’ coach said.
It also justified UT’s decision to not self-impose a bowl ban on Heupel’s first Vols team in 2021 when it “would have been easy” to do that, Heupel said Thursday.
From SEC Media Days: Josh Heupel, Joe Milton leave no doubt about Tennessee football's target in 2023
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“When I first took the job,” Heupel said, “we were down to 65 scholarship players. Nobody knew what the season was going to look like. Our administration just didn't feel like that (bowl ban) was the right thing to do for the players that stuck around. And it wasn't the right thing to do. …
“We never set a ceiling on what we could accomplish.”
That was also true on the field, too. At first, it would have made a lot of sense for Heupel – given the lack of scholarship depth – to tap the brakes on the pace of his speedy offense. If a team in 2021 was going to wear out first, after all, that team was probably going to be Tennessee.
“Most teams were at 90, maybe even 95 (scholarship players), because of COVID seniors,” Heupel said. “The deficit at which we took the field was real.”
But Heupel felt that “When you take over a program, it's important that you get started on your journey of how you want to play.” So he didn’t dial back the tempo at all that season, instead adding transfers mostly on defense to try to “patch our roster" to play the way he preferred.
Already up to speed, the Vols were then able to turn a 7-6 season into an 11-2 mark in 2022, proving to everyone in the program what was possible.
“Coach talks about believe versus expectation,” said tight end Jacob Warren. “Every team believes, right? Every team believes that they are good enough to go win games. But this team has got to take that step to expect to win games and to walk on that field with confidence knowing that, 'We've been here and played a lot of big games. We can handle anything.’”
That’s a lot more likely in 2023.
No longer is talk of Tennessee title aspirations met with chuckles. The Vols have proven it. They’ve ended jinxes against Florida and Alabama, and a trip to Neyland Stadium on Nov. 18 looks by far the toughest test on reigning champion Georgia’s schedule.
We’ll likely find out that day if these Vols are a championship team.
But in the meantime, it’s a lot tougher to bet against them.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee football is a great bet moving forward under Josh Heupel
